Six persons were yesterday arrested by police as investigations intensified into last week’s multi-million dollar robbery at the Region 10 Regional Democratic Council (RDC) office.
Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner David Ramnarine informed this newspaper that “we seem to be heading in a direction where we will be in a position to proffer charges against most of those persons (in custody).”
Ramnarine said that yesterday morning four persons were held in Georgetown and were subsequently taken to Linden, where two other suspects were rearrested. This newspaper has since learnt that the two held at Linden are attached to the RDC office and one is the son of a senior regional official. Ramnarine stressed that it was the hard work of the police ranks that ensured that “significant progress” was made.
Police had said that three men, one of whom was armed with a firearm, gained entry into the RDC office at Republic Avenue, Mackenzie, Linden last Thursday and took away $5.4 million in cash and a number of cheques.
Investigations revealed that the perpetrators held the security guard at gunpoint and took away the keys to the building, after which they entered the office, torched the safe and removed a canister containing the cash and cheques.
According to reports from sources within the RDC, the bandits approached the security guard on the Republic Avenue side of the building and, after ordering him to lie on the floor of the guard hut, they sought out and removed the keys for the sub-treasury department.
The cash taken by the bandits included the entire payroll for the RDC’s employees. The treasury department is at the ground level of the two-storey building and an official had explained that before reaching the safe the bandits had to pass two other safes, which were both untouched. The official had also indicated that while what appeared to be a blowtorch was used to open the safe, it was not cut right through, suggesting that the robbers knew part of the combination.
