Gunned down businessman linked to discovery of cocaine at airport

A businessman was gunned down, execution style on Friday evening, while imbibing at a popular nightspot in Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
Dead is Leonard Mahadeo of Third Street, Diamond, East Bank Demerara, who was killed by masked men who invaded the nightspot with AK47s and riddled Mahadeo with bullets. The Gunmen, reportedly left in what some eyewitnesses say was a grey Premio car, which wore no license number plate.
The Police has since acknowledged that the businessman who have been fingered in several drug busts, but were released after poor evidence; might have been linked to the botched export of several kilogrammes of cocaine that were found on the tarmac of the Cheddi Jagan International Airport.

“Two men armed with firearms exited from a motor car and discharged several rounds at Mahadeo which struck him about his body. The men escaped in the motor vehicle,” police PRO, Ivelaw Whittaker said in a statement.
Several persons have since been questioned in relations to the murder.
According to the police, Mahadeo was one of several persons who had been charged in 1996 following a joint probe by Guyanese police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, but was never convicted.
In 2008, Mahadeo narrowly escaped execution when a gunman discharged several rounds at him as he had been leaving the Bahama Breeze Nightspot.

Father and son charged with piracy

Dawanand Jagdai, a Leguan resident and has three sons have been arrested and charged with hijacking and piracy, after a fisherman positively identified an outboard engine as his property.
A press release from the Police Public Relations Office, Ivelaw Whittaker confirmed that the man and his three sons, Parmanand Jagdai, 25 years; Suresh Jagdai, 24 years; and Narendra Jagdai, 17 years, appeared before Magistrate Leron Daly at the Suddie Magistrates’ Court on March 16 and were remanded to prison until April 30.

“One of the fishermen who was a victim of the recent pirate attacks at the mouth of the Pomeroon River positively identified one of the engines to be his property that was stolen during the incident,” the statement said.
Police officers conducted a search to the home, on March 3 and found two 15 horsepower outboard engines. However, Jagdai was unable to produce a receipt for one of the engines and the receipt for the other appeared to be forged.
They were then charged for unlawful possession of the engines.
Since the commencement of the year, several fishermen were victims of piracy, and have called on the Government to put mechanism in place to safeguard their livelihoods.
Subsequent to this, Head of the Presidential Secretariat Dr. Roger Luncheon announced that mechanism have been put in place, to which the Coast Guards have collaborated with the Ministries of Agriculture and Home Affairs to ‘beef up’ communication at sea.

Many families have lost their loved-ones as a result of piracy, a trade (fishing sector), which contributes approximately 3 percent to the national GDP with a growth of 7.4 percent from 2009 to 2011, according to the Fisheries Department.