The three persons nabbed after Friday’s deadly Lethem heist are to appear in court today while police are hunting two other suspects who were involved in the multi-million dollar robbery that left a security guard dead.
The police have recovered $7.8 million from the three suspects, sources confirmed yesterday. The total amount of money taken has not yet been established and police have since learnt that two other persons were involved in the robbery that left watchman, John Friday dead. Of those nabbed, one is from Savage Street, North East La Penitence, the other is from Kaneville, Grove, East Bank Demerara while the woman is from the Campbellville Housing Scheme.
Stabroek News was told that police investigations revealed that two other males from the city were also involved in the robbery but were left back in Lethem. Police are on the lookout for them. The three suspects who were nabbed in Mabura will appear in court today, the sources said.
At about 8pm last Friday, police said that two men entered the compound of the Regional Democratic Council at Lethem and attacked the two watchmen on duty. The perpetrators assaulted the watchmen after which they were tied up and pieces of cloth were stuffed into the mouth of Friday. According to the police, the two men then broke into the RDC Building and the Post Office, where a cutting torch was used to cut open five safes and an undisclosed sum of money stolen.
The police subsequently visited the scene after they were informed by members of the public where Friday of Culvert City, Lethem, was found dead. The other watchman, Rudolph Bernard, 62, remains a patient of the Lethem Hospital. On Saturday, police at the Mabura checkpoint stopped and searched a car and found over $4M hidden under the rear seat. The two men and a woman who were in the vehicle were arrested after they reportedly confessed.
Bernard was chopped in the head before being tied up and was not rescued until Saturday morning. He had told Stabroek News that he was doing checks at the work site when he heard noise and what appeared to be persons fighting. He said he thought it was persons fighting outside, not knowing it was his colleague Friday, who was being attacked by the bandits.
Bernard said he did not go to see where the noise was coming from but when he returned to his post, he heard someone pelting a tractor that was parked in the compound. He went to investigate and it was then that the bandits pounced upon him.
He said the men started to beat him and he tried to fight them off but he could not. “They told me to shut up or they will shoot me, so I thought they had a gun but I did not see any,” Bernard explained.
The bandits tied his hands and feet and they cut his shirt and stuffed it in his mouth. “One of them put me on his shoulder and carry me to a room inside. I try to drag myself to the door but my foot was tie,” he recalled, while adding that he did not know his head was burst until he saw blood coming from it while he was in the room.
He added that he kept very quiet and listened to what was happening from the room. He also said that he heard Friday groaning and an explosion. The explosion is believed to have occurred when the bandits broke the safes with the torch.
When he was certain the bandits had left he began to kick and scream for help but no one came to his aid, he said.
According to Bernard, he had to lie in the room tied until morning, when he heard a woman calling for them followed by screams. The police were then summoned and they went into the building and rescued him.
Investigations are continuing.