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Bandits dressed as cops strike at Mahaicony

Mar 20, 2015 News

“What do we do when we come upon a “police” roadblock in an isolated area in the middle of the night? Should we stop and risk getting robbed or do we drive through and risked being riddled with bullets?” These are the questions that came from the lips of the three victims of a recent robbery at the hands of three men in police uniforms.
The robbery which was committed on three employees of Mohamed Farm of Garden of Eden, East Bank Demerara, producers of Royal Chicken, occurred around 21:00 hours on Wednesday at a village called Grove, Mahaicony, East Coast Demerara.
According to reports, the victims were heading back to their place of origin after conducting business in Berbice when they were stopped at a “roadblock” by men dressed in police uniforms.
The victims apparently thought that the police were conducting a campaign and it was “just another roadblock”, since they were stopped about 30 minutes earlier at another roadblock outside the Fort Wellington Police Station. But they were wrong because on the latter occasion, as the “cops” turned out to be bandits, who held them at gunpoint.
“Two of the bandits were clad in the black police anti-crime uniforms, while the other was wearing the normal blue shirt and black trousers. The men said that they certainly looked like policemen,” a source who is associated with the victims told Kaieteur News.
The bandits locked their victims in the tray of the truck and drove it down a lonely dam. There they broke open a canister which contained the day’s sales and escaped.
The three workers – the driver and two porters – were left tied up in the locked tray of the truck.
About 30 minutes after the bandits left, the workers managed to free themselves and sought assistance from nearby residents, who subsequently contacted the police.
By the time they arrived though, the bandits had vanished.
Bandits have been using this modus operandi to carry out their activities, capitalizing on the absence of a clear policy on police roadblocks.
The police had assured that nightly roadblocks will be conducted in well illuminated areas and there will be clearly marked police vehicles. This was after a spate of robberies by persons dressed in police uniforms on the East Bank of Demerara.
Divisional Commander of the police East Coast Demerara Division, Assistant Commissioner Christopher Griffith told this newspaper that in the interest of trust, he had advised his ranks to conduct their roadblocks in proximity to police stations, a method that has been working well.
Another bone of contention is the number of unreturned police kits that have found their way into the hands of the criminally minded. These kits consist of complete uniforms and police identification cards.
Within recent times, there have been reports of ex-cops and even serving policemen committing armed robberies, using the very police kits.
“Once a person leaves the force, they are supposed to turn in their kits but there seems to be a lack of accountability when it comes to this area, we need to tighten up in that area,” a police source acknowledged.

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