Stolen boat engine found, 1 in custody

Police in Berbice have recovered the stolen boat engine from last week’s deadly piracy attack on the Corentyne River.
Following the piracy attack, which resulted in the Captain of the boat drowning and the boat engine being stolen, Police had arrested one person. Divisional Commander Ian Amsterdam told the media that the outboard engine was recovered on Saturday in a warehouse at Albion.
“At this moment, we have one person in custody who we are interviewing in detail and we are looking for two other persons. You would know by now that the engine was recovered and based on that , we are interviewing the suspect in custody. We would have received information that they are suspects in the piracy attack and, therefore, he [man in custody] was arrested and after a detailed interview, we were able to recover the engine and now we are looking for two other persons.”
According to the Assistant Police Commissioner, the person in custody and the two being sought are all involved in the fishing trade.
Amsterdam said the investigation was going well.
“There were some names called, but we have to look into it; we are not sure where they are at this moment,” the Police Commander stated.
He said the suspect had been providing information in bits and pieces to the Police.
Last Tuesday, three fishermen were attacked by two pirates along the Corentyne River. The Captain of the fishing boat, 46-year-old Mahadeo Ramdial, also called “Chico”, of Lot 146 Kilcoy Squatting Area, Corentyne, drowned.
The two survivors, Parmanand Nandan, 21, of Tain, Corentyne and Arjune Permaul, 45, of Kilcoy Squatting Area, reported that they were all told to jump overboard.
Following the discovery of the body, the dead Captain’s father had accused the two survivors of being involved. According to 65-year-old Bhudram Mahadeo, he cannot believe that two pirates could have successfully carried out an attack on a fishing boat. Based on experience, he noted one person has to control the boat leaving, one to execute the attack.
Police subsequently arrested the dead man’s colleagues as they launched a probe into the incident.
Amsterdam said Nandan and Permaul are not currently considered suspects. (Andrew Carmichael)