As police continue to grill eight persons held in connection with Thursday’s brazen armed robbery of Guyana Stockfeeds Limited, investigators are looking for the mastermind who they believe has fled to Linden.
A senior police official told Stabroek News that based on the information they have received, it is strongly believed that the man is hiding out in the mining town. The official said that the mastermind had no physical connection to the business entity and it is clear that persons “on the inside” provided the perpetrators with information.
Meanwhile, Crime Chief Seelall Persaud said yesterday that the seven men and the lone female arrested remain in police custody. He confirmed that police are looking for a ninth person but did not divulge any details other that to say that the matter is under investigation.
According to Persaud, one of those arrested was found in Grove, on the East Bank, some time after the robbery with a bag containing $1,697,000, while a bag with $300,000 was found abandoned in a yard at Prospect, also on the East Bank. It is unclear if anyone from that yard was arrested by police.
The police had revealed that six men, two of whom were armed with shotguns and the others with handguns, entered the business premises and held up Loraine Adams, the private security guard who was on duty. They took away her .38 Taurus service revolver with six rounds. The men then took her inside the building where they held accounts clerk Seepaul Khaloo and seven other employees at gunpoint.
The armed perpetrators then took away six deposit bags containing a total of $10,582,600, which was intended to be taken to the bank along with personal cash, cell phones and other valuables from the employees and escaped in a waiting motor car.
According to the police, the anti-crime patrols were alerted through the radio network and roadblocks were established at strategic locations. It was the quick response by the police acting on information received which subsequently led to the arrest of four suspects at the Diamond Sea Dam area, with a sum of cash suspected to be part of the stolen loot. Further investigations resulted in the arrest of a woman and two men at Grove Housing Scheme. The woman’s vehicle was also impounded.
The police maintained a presence in the area and later recovered another sum of money in a yard at Cinema Street, Diamond, and arrested two more men who were found hiding among some bush in a swampy area at Diamond. The police said the car suspected to have been used by the perpetrators in their getaway after the robbery, PMM 9668, was found abandoned on the roadway at School Street, Diamond Housing Scheme.
A 12-gauge, pump-action shotgun along with four matching cartridges and a laptop computer were recovered in the vehicle.
