Guyana: Fish pirates strike again

Reported here:

Pirates attacked the captain and five crew members of a fishing vessel in Suriname waters around 6 pm on Sunday and carted off over $1M worth of fish even as a gang of sea bandits was busted in that country last week.

Owner of the boat, Badrudeen Khan of Mahaica told Stabroek News yesterday that five masked pirates, carrying three guns and cutlasses "broadsided" the captain, Mickey and a crew member to prevent them from looking at their faces.

He said his men were about 16 miles from the Coroni shore and were cooking when they saw a boat approaching at a slow rate. He said they did not become suspicious as they thought the men were fishermen.

"But when the pirates reach closer they started to fire several shots and they ordered the crew to lie on the ice box. Then they tell them to get up and go in the fish pen," he related.

After that, Khan said the pirates removed two of the workers and held them at gunpoint while ordering them to discharge the fish into their boat. He said it took nearly two hours as the two men had to transfer "700 trout, 50 snapper and over 200 mackerel and king fish."

The attackers also escaped with a drum of gasoline, one of the propellers from the engine, two cell phones, a compass and a global positioning system. He said before the pirates left they "destroyed the engine coil so the crew couldn't start the boat to trace them."

Guyanese "fish glue" pirates nabbed?

Perhaps, as reported here:

Seven engines, fishing seines and drums of gasoline belonging to Guyanese fishermen from the Number 66 Fish Complex were recovered in Suriname last Friday and several men were also taken into custody.

A team from the complex which travelled to the neighbouring country to identify the seven suspected pirates who were earlier arrested was able to track down other men through their own "intelligence gathering" and alerted the police. They recognized four of the seven men.

This newspaper was told that the other men held were drinking at a bar in Copenaam when a man who was conducting undercover investigations for the complex heard them talking about "hijackings".

The man informed the police after the men - all said to be Guyanese - left and they were traced to a boat. A member of the complex told Stabroek News that over two years ago they had suspected the men but never had enough evidence.

According to him, "After the hijacking started to make our lives miserable we decided to do our own intelligence gathering."

He said they also learnt that "based on the pirates' network" wanted man Kevin Narine was hiding out at Amsterdam. He said they headed for a creek and spotted a motorcycle that sources told them he rides.

They decided to search the area and a member recognized his 1,500-lbs fishing seine that was alongside a Chinese seine that was stolen from another fisherman on November 1.

He said while they were examining the seine they "felt something making noise and when we lift up the seine we discovered four of our engines." They immediately alerted the police.

"A Dutchman saw us and he came up with his boat to see what we were doing there." He said shortly after, the police arrived and conducted a search on the man's boat and found another stolen engine, a shotgun and a mask. Police also checked his house and found another engine under his bed.

Police are also investigating reports that even though the man's boat hardly goes out to work at sea, he sold US$7,000 worth in suspected stolen fish glue last Thursday.

Earlier reports on the pirates of Guyana here.

The pirates of Guyana strike again

The pirates of Guyana strike again, attacking fishermen, as set out here:

Five armed sea pirates struck again in the Waini River robbing two fishing crews of a quantity of equipment and other items last Friday.

Their haul included fish, fish glue and a boat.