Secrets of Dole Chadee
Filed under: News|Trinidad and Tobago
Suspected, but never proven, to be one of this country's biggest narco-traffickers, the two- decade reign of Dole Chadee (Nankissoon Boodram) in his self-made "kingdom" in Piparo, ended with his arrest in 1994 for the murders of four members of a Williamsville family and his hanging in 1999, along with his gang of eight.
Ten years later, the rumours about him have become enduring myths. Andrew Vasquez was a keeper of some of Chadee's secrets. Vasquez was one of five men within Chadee's inner circle, a confidant, and his driver for almost 20 years. He has decided to tell his story.
It is somewhat of an irony that Andrew Vasquez should end up back at work on Dole Chadee's 110-acre estate, on which the latter built his fortressed houses and ran his "agricultural" business.
The State-owned land was overrun by the police and army in 1995, and transformed into the Piparo Empowerment Centre. Vasquez is a foreman working with a contractor employed to build an extension to the drug rehabilitation centre. He is 60 years old, but looks 40, and is short, stout, and strong.
When Chadee constructed his mansions on the site in 1982-83, Vasquez was also the foreman in charge of that project, in which "money was no object and the best of every single thing was used in the construction".
Vasquez recalled in an interview how he ended up being an employee of Chadee. "We first met in 1976 in the village. I was employed with Readymix Ltd (a cement company) in Arima, and was in an accident in 1979. Due to that accident, I was unable to go back to work. I had 55 per cent disability, so I approached him for a work as a driver. I went to him at his house. I asked about my salary, and what he offered me was satisfactory as a family man. And that was it. I stayed with him until the end of his time", he said with a chuckle.
At that time, Vasquez said, Chadee owned two Mercedes Benz luxury cars, but did not have his licence. "He got that years after." Vasquez said his association with Chadee began after Chadee was already wealthy. "But he came from poverty. His family was from Curepe but he had family in Piparo. He would spend plenty time down here. He went to the (San Fernando) Technical school and came out as a mason. "But he didn't use them skills when the mansions were being built. "He oversee everything. Houses, temple, all the roads, cattle pens, and goat, sheep and duck pens."
Vasques said Chadee had five children, two boys with his "married wife" Ann Marie Boodram, two sons with his common-law wife, Chandra Chadee, and a son with a woman in the village. He said "Chadee's family would seldom visit the estate. They stayed at the other house (a mansion on Pascall Road, Piparo). The estate was his work area, but there was never a typical day for that man. Every day was different".
Vasquez recalled the many times police officers came hunting for drugs. "They would always pick up with me. I had to go with them to search buildings. They never found a thing. The police would say, 'you with this man whole day, and you don't know what he doing'. I would tell them that I working on instructions, and I never asked questions. I would say 'you see this car? I just take 'The Boss' around in that'."
Vasquez confirmed what most people in Piparo have said over the years about Chadee. He was like a Dole-facts or fiction? Yes, Chadee did own a stable of horses, his most prized being the horse "Mentone", once owned by Conrad Awai and trained by Eric "Colt" Durant. The foreign-bred horse has been described as the "best to ever race on a local track".
Vasquez, who accompanied Chadee to racing pools and race tracks but who never gambled, said "Mentone was at that time a ranking racehorse, and Chadee decided he wanted it. He bought the horse when it was still racing proficient, but used it for (stud service) at $15,000 a serve".
Yes, Chadee did pay his agricultural workers with one dollar bills from crocus bags. Vasquez said he never asked the origin of the money. "That is a fact. I would go to the hardware sometimes with $10,000, $20,000 in dollar bills and the hardware people would see me coming and say 'oh God, no', because they have to count it all."
No, Chadee's estate did not have secret tunnels or underground bunkers to store an arsenal of weapons or give Chadee an avenue of escape. Yes, the army did find several blue, plastic barrels buried in the ground and stuffed with millions of dollars.
No, Chadee did not spend his millions jetting around the world. In fact, Vasquez said Chadee did not even have a passport until the late 80s. Yes, Chadee did have plastic surgery, but not to disguise himself. Vasquez said "in the late 80s. Chadee take up a load of grapefruit and was going to the CGA (Citrus Growers Association) in his van when he crash just after the Chaguanas Flyover. The van capsized and gone skating down the highway and part of his face cut away".
No, Chadee did not kill drug dealers and bury them in and around the village. Vasquez described that as "a fabrication. So long as you have the stigma of being a person who killing people, wherever someone get kill, is your name they going to call. "Mind you, I don't know what they could have done in my absence, but I never heard him give anyone any instruction, whether verbally or on the phone, to kill anybody".
