The aim was “to exert continuous pressure”. Two men suspected of belonging to a group of illegal gold mine robbers who allegedly killed Constable Arnaud Blanc on March 25 in French Guiana have been arrested, said General Jean-Christophe Sintive. “This is the continuation of operations carried out for three weeks,” he explained.
The arrests carried out by the National Gendarmerie Intervention Group (GIGN), supported by the Joint Helicopter Group (GIH), took place on the clandestine site of Dorlin, not far from Maripasoula on the border with Suriname, where the constable died. The first arrested, named Romario, aged 30, surrendered under duress. This is the leader of the armed band nicknamed in the sector “the band in Romario”, specified the general.
“We are looking for the whole armed gang”
The second, nicknamed Irmão Bomba, 49, was designated to the police by garimpeiros, a term designating illegal Brazilian gold miners in Guyana. The gang to which they are suspected of belonging racketed illegal gold panning sites. “We are looking for the whole armed gang,” said General Sintive, claiming to know “how many are left”.
GIGN gendarme Arnaud Blanc, 35, died while participating with nine comrades in an operation against illegal gold panning on the clandestine site of Dorlin, in the heart of Guyana. The group had been taken to task by an armed band. After exchanges of heavy fire, the gendarme had been shot.
Voluntary homicide by organized gang
The alleged perpetrator of the murder, 20 years old and of Brazilian nationality, was arrested on April 8, still in Dorlin, where he had gone two weeks after the death of the gendarme. Presented on April 13 to an investigating judge of the JIRS (specialized interregional jurisdiction) of Fort-de-France, the individual was indicted for intentional homicide in an organized gang and criminal association.
He was placed in pre-trial detention at the Ducos penitentiary center in Martinique. The two men arrested on Tuesday are the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the JIRS and will soon be brought before a judge, the Guyana gendarmerie said in a statement posted on Facebook.