One bandit a member of ‘Fineman’ gang, say police

One of captured bandits who committed the daring daylight robbery on a GEB security vehicle on Thursday during which a $17.2M GuySuCo payroll was stolen, has been identified as a member of the Rondell ‘Fineman’ Rawlins gang and linked to the February 17 Bartica massacre, the police said yesterday.

Meanwhile as investigations continue into the heist, three shotguns including the two stolen from GEB security guards were recovered at the Nismes riverside, West Bank Demerara (WBD) on Friday.

One of the weapons that was recovered during the armed confrontation at Goed Fortuin during which Leon Dundas was shot dead, belongs to a cambio dealer who was the victim of an armed robbery last year.

Police disclosed in a statement yesterday that during their investigations into the armed robbery of the payroll at Stanleytown, WBD, ranks recovered three 12-gauge shotguns along with sixteen (16) matching cartridges at the riverside at Nismes.

Two of them have been confirmed as being those stolen from the GEB security guards during the robbery.

The release further said that the 9mm Glock pistol recovered by the police during the armed confrontation with four of the perpetrators at ‘Old Road’ Goed Fortuin, had been identified as belonging to cambio dealer Roy Sarjoo.

Roy Sarjoo was attacked and robbed of a quantity of cash and his firearm by armed gunmen on October 24, 2007, in Subryanville, Georgetown.

In addition, one of the men arrested by the police had been identified as a member of the ‘Fineman Rawlins’ gang and is suspected of having been involved in the murders at Bartica, the release added.

The police yesterday did not disclose if they had captured all nine gunmen or provide any information on those in custody or the status of their investigations.

Several efforts to contact senior police officials yesterday to get additional information were unsuccessful.

Around 11.20 am on Thursday, the police responded to a report that some fifteen minutes earlier a GEB private security cash escort vehicle had been ambushed and robbed at Stanleytown.

A gang of men reportedly numbering nine, four of whom had firearms, held up the driver and three armed security guards who were escorting a locked canister with $17.2M in cash to the Wales Estate, in the vicinity of the Stanleytown bridge. The bandits then took away the locked canister with the cash along with two shotguns and a .38 revolver and ammunition from the security guards and escaped using the GEB vehicle and a car which they had used to block the road.

Ranks from West Demerara set up roadblocks and began an immediate operation to locate the perpetrators. Subsequently additional resources were made available from the Police Marine Section, the Joint Special Operations Group and the Guyana Defence Force, whose helicopter joined the search.

The teams spread out at key points and cordoned off sections of West Demerara, including the Demerara Harbour Bridge, impeding the movement of the bandits. The GEB security vehicle was later found abandoned at Nismes.

Subsequently a police team encountered two of the bandits on the foreshore at Nismes, who opened fire on the ranks, and during an exchange one of the bandits who was later identified as Eric Williams of Fyrish, Corentyne, was fatally wounded while the other man managed to escape. An unlicensed .32 pistol with twelve matching rounds was recovered by the police along with a boat and an engine.

Williams is no stranger to the police. Over the years he had been linked to several crimes, and he served five years in jail for rape and armed robbery. At the time of his death he had a robbery under arms case before the court, and had recently been released by the Magistrate on bail.

The teams remained in ambush while teams from Georgetown were mobilized and arrests were made on the East Bank of Demerara and at the Demerara Harbour Bridge.

The man who had escaped during the armed confrontation at the Nismes foreshore was later arrested in the Nismes area.

While patrolling on Thursday night, a team of police ranks encountered a motor vehicle at Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara, with two men inside, who upon being questioned were suspected of being involved in assisting the perpetrators to get away; they were then arrested.

At about 1.15 am on Friday the police confronted a group of four men along the ‘Old Road’ at Goed Fortuin. During an exchange of gunfire Leon Dundas of Punt Trench Dam, Albouystown, was killed; the other three men were arrested.

The police also recovered the canister with the payroll; the .38 Smith and Wesson revolver and the six rounds that had been taken away from the GEB security guards, along with a .32 Taurus pistol with two magazines and twenty-one rounds; a 9mm Glock pistol with two magazines and thirty-one rounds; and two .38 Taurus revolvers with ten matching rounds.

During interviews members of the gang confessed to a number of robberies including the armed robbery committed on businessman Chetram called ‘Barry’ at Tuschen, EBE, on October 14.

Several police sources have told this newspaper that there is a bandit with gunshot wounds in hospital while the other four have been transferred to the city where they are being grilled. However, there has been no official confirmation from the police.