Defence Force Commander Commodore Davey Rolle said on Tuesday that 10 duffle bags containing 193 packages of suspected cocaine found onboard the motor vessel, Lorequin by Defence Force officers in June 1992 were handed over to the Drug Enforcement Unit.
However, the DEU report shows that only 190 packages were received.
This discrepancy surfaced during the Lorequin Commission of Inquiry Tuesday.
According to the Commission’s President, retired Justice Stanley Moore, what is “troubling” members of the Commission is evidence that crewmen of HMBS Inagua did not escort the Lorequin directly to the Coral Harbour Base after arresting the two persons onboard and seizing suspected drugs.
The Commission of Inquiry that began last Monday is looking into the circumstances surrounding illegal drugs seized on the Lorequin by Defence Force officers who had been onboard HMBS Inagua in Nassau Harbour on June 20, 1992.
All of the drugs were allegedly not turned over to Police and Defence force officers at the Defence Force Base.
Commodore Rolle, who was Acting Commander during the Lorequin incident, said that five crewmen of HMBS Inagua boarded the Lorequin for its journey to the Coral Harbour Base.
According to a letter to Commodore Rolle from Lieutenant Commander Edison Rolle dated January 8, 2003, the drug vessel left Nassau Harbour with the boarding party up to an hour and a half before HMBS Inagua.
Although the vessels left the Poop Deck Marina in Nassau Harbour separately, Commissioner Moore insisted that there must be some record of the time. However, Commodore Rolle revealed that the HMBS Inagua’s log is missing.
Mr. Moore then asked Commodore Rolle if there is anything in the letter that “leaps out at him”, besides the discrepancy regarding the amount of drugs.
Mr. Rolle said the time lapse between the movement of HMBS Inagua and vessel Lorequin stood out.
Information also revealed that the Lorequin docked for a period of time at Golden Cay. Mr. Moore expressed concern about this period when officers allegedly had the Lorequin on its own.
“I understand that the procedure is, if you capture a prize you secure your prize and make sure that your prize is taken to base,” Mr. Moore said. “If you arrest a vessel, you also secure the arrested vessel and make sure that she is taken into the proper place and delivered into the proper custody.
“So I must confess that I’m troubled that having arrested this vessel with what on the face of it was a large volume of cocaine, 50 kilos, that she was not taken directly with all convenient speed.”
He added, “First of all, that she wasn’t dropped off next door where the police were or that she wasn’t handed over to the police right away or even if it was decided that she was to go to Coral Harbour, she was not made to make for Coral Harbour with all convenient speed by the most direct route…Those are the questions which I say are troubling members of the Commission.”
Additionally, Lead Counsel Dennis Morrison questioned Commodore Rolle regarding the circumstances surrounding the letter from Mr. Rolle who was the Staff Intelligence Officer when it was written in early 2003.
The commodore said he requested the letter based on a conversation they had regarding the Lorequin incident.
“This incident had been with us for the last, at that time 11 years and I had asked him to give me some explanation to the discrepancy,” Commodore Rolle said.
Asked by Mr. Morrison whether there was anything in particular that prompted him to revisit the matter, Commodore Rolle said, “At the time there were discussions on the topic outside the base which prompted me to do this. It is fair to say that from the time I assumed command of the force that it had been with us and we wanted to get to the bottom of it. That was really the thrust of it.
“There was really no inquiry at the time, just my inquisitiveness and trying to query and hearing from my men how they were being affected by it.”
Commodore Rolle said as a result, he began searching for logs in the event an inquiry was launched.
The incident resurfaced back in Fall, 2002 when former United States Ambassador, J. Richard Blankenship alleged that there were some improprieties on the part of members of the Defence Force during the arrest and removal of the vessel.
On Tuesday, Stacie Zerdecki, an employee in the Political, Economic and Public Affairs section of the U.S Embassy, sat in on proceedings. Mr. Moore welcomed her, saying that he hoped the Commission’s secretariat approached the embassy requesting its assistance for Ambassador Blankenship or anyone else who could give evidence to do so.
Meanwhile, without reading the letter’s second paragraph, Commissioner Albert Miller questioned Commodore Rolle on whether there was any member of the Defence Force on the Lorequin between Nassau Harbour and Coral Harbour.
Like Commissioner Moore, Mr. Miller expressed concern that the Lorequin was allegedly stationary at Golden Cay at some point.
Commodore Rolle said he could not verify that. “I’m only taking the word of the officer who wrote this letter to me, but I do not know if that was the case,” he said. “He stated that here in the letter he gave to me, but that’s all I can go on.”
The officers onboard HMBS Inagua during the arrest of the Lorequin crew were Sub Lieutenant F. A. Clarke; Leading Seaman Sham Burrows; Able Seaman Anthony Symonette; Marine Mechanic Ellis Farrington; Marine Seaman Gerard Cash; Marine Seaman Dino Sands; Marine Mechanic Wayne Saunders; Marine Seaman Lucious Fox; Marine Seaman Wayne Williams and Dion Gibson.
Others on the vessel who are no longer with the Defence Force are Dylan Bethel, Matthew Ferguson, Gary McDonald and Alvin Taylor.
Hadassah Hall, The Bahama Journal
