As I have been saying, ever since the govt closed down the opposition drug carrier ezjet and facilitated the cocaine and gold busts, the afc/pnc have resorted to other fundraising methods.
One dead, another hospitalised in Lethem robbery : --Three nabbed with loot
Written by Leroy Smith Saturday, 19 January 2013 23:33 A WATCHMAN stationed at the Region Nine (Upper Takutu-Upper Essequibo) Regional Democratic Council (RDC) office at Lethem was discovered murdered Friday night after bandits broke into the premises and ransacked it. Dead is John Friday of Culvert City, Lethem, who was beaten, bound and gagged by the intruders. Fellow watchman, Rudolph Bernard, was also badly beaten and chopped, and is now a patient at the Lethem Hospital, where his condition has since been listed as “stable”.
A senior Region Nine official told the Chronicle yesterday that he learnt of the incident just after 20:00hrs Friday; when he arrived on the scene, he said, the police were already there. It is they who told him that one of the guards had been killed, and the other badly beaten.
The two guards worked for a security firm contracted by the RDC to provide security for the facility. The RDC official said the intruders first dealt with the guards, before carrying out the robbery, and that they may have used a blowtorch to gain access to several safes where money was kept. Most of the money stolen was taken from the Post Office, he said.
He described the layout of the building as “one long structure” which, besides housing the Post Office, also accommodated the RDC administrative offices, though a wall separated the two entities.
The Chronicle has learnt that based on the length of time it would have taken anyone to gain access to the building and subsequently the safes, the persons who carried out the robbery and murder had ample time to do what they did.
Another RDC official explained that while the pickings from the regional office may have been slim, since it was only that day the region paid salaries, he has a sneaky suspicion that the bandits made a killing at the Post Office.
He said what little money was left in the RDC Accounts Department’s safe was expected to fulfil other financial obligations. However, a figure representing the total losses was not readily available.
Following the robbery, the police immediately issued an all-stations alert in the district, so that ranks could be on the lookout for anyone who may have had links to the horrific crime.
According to a police report, at about 08:15 hrs on Saturday ranks at the Mabura checkpoint stopped and searched a motor car, and discovered more than $4M hidden under the rear seat.
There were two men and a woman in the vehicle at the time, and they have all been taken into custody, where, at press time, they were still assisting the police with their investigations.
RDC officials said the location where the persons were stopped and searched is between 80 and 90 miles from where the crime was committed, and if indeed the detained persons are the ones who had done it, then they almost succeeded in making a clean getaway, since where they were held is closer to Linden in Region Ten (Upper Demerara- Upper Berbice).
