GDF rank gets three years for multi-million dollar gold heist

Nov 06, 2021 News

Kaieteur News – Ex- Guyana Defence Force (GDF) rank, Keyon King will spend the next three years behind bars for his participation in a multimillion-dollar gold heist, which took place on Thursday August 5, 2021 at Wallison Enterprise, located on Gordon Street, Kitty.

Jailed GDF rank, Keyon King.

King was handed his jail sentence yesterday from Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus during his scheduled appearance at the Georgetown Magistrate Courts.
The ex-GDF rank had on Friday October 15 pleaded guilty to being part of a heist, which saw gunmen carting of jewelry, cellphones, $38M in cash, and $20M worth of raw gold.
King, while making his guilty plea had begged the court to grant him leniency. He had said that he did not think twice when an offer to rob Wallison’s Enterprise was made to him, because he was under tremendous pressure to provide for his family and, at the same time, source cash to finish his house.
King claimed, too, that he had been recently demoted from his substantive post in the army, and this made it even more difficult for him to fulfill his responsibility as the sole breadwinner of his household.
The convicted man then ended his plea by apologizing for causing embarrassment to the GDF and his relatives.
Meanwhile, two of King’s accomplices remain on remand for the crime, while three others are still being hunted by police.
The two on remand were security guards of the business establishment at the time it was robbed.
On Thursday August 5, three gunmen, posing as customers, entered Wallison Enterprise, held up its employees at gunpoint, and carried out the heist.
They then cuffed the employees with plastic zip-ties and locked them in a room before escaping.
Police were able to crack the case by tracking one of the stolen cellphones and, as part of their investigations, later went to King’s home, where they found $18M of the stolen cash buried in his backyard.