Reports out of Curacao that masked men snatched 476 pounds of gold today from a Guyana fishing boat are sending shock waves through the mining industry and security sectors here tonight.
In a swift, precision operation, the men, dressed in what were intended to be police uniforms, grabbed the gold worth US$13M from the Guyanese crew aboard the vessel “Summer Bliss” on the Dutch Caribbean island.
Where exactly the gold came from and why it was being transported on a rickety vessel were the million dollar questions tonight. Government and security officials here have not commented on the incident so far.
Gold produced by miners here has to be sold to the Guyana Gold Board which then makes arrangements for its refining abroad. Any other type of sale is prohibited. However, there have been numerous reports of widespread smuggling of gold to other territories where tax rates are lower. This is particularly true of a former Dutch possession, Suriname. However, local sources questioned how 7,616 ounces of gold could be accumulated and spirited out of this country just like that. It was surmised that the gold could have come from multiple sources and destinations.
The way in which the heist was pulled off also suggested that it was an inside job. Security authorities on Curacao, sources say, would most likely have to call in the Dutch navy to assist with the search for the robbers as the escape route would likely be across the sea and away from the island.
According to AP, Huggins did not say who owned the gold but he said it was a legal shipment that was being trans-shipped via Curacao and that officials on the Dutch-administered island had been told in advance that it was coming as part of normal security protocols. He declined to reveal the eventual destination of the shipment.
A crew member who gave his name as Raymond Emmanuel told The Associated Press that they left Guyana four days ago and arrived early today in Curacao. He said that he had done this type of shipment once before and that no one on the vessel is usually armed.
The attackers were unlikely to have been from the island as their “uniforms” carried the word `Police’ while on the island the Papiamento version of the word would be Polis, AP said.
