says ‘I’m gonna give you my deluxe package

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By Dale AndrewsThomas CarrollBut how did Carroll’s scheme get busted?  According to Casavis, Carroll was extremely greedy.Having spent a year issuing visas, Carroll had moved up into the Economic/Political Section of the US Embassy in Georgetown. He had made so much money that he had become complacent.“He said that moving into that section was the best thing. He was tired. He was stealing so much money   that he was exhausted. You know, when you’re stealing that much money on a regular basis and you’re dealing with all sorts of scumbags, he was happy to get out of the visa section.”At the time, the United States of America had sent down a Regional Security Officer to investigate some allegations based on information provided by the late local diamond dealer Joe D’Agrella.Casavis described Joe D’Agrella as a brave man; a patriot who was a tremendous asset for Guyana.The local diamond merchant had complained to the US Embassy; somebody was buying into the business big time.“Joe wasn’t doing any business, nobody was doing any business. Why? Because Carroll is interested in diamonds, he’s trying to ship out all the wealth in Guyana he could steal. So if you’re a diamond merchant you can’t buy anything, all the prices are inflated,” Casavis said.At the time no one had any idea that Carroll was destroying the local diamond industry with the huge amount of cash he had at his disposal.Casavis told me that when Carroll found out that D’Agrella had complained about the diamond issue, he used his connections to threaten the diamond dealer’s money.D’Agrella did not back down.“Joe actually stands up for Guyana. He was the only guy that I have ever seen in this whole thing that actually stands up for his country. God bless him,” Casavis said.By this time another Visa Officer Benedict Wolfe took over from Carroll. Surprisingly Wolfe was a clean cut Catholic man of German origin who wanted to become a priest.It was when he was approached by a visa broker that Carroll’s scheme began to really unravel.“This was crazy; when the visa broker called up Benedict Wolfe, he was trying to bribe a priest,” Casavis said.The pieces of the puzzle came together when Wolfe approached the security officer to tell her about the offer to sell visas that was made to him.The visa selling racket had reached epic proportions with the Canadians moving their visa issuing officers out of the country for similar reasons.It was soon learnt that Carroll had been selling visas during the time he was a visa officer.“It was not just one guy. It turns out that Carroll formed an entire gang and plunged into Guyanese life like a tornado, destroying everything.”However, the security officer was frustrated in her efforts to nail Carroll because he was no longer in the visa issuing section.She now had to work with the would-be visa broker who had approached Benedict Wolfe in order to get to Carroll.“Carroll was a renegade. He’s torn people’s lives,”Casavis disclosed in the interview that a plan was hatched that involved wiring Benedict Wolfe to acquire information from his meetings with the would-be visa broker.“They tell Benedict, ‘you must go and ask this guy how to steal’….and Carroll decides to help him and there is a price too….so he (Carroll) says ‘I’m gonna give you my deluxe package, I’m gonna set you up with everybody. This is what gets him in trouble. Carroll had Guyana in the palm of his hand but he just got greedy,” Casavis said.But despite all that they acquired on Carroll they could not arrest him on Embassy soil; they had to get him to America.They also felt that if Carroll was arrested by Guyanese personnel, Leon Fraser and his squad would have ensured that he got away.Eventually they did get Carroll to the United States where they eventually arrested him.According to Casavis, Carroll was only aware that he was under investigation after he was held in the United States of America.Carroll was initially sentenced to 21 years imprisonment, which was reduced to 11.Although several persons have questioned the factualness of Casavis’ book, many are convinced that it is as close to the truth that one could get.Although I admit that I have not read the entire book as yet, I have seen enough excerpts to conclude that Carroll’s scheme could not have been successful without the strong input from local officialdom.What I do know for sure, everybody that I have spoken to about the book cannot wait to get their hands on a copy.