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Rose Hall bank robbery accused among detainees in police East Coast raids
It started at around 22:00 hours on Friday night and, by the time it ended early yesterday morning, a police raid on several villages on the East Coast of Demerara had almost filled the several lock-ups to capacity.
And Police Commissioner Henry Greene said that there is still a lot of work to be done.
Among the detainees is a Rose Hall bank robbery accused who was released from prison on bail some time last week.
A press release from Police Headquarters, Eve Leary, stated that early morning raids were conducted in the villages of Bare Root and Melanie Damishana on the East Coast of Demerara.
A total of 14 houses were searched, and eleven men and two women were arrested pending investigations into various offences, including robbery under arms.
Ranks from the special unit set up to capture criminals on the East Coast Demerara emerging from the Nabaclis backdam early yesterday morning.
Police said that their operation is geared towards apprehending several robbery and rape suspects who have been marauding through several villages on the coast.
Within recent months, there have been reports of several armed robberies and rape, and residents had lamented the police inability to apprehend the perpetrators.
This prompted the police to establish a special unit based at the Vigilance Police Station to hunt down the suspects.
But despite this, there are still reports of an unidentifiable suspect carrying out robberies, one as recent as Friday night in the Dazzell Housing Scheme.
But, while many people would like the police to rid the area of the criminal element, they are upset at the manner the police are going about their business.
There are the usual allegations of the police kicking down fences and doors, and barging into homes before ransacking rooms.
“We ain’t have no problem with them searching for criminals, but they operating just like the criminals,” one woman, whose male relative is among the detainees, told this newspaper.
According to the woman, when she went to the Vigilance Police Station to enquire why her relative was detained, she was denied entry to the compound.
“When I stand up outside, I could have seen policemen with masks on, so you could not recognise who is who,” she said.
She told this newspaper that she then recognised her relative, who was forced to walk with his hands on his head and subsequently placed to lie down on his face in a police vehicle.
She said that her relative was previously detained by the police a week ago, but was released without charge.
Onika Fraser, whose reputed husband is also among the detainees, said that at about 05:30 hours she was in her bed when the police came kicking down her door.
Fraser said that the ranks, after barging into her house, arrested her reputed husband and then requested to search her house.
“I tell them they free to search. But they tumble up everything and left it like that. Is 13 or 14 vehicles they come in,” Fraser told this newspaper.
Michelle London, whose son Devon Cumberbatch is in the Cove and John lock-ups, said that he was with his female cousin heading to the city when they were both detained at Paradise.
There are also reports that a mentally challenged woman is among the detainees, as well as a shopkeeper who is scheduled to get married in a few days’ time.
Police sources say that the detainees will mostly likely be placed on identification parades.
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