| POLICE CHIEF REQUESTS USG HELP INVESTIGATING DRUG LORD | |
2006 March 28, 20:18 (Tuesday) | |
https://wikileaks.org/plusd/ca...GEORGETOWN290_a.html
Classified By: Ambassador Roland W. Bullen For reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) 1. (C) Guyana Police Force (GPF) Commissioner Winston Felix paid Ambassador a visit March 27 to request U.S. government assistance on two specific matters.
The requests stem from last week's joint army/police raids on drug lord Shaheed "Roger" Khan's properties and the widely, anonymously distributed secret recording of Felix's phone conversation with a senior opposition politician (ref A).
Felix followed up this personal request to Ambassador with an official letter March 28 reiterating the support he is seeking. 2. (C) Felix seeks assistance to determine whether a recently constructed house believed to be owned by a Khan and/or Ricardo Rodrigues associate, and currently in GPF's control, has a concealed basement. This house is located near the residence of the Canadian and UK High Commissioners, who observed the installation of a very large concrete pit during the suspected house's construction. The High Commissioners initially thought this underground structure was for a swimming pool, yet the completed house has no pool.
Felix believes that a concealed basement might contain illegal items, including drugs and the AK-47s that disappeared from the Guyana Defence Force's armory in February (ref B). Multiple sources have confirmed that an unusually high number of vehicles went to the suspected house during the first raids against Khan's properties. Felix said the GPF lacks the resources to detect a concealed basement, but he does not want to release the building until he is sure that no such underground structure exists. 3. (C) Felix also requested assistance in conducting a thorough sweep of his office to ensure that there is no surreptitious recording device.
Khan is responsible for the secret Felix recording and indications are that Felix's SIPDIS office may have been bugged. The local phone company GT&T conducted a cursory check of Felix's office, but not to Felix's satisfaction. 4. (C) Post RSO is working with A/LEGATT and DEA Port-of-Spain on these requests. 5. (C) Comment. Felix is Post's most trusted and effective interlocutor on law enforcement issues. The recent army/police raids have put Khan and his associates on the defensive. Failing to thoroughly investigate for a concealed basement at the suspected house would be a terrible missed opportunity. Likewise, further illegal recordings of Felix's conversations by Khan would only hamper the current, unprecedented initiative to bring Guyana's leading narco-traffickers to justice. End comment. BULLEN