A Grenadian living in Brooklyn in the United States is not surprised that police have slapped double murder charges on Razim Mitchell for the two latest executions as part of the ongoing gang warfare in the country.
Mitchell, a father of nine children, is implicated in the May 5 shooting to death of Shane Brown at Snug Corner and the murder three weeks ago of Carenage gangster, Von “Wangy” Cyrus.
The accused has admitted to police that he was in the car with the armed assassins but he never pulled the trigger to kill “Wangy at Saigon in the south of the island.
According to a retired gangster who is now living in North America, he is aware of a close relationship that existed many years ago between Mitchell and Sheldon “Dutch” Bain, the convicted murderer at the Richmond Hill who is a close relative of Kevin Niles, the co-accused in the murder of Brown.
He said that Mitchell and Dutch were known in the underworld as persons who “used to lime in the earliest” and it was the former who is believed to have broken out “Dutch” in the criminal enterprise.
Speculation is rife that Brown and “Wangy” are disciples of the man known as The Carenage Don.
The overseas-based former gang member believes that Dutch, who is considered as a powerful figure at the Richmond Hill is of the belief that the Carenage man is now considered as “the common enemy” of both Mitchell and the notorious Dutch.
He said the word in the Grenada Underworld is that someone gave the order to kill the Carenage Don and “to lick up Wangy one time.”
He said he used to think like that when he was actively involved in criminal activities on the island.
“I used to think so – if I have more than one enemy and lick one, go for all of them one time,” he quipped.
The once feared underworld figure said he used to operate on the premise that if the police managed to hold him for mass murders then he would plead guilty for all of them and get one jail sentence to run concurrently.
“So I used to think before – I never had cause to execute it,” he said.
According to the source, he is not surprised that Mitchell has been charged with both murders because Brown and Wangy are considered as his common enemy along with the Carenage Don.
“It is nothing unusual about that,” he told THE NEW TODAY, adding that in the underworld of crime it is common for the enemy of an enemy to become friends.
In addition, he said that in the underworld it is not unusual for several persons to come together to commit a crime.
“In the early days when I used to commit crime was me and (name withheld). We had three other men with us and sometimes it depends on what we interchange – depending on what we are doing it is not the entire crew – sometimes only two go and do something. Sometimes I alone will go and do it – it depends on what, we have an interchange,” he remarked.
When quizzed about possible external influence in the recent upsurge in criminal activities in Grenada, the New York-based figure said that if there are “bigger forces” than the imprisoned gangster at Richmond Hill behind the spate of killings in the country in recent days then it has to be persons mainly from St Vincent or Trinidad.
“I don’t think from Trinidad – more from St Vincent,” he said, as he asserted that the kingpin in the prison had spent several years in St Vincent and was able to cultivate relationships with several gang members there.
The so-called Kingpin at the prison was recently beaten by an inmate who is known to be associated with the Carenage Don.
National Security officials have reportedly picked up information that this dangerous prisoner had failed in an attempt to get a prison officer to smuggle a gun into the facility for him.