Latest update December 31st, 2024 2:37 AM
Captured bank robbers reveal details of operation
– carried out surveillance on target, planned getaway routes
Investigators are closing in on the remaining members of a gang that staged a daring daylight robbery on the Mon Repos East Coast Demerara branch of the Bank of Baroda last Friday.
Crime Chief Wendell Blanhum last evening confirmed that the police have already detained two of the perpetrators, and ranks from the Serious Crimes Unit of the CID, along with their counterparts on the East Coast of Demerara are hot on the tails of the remaining gangsters.
He also disclosed that detectives have been able to impound the car that was used in the commission of the crime.
He declined to divulge any further details but stated that investigators are still interviewing several persons.
On Friday, at about 12:50 hours, four armed men entered the bank, held up the lone female private security guard and relieved her of her .32 service revolver before turning their attention to the female tellers on duty.
In a five-minute ordeal, the perpetrators relieved the tellers of $2M before boarding a waiting silver grey/off white Premio motor vehicle bearing a “false registration plate”, PNN 8984.
Police said that they responded to the report quickly, setting up a number of strategic roadblocks, while all anti-crime patrols and Crime Intelligence Units went into action.
The Bank of Baroda, located on the ground floor of the Mon Repos Mall, East Coast Demerara.
However, the bank robbers managed to escape capture. But for two of them, freedom was short lived as investigators secured a quick breakthrough when they managed to ascertain their identities and subsequently arrested them.
Kaieteur News understands that the captured robbers cracked under intense interrogation and provided detectives with a detailed account of their operation.
According to a source, the men planned the robbery at a house in North East La Penitence, the day before it was executed.
That very day they went up to Mon Repos and carried out surveillance of the bank along with the possible getaway routes.
“They had someone feeding them with information from up there,” the source said.
Satisfied with their plans up to that point, the bandits went to a tint shop early Friday morning where they obtained false licence plates, which they fitted on to the silver grey car they were using to commit the robbery.
They eventually mobilized in the city while awaiting a telephone call from a person who was staking out the bank.
Before long the call came and the bandits drove to the area. On their way they covered their faces with cloth before storming the bank.
After disarming the security guard, the bandits grabbed the cash from a canister and placed it into a pillow case before fleeing in the waiting car.
The two captured bandits told investigators that they drove west to Beterverwagting, two villages away, and dropped off one accomplice.
They then went to the North East La Penitence home of one of the gang, where they counted the stolen cash before proceeding to split up the loot.
“They said that the money for the man they drop off at BV was left with his relative,” the source told Kaieteur News.
Armed with this information, Detectives are confident that they will rein in the remaining suspects soon.
Crime Chief Blanhum told this newspaper that his ranks are still looking for at least four other persons who would have played a direct or indirect role in the crime.
Police are still to establish if there was any direct link between the criminals and persons directly associated with the bank.
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