Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves says nothing came off or went onto the private jet that police intercepted and searched in Canouan on Nov. 25 after it arrived from the Dominican Republic.
Gonsalves, who is also minister of national security, said that police searched the Gulfstream III jet — N674JM — based on “intelligence”.
The jet was the second Gulfstream III to land or depart from Canouan in apparently mysterious circumstances since December 2023.
The first jet went “missing” supposedly after turning off its transponder after leaving Canouan on what was supposed to be a sightseeing mission.
It then turned up in Africa four months later, triggering an investigation into possible involvement in drug trafficking.
Gonsalves said that he had received a report from the commissioner of police and the director of civil aviation.
“This plane departed to St. Vincent from the Dominican Republic; we had the intelligence that the plane was coming. The intelligence suggested that it was bound for Argyle but that might have been an error in the source of intelligence,” he said on WE FM on Sunday, referring to the international airport on the east coast of St. Vincent.
“When we knew that it was going to Canouan, the security forces were mobilised and two or three persons on the plane had reservations to stay at Soho house, I was advised, in Canouan,” he said, referring to a high-end resort on the southern Grenadine island.
The prime minister said that the security forces searched the plane “and nothing came off from the plane, and nothing went on to the plane.
“It may well be that something was to go on. I don’t know. It may be possible, you can’t be 100% sure about this thing that there may be compartments which nobody searched and they don’t have a k-9 unit to sniff.
“But if that’s the case, that is somebody else’s challenge, somewhere else. But importantly, nothing came off and nothing went on.”
Asked what triggered the search, Gonsalves said:
“We received intelligence that this aircraft was coming. It was a similar type of aircraft that one which had come some time ago and that the intelligence suggested that it may be something that we need to look at carefully.
“And the police acted accordingly. The commissioner gave the requisite instructions. And they didn’t leave the same day because they had to stay overnight because it couldn’t leave after a particular hour, and it was always under security surveillance.”
In December 2023, Gonsalves said information from regional and international agencies suggests that the aeroplane that went “missing” after departing from Canouan that month may have turned off its transponder.
He had said that Vincentian authorities had been in touch with “two Latin American countries of relevance on the matter with certain information.
“We have also been in touch with the relevant authorities in the United States, naturally, the Regional Security System and it has become evident that there was no — the plane didn’t so much disappear as feigned a disappearance because the thesis which is being operated on is that they turned off the transponder,” he had said.
Information reaching iWitness News was that the aircraft, N337LR, a two-engine, fixed-wing, 21-seat Gulfstream aircraft that was manufactured in 1981, had departed Canouan on “a sightseeing excursion”.
Media reports said that the aeroplane landed in Ghana in May without the appropriate permits, triggering an investigation into its possible use in drug trafficking.
But did they search it intelligently?????????
Poor intelligence. You shouldn’t mention this event PM. This is piss poor!
The low scheming, brass-face liar says, with startling transparency, we found some soap powder. The cunning and well-said slick-talking politician said, we found nothing. Both epilogues were written long before the search began—as the next episode will be.