Police have confirmed that two mining camps in the Kartuni, Cuyuni River area have been robbed, Commander of ‘F’ Division Ravindradat Budhram said yesterday, adding that the entire area had been searched.
A few days ago, the police commander had disclosed that a quantity of raw gold and one firearm had been confirmed missing. No arrest has yet been made.
When contacted yesterday, Budhram said he had ordered his ranks who flew into the area on Tuesday to remain there for another week to continue the investigation.
The commander had previously explained that the officers had departed on Monday last, but were unable to venture into the backlands immediately since they did not have any vehicles. Budhram added that because of persistent rain, the roads leading to the backlands are in a deplorable condition. However, on Tuesday morning, the ranks had begun the journey into the area on foot. They were later picked up by helicopter and taken to the area.
Mohammed Sharief of Sharief’s Mining had related to this newspaper that his camp had been attacked by a gang of men. He explained that from the information he had gathered his staff were brutally beaten and robbed. The gold miner had said that the bandits, “beat my guys very bad, but we cannot get communication with them, because we have no communication.” He added that from all indications, it appeared as if they had destroyed “our internet service because they did that with other camps and our radio set is apparently down as well… We are just hoping that we would hear from them.”
Sharief had claimed that the bandits had attacked six other camps in the Region Seven area. He added, they speak fluent “Spanish and Portuguese, but the other one is not saying anything and it is suspected he is a Guyanese who is showing them around.”
Based on the miner’s recount, his camp was hit the worst. He had also expressed fear that the men may venture into the Puruni mining district, and carry out further attacks if they were not apprehended.
