Policeman among three arrested for 2.7 kilo gold heist; guns, ammo seized

Last Updated on Tuesday, 12 November 2019, 17:55 by Writer

A day after they allegedly stole a large quantity of raw gold at the Matthew’s Ridge airstrip, two of four suspects were arrested Tuesday morning with some of the precious yellow metal, guns and ammunition, the Guyana Police Force said.

High-level police sources said a constable attached to the Tactical Services Unit was also arrested.

The sources said the raw gold weighed 2.766 kilogrammes and is the property of gold miner, Jairam Sukuram of Barama River.

The robbery occurred at about 1:30 Monday afternoon.

The police said acting on intelligence, ranks from Region 1 (Barima-Waini) intercepted a vehicle about 9:20 a.m. on Tuesday at Arakaka, North West District, with two of the robbery suspects and conducted a search and “found several containers of fuel and a quantity of raw gold suspected to be part of Monday’s heist.

“The suspects – a businessman and the mastermind – during interrogation, took investigators to a location and handed over” two 9mm handguns with magazines, one AK-47 assault rifle with a magazine, a quantity of ammunition, Global Positioning System (GPS) device and a camouflage jacket.

A Brazilian and a Guyanese, both men employed by Sukuram, told investigators that they were waiting on a Roraima Airways flight when the bandits swooped down, tied them up and escaped with the gold. They fled in the vehicle that the Brazilian and Guyanese had used to go the airstrip.