And yes, Chadee did have substantial property assets outside of Piparo. Vasquez said: "I was the one who look after his land taxes, water rate, telephone bill, vehicle insurance and licence. At one time, he had two properties in San Fernando, one on St James Street and one on the Coffee (Street), and a gas station in Carenage. The properties in San Fernando were eventually sold when he was in prison. To who, I can't say."
But Vasquez does not know whether, as reported, that some high-profile kidnappings last year had anything to do with Chadee associates trying to collect on money loaned to businessmen. "I personally don't know of those transactions, but the only time I would know for example [is] while passing through Princes Town or San Fernando, Chadee would see a building and say 'that's mine'."
Chadee was a godfather, a benefactor capable of doing good for his village, but dealing swiftly with anyone who crossed him. Vasquez said "if there was a prayer meeting, or a death in a family or a wedding, he would ask me if the people had electricity, chairs, tent, food. I would go and investigate and bring back the information. He would say if that is what they need, get it! Sometimes $6,000, $7,000 in groceries going to a house one time. He was always charitable, never turned anybody away. He did this hundreds of times, even wanted to buy land for the cricket club in the area".
Vasquez said at no time during his employment did he harbour any fear. "This was my job. I was never in fear at any time because I never questioned his instructions. That is what built his confidence in me. I was honest to him. I was the only person who could wake him out of bed anytime, night or day. Not even his wife. She would be too scared because he had a temper."
Vasquez remembers the day that Chadee came a doorstep away from execution, an incident that ended in Chadee being put on his first charge of murder in 1993. "That day, around 6.30 a.m., I saw a Cortina parked up in front Chadee house. The two fellas tell me good morning, they looking for 'The Boss'. One said his name was Cuthbert Charles. I said right now I have to locate him and, in the meantime, they should go back to the junction and wait.
"Instead, they drove down to the cattle pens. Two hours after, Chadee met me and said he heard something happen in Williamsville, so see what happen. I went and see this same Cortina wrap around a lamp pole and one of the men dead.
"When I told Dole the name, he said 'them fellas come to kill me boy'!" Vasquez said he never asked why. Chadee and two cousins, Indar and Wally Chadee, were charged with the murder of St Clair McMillan, and the State's star witness was Cuthbert "Scotty" Charles. Charles was kidnapped and murdered, and the Chadee trio freed.
By Vasquez's estimation, Chadee was at one time worth no less than $50 million. It was what gave him the power to buy anything, anytime he wanted-which was how Chadee ended up in 1993 owning the Totoya Royal Saloon that had once belonged to Prime Minister Patrick Manning.
Vasquez said "the story of Chadee buying a car from Manning is a fabrication. It was Sankey (Subance, a San Fernando businessman) who bought the car and, the next day, he called Chadee and said 'look, I bought a car, you want to look at it'? As soon as Chadee see the car, he said 'call a price' and same day we bring it home. The transfer had not been made from the Prime Minister to Sankey, so this is why the certified copy has the car being bought from Manning to Chadee".
Vasquez believes he knew Chadee well enough to say that "Dole was not capable of killing. He couldn't even kill a fowl. I believe, to this day, his case was based on fabricated evidence". He also does not believe the State's case that Chadee instructed his gang to "kill everybody" on January 10, ten years ago. "I was not there at that time. Only when I read it in the papers. I did not know (the Baboolals) got killed in Williamsville."
Vasquez also said he never witnessed any drug dealings. "I never saw any drugs or ammunition, and I was never involved. I personally never saw a shipment (of drugs). As far as I was concerned, Dole was as clean as clean could be." But Vasquez confirmed that Chadee knew Halminton Baboolal, one of the four victims in Williamsville.
"We knew Halminton as 'Mice'. He had once stolen a police uniform and did a hold-up. He was owing Dole approximately $40,000. But instead of paying, he was in the company of some other people when he said he wanted to kidnap one of Dole boys. That information reach back to Dole and he told me "this man owing money and threatening to take my boy. Next thing I hear, Mice dead, father, sister and mother dead."
Vasquez returned to the construction business after the arrest of his boss, but he remained loyal to the end. "I am in contact with his boys. They never knew him too well and I still have a picture of them and their father sitting, listening to prayers."
When Chadee was in prison, Vasquez would carry food for him every day until he was convicted. "A few weeks before they hang him, I got to see him. He stopped eating, he was very depressed. He gave up already. He knew time was coming to a close and it was the end."
On the day in 1999 when Chadee was hanged, Vasquez was at home. "How I felt did not matter. There was nothing I could do. What I do know is he should still be alive. A lot of people will tell you up to this day if he was alive, life for many would have been much better."
Vasquez has kept the newspaper clippings on everything Chadee-related, and intends to some day publish his story. "I keeping the other secrets for that," he remarked.
