GEORGETOWN, Guyana, CMC – Guyana police say they are investigating the abduction of two Guyanese nationals allegedly by a Venezuelan gang syndicate operating within the Eteringbang area, a small settlement in the Cuyuni-Mazaruni region located near the country’s border with Venezuela.
Police say that Fredrick Pollard, a 66-year-old boat captain who operates a metal boat, left from Devil Hole Landing on August 21 for a fuel-shuttling trip to Ekereku Backdam.
But his son, Dameon Williams, told police that on August 24, his father made contact with him, indicating that he was leaving Ekereku Backdam to return to Devil Hole Landing with an unknown male porter aboard his boat.
Williams said that he has had no further contact with his father since that communication. But he later received a phone call from an unknown person who informed him that a Venezuelan gang had forcibly held up his father.
Police stated in a separate but related investigative action that on August 25, officers from the Eteringbang Police Station contacted Collin Mathews, also known as ‘Blacks’, a 36-year-old boat captain from San Martin, Venezuela.
During a video interview, Mathews recounted that he, along with nine passengers, was in his boat near Black Water Mouth on the Venezuelan shore when he heard what appeared to be gunshots.
Members of the Venezuelan gang then took them into a creek and held them at gunpoint. There, they observed Pollard and another person, who appeared to be alive and well. Mathews stated that the gang members took a drum of fuel from his boat before releasing it and sending them away.
Police stated that they also conducted video interviews with the nine other individuals who were on the boat, and each one acknowledged and affirmed what had been said.
The police stated that investigations into both incidents are ongoing.
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