Fernando Fredericks, a 29-year-old miner from Old Scheme Tuschen, East Bank Essequibo, was arrested at the Bartica Stelling on March 22, 2024.
Police said during his arrest, Fredricks threw an object he had in his possession in a bag overboard.
At the Bartica Police Station, when initially questioned, Fredericks claimed that the bag contained Marijuana, which was made submersible because he had a ‘brick’ in the bag.
Fredericks was further interrogated over the weekend, during which he revealed that he lied and it was not Marijuana in the bag but a firearm that he threw overboard.
He claimed that some time ago, he bought the firearm from someone in Venezuela and hid it on the Landing while passing through Puruni. He further stated that a man (name withheld) who had an ongoing problem with his family went to his mother’s house on the Essequibo Coast and discharged several rounds.
Fredericks said that on March 21, he returned to Puruni and retrieved the firearm to return to Essequibo to ‘kill’ the man who fired rounds in front of his mother’s house.
After his confession, Police took him back to Puruni to identify the location from where he had retrieved the firearm.
Further, at about 22:00 hrs on March 24, 2024, with the assistance of a Diver, the ranks were able to retrieve the firearm (in a black bag) from the river at the Bartica Stelling.
The firearm, a 9mm Luger, was shown to Fredericks, who identified it as the Firearm he threw overboard. It contained five 9mm rounds of ammunition. No visible serial number was seen on the Firearm.
