Three persons including a woman are currently in police custody in connection with the armed robbery of a Skeldon businessman in which almost $2M in cash was carted away on Thursday.
An ex-policeman is also among the trio in custody and according to a police source, the suspects all lived together for two weeks prior to Thursday’s robbery.
Stabroek News understands that around 12:30PM, two men who had booked rooms at Swiss Business Enterprise Guest-house earlier in the day carried out the attack. One of the men held up Imtiaz Yakub, 44, the son of the proprietor of the business.
The armed man led Yakub to the cashier cage, where they collected sums of $1.9 million and $60,000 before escaping.
The enterprise also operates a wholesale and retail beverage business at the front. Yesterday, Yakub told reporters that he was fixing a pump when a man held him up with a gun. He explained that he saw the gun in the man’s hand but did not pay much attention until the bandit “cranked the gun. I was far away from my cage [cashier]. If I was there, I would have been protected.”
Yakub said the armed bandit directed him to go into the store. He said he was trying to walk in the direction of the public road so that persons on the road could have become aware of the situation, but the bandit realised and directed him into the shop.
When he went into the shop, he saw another bandit who told him to lie in front of the cashier cage. He said at that point the bandit who was waiting with a bag in the shop, ran into the cage and took the cash. He said the $1.9 million was to pay debts and the $60,000 belonged to his masjid.
Asked if the men were persons he knew, Yakub said that around 6AM on the same day they had booked separate rooms in the guesthouse.
He also indicated that prior to the attack the ex-policeman who is now in custody had booked a room with a woman and he noted that he thought their presence suspicious.
He said when they checked the surveillance footage after the robbery, they saw the ex-policeman speaking to one of the men involved in the robbery.
According to Yakub, police response to the robbery was good.
However, he said, he aided the Springlands Police Station with a vehicle to conduct investigations. He noted that the station does not have a vehicle for crime fighting. He worked along with the police until 11PM on Thursday. He said that in over forty years of its operations, the enterprise had never been robbed before. He called on businesses to unite and aid in crime fighting.
He is also offering a generous reward to anyone with factual information that could lead to the arrest of the suspects.
