The police have been advised to charge two of the 14 persons implicated in last Thursday’s bank heist with receiving stolen property as intensive investigations continue.
Last Thursday, three members of the Securicor security company reported, to the police, that the millions of dollars in cash that they were transferring from the New Amsterdam branch of the Scotiabank, to the city, in an armoured vehicle, was stolen after nine bandits waylaid them.
However, the police, not believing the story, detained the guards. By Saturday, eleven more persons, including a soldier who went Absent Without Leave (AWOL) from the army earlier this year, were arrested. More than $12M has been recovered from various locations.
The police said yesterday that two women among those arrested on Saturday would be among the first to be charged, since large quantities of unaccounted cash was found in their possession. The police said their intention is to hand over the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) rank implicated in the scandal to the army for a quick court martial. However, army sources said the rank was summarily tried late on Saturday and dismissed from the force on account of his absence.
The former rank is said to be the stepson of the alleged mastermind - a man who was charged, but later freed, of the Anna Regina bank robbery on the Essequibo Coast more than five years ago.
According to the police, the alleged mastermind was picked up in Albouystown but no money was found in his possession. To date, the police said they have recovered more than $15M of around $44M that was stolen that day. As to the exact amount involved, investigators said they should be getting that figure from the bank today. Meanwhile, Managing Director of Securicor, Kenneth Green could not be reached for a comment.
Last Saturday, one of the investigators told Stabroek News that “based on the information flowing from [the] three suspects, we were able to recover some of the money... in excess of $12M which is nearly half.” It was also information from the Securicor people that led to the arrest of the others and the recovery of some of the money.
However, none of the guards’ weapons with which they were armed that day, has been recovered. The guards were armed with a shotgun and two pistols. Their story was that two men, dressed in police traffic clothes, signalled to them to stop while they were heading to the city along the Mahaica Public Road.
They said that after the driver stopped the armoured van, seven men with “big” guns emerged from the bushes, stripped them of their weapons, a cellular phone, a hand held radio set and two wristwatches, before commanding the driver to proceed to a deserted spot from where they made off with the money. (Kim Lucas)