Raids on Cuyuni mining camps…Cops confirm female cook ‘taken’ by Spanish-speaking gunmen

Jul 20, 2017 News

With police ranks on their way to several mining camps in the backdam of Kartuni, Cuyuni

Sheriff Mining Company that was attacked on Monday

River, Region Seven, Divisional Commander, Rabindranauth Budhram yesterday confirmed that there are reports of a female cook being taken by the heavily armed bandits.
The six gunmen, who are said to be speaking fluent Portuguese and Spanish, have been robbing camps in that backdam for the past six days.
“We got report that the cook (for one of the camps which was robbed) gone with them,” the commander noted.
He could not say whether the woman, who is Brazilian, went with the men willingly or by force but it is suspected that she was held hostage.
A chartered helicopter took the police ranks to the backdam yesterday. Up to press time, the ranks had reached one camp and were collecting information before they travel down to other camps in the area which were robbed.
Budhram confirmed that the information he received so far (based on what his ranks would have reported) was that one camp had been robbed and a firearm was taken. It is unclear how many camps were attacked by the men.
There is information that the gunmen are carrying high powered guns and they escaped with raw gold, phones and at least six tractors belonging to the owners of the mining camps.
Kaieteur News was informed that the police were able to recover the tractors—abandoned some two hours from where the men carried out their attacks.
At each camp the gunmen attacked, they reportedly destroyed the communication system, making it difficult for ranks and even the owner for the camps to get information.
Sheriff Mining Company owned by Mohamed Sheriff Harry was attacked on Monday afternoon.
The gold miner told reporters the bandits escaped with his guard’s weapon and an undisclosed amount of gold after beating his workers.
Harry noted that he heard that bandits were in the area and made contact with the police at the Bartica Police Station on Friday.
He said that he was informed that the ranks were already aware of the issue. He added that on Monday afternoon, the police made contact with him and informed him that his camp had been attacked.
”I ask the police how they know and they said that one of my workers was heading to the camp when he saw what was happening and immediately went to the other camp where he called the police at the Landing,” Harry noted.
The miner said that persons in the area are relieved with the police’s presence.