Brazen heist in Curacao…Curacao ‘police’ snatch US$11.5M in gold smuggled from Guyana
-no permission granted locally for sea shipments
Masked gunmen, disguised as policemen, yesterday raided a fishing boat in Curacao and escaped with over US$11.5M in gold believed to have been smuggled from Guyana.
The “Summer Bliss” fishing boat sits docked at the Willemstad Port in Curacao, on Friday.
The boat captain, a Guyanese, was struck in the head in the early-morning assault before the thieves made off with the gold in three cars, Curacao’s police spokesman Reggie Huggins said. Authorities believe there were at least six men involved in the heist. No suspects were in custody, an Associated Press (AP) story said yesterday. Curacao is an island in the southern Caribbean Sea, off the Venezuelan coast. The news would confirm the widespread belief of gold being smuggled from Guyana, to escape taxes, as the Guyanese authorities are denying permission was given recently to have gold transported via sea from Guyana. High prices in recent years have made gold in high demand with the shiny metal being Guyana’s biggest earner now. According to the AP story, the captain and three crew members were from Guyana. The boat, by its appearance, would seem an unlikely place to stash the 70 gold bars which weighed approximately 216 kilograms (476 pounds). A senior official from the Guyana Gold Board, the government state agency charged with buying gold, said that they have received reports of the attack. However, the official made it clear that no permission was given in recent times to have gold transported via sea out of Guyana. According to Colin Sparman, an executive of the Guyana Gold and Diamond Miners Association (GGDMA), permission is generally not granted for gold to be transported in this manner. Rather, this is usually done, under heavy security, via air. According to the AP story, Huggins declined to say who owned the approximately 216 kilograms (476 pounds) of gold. The “Summer Bliss” is a fishing boat with rust streaks on its white cabin and no visible security. Huggins said it was a legal shipment that was being transshipped through Curacao and officials in the island had been advised in advance that it was coming as part of normal security protocols. He declined to disclose the eventual destination of the metal. “Authorities knew of the shipment because the official procedure was followed,” the spokesman said. Huggins said that guards to the port area let the assailants inside a restricted area in the mistaken belief that they were customs officials. The men’s jackets had the word “police” in English but in Curacao the word would be written in Papiamento, one of the island’s three official languages, as “polis.” During the robbery, crew members said they wore hoods and masks and made off with the gold in a matter of minutes. “The crew said it was like a movie operation, very fast,” Huggins said. A crew member who gave his name as Raymond Emmanuel told the Associated Press that they left Guyana four days ago and arrived early Friday in Curacao. Contradicting police, he said they were delivering the gold to a company in Curacao but said he did not know the name of the business. He referred questions about the source of the gold to the captain, who was meeting with authorities on the Dutch Caribbean Island and not immediately available. Emmanuel said the gold was locked away when the thieves boarded the vessel. “They took everything,” he said. The crew member said neither he nor anyone else on the vessel was armed. “This is normal,” he said. “We never carry arms. Since I started working here, I’ve transported gold once before, and this is the system.”