Body number 4 comes in

SENIOR police officers were yesterday speculating that bodies may have been dumped in separate locations at sea to deter them from making a link to the multi-million dollar cocaine haul in Manzanilla/Mayaro.

Their theory is based on the early-morning discovery of yet another partially decomposed male body in Chaguaramas, this time at Point Gourde. It is now the fourth body to be found in the seas and more are expected. The man, said to be about 40, remained unidentified up to last night. He is believed to be connected to the other body that floated up on the shoreline behind the Military Museum in Chaguaramas on Wednesday. That man is still to be physically identified, but fingerprints have identified him as Christopher Francis Benjamin, of Picton Road, Laventille, and Arima. Carenage police are appealing to relatives to come forward and physically identify him. Benjamin is said to have had a conviction and police said his body and the one yesterday were found in close proximity.

Police sources said yesterday’s body find occurred around 7 am when two fishermen spotted it floating in the seas off Point Gourde, near Carrera.  The bloated body, clad only in brown soft pants, was later towed out by the fishermen to Staubles Bay, Chaguaramas. The man had no hair, and police speculated that he could have been in the water for about five days. Officers from the Carenage Police Station under Sgt Stephen Joefield, acting Cpl Francis, PC John and others visited the scene, while District Medical Officer Dr Clarke ordered it removed to the Forensic Science Centre.

The number of bodies surfacing has caused great concern among law enforcers, who now believe that all the bodies are connected to the large cocaine haul. “It’s just too coincidental. Maybe this was done to throw us off,” a senior officer said. Two near-faceless bodies popped up in the Manzanilla/Mayaro seas between Monday morning and Tuesday evening. They, too, remained unidentified up to late yesterday evening and Mayaro Police are appealing for help from members of the public to identify the bodies.