AS at late yesterday afternoon, the Police had in custody a minibus belonging to the Guyana Post Office Corporation (GPOC), a serial robber, his girlfriend, a driver, and more importantly, two police constables.The five persons were taken into custody as investigations got underway with regard to a daring early morning robbery on Regent Street, when several bandits disarmed one of two police ranks of a G-3 rifle before forcing both ranks into the GPOC vehicle while ordering the driver to drive.
The vehicle was transporting approximately G$90M in seventeen bags which were destined for seventeen post offices to effect payment of old age pension and other forms of public assistance.
Reports are that as the vehicle pulled up at the Bourda Post Office around 8:15 hrs and one of two police ranks escorted an employee of the Central Post Office into that facility, the other police rank positioned himself outside the white Toyota ‘Pit-bull’ minibus, PSS 6641, standing guard.
But the bandits, reportedly gathered at the other side of the road observing the operation, waited until the rank escorted the GPOC employee into the Bourda Post Office before approaching his companion, whom they disarmed and forced into the vehicle, while placing a gun to the head of the driver and ordering him to drive, an order to which he complied.
When the other rank exited the post office he discovered that the vehicle with the cash and his colleague had disappeared, and an alarm was immediately raised.
The bandits first dumped the driver and the abducted policeman — minus his weapon — out of the vehicle along the Le Repentir Cemetery Road; then they later abandoned the bus as they joined another vehicle and made good their escape with the cash and the high-powered G-3 weapon.
Minutes after the ordeal, the police took their colleagues into custody and the search for the bandits was immediately launched.
The serial robber was picked up from the compound of the magistrates’ courts, where he was schedule to appear in relation to another matter concerning robbery-under-arms. He had also been fingered in the discovered of a gun inside a fridge some time ago.
Police investigators gave his name as Lloyd Sadloo of Albouystown, but also resident at addresses in East Ruimveldt, Georgetown and in Beterverwagting, ECD.
Asked about the rationale behind picking up that man, one police source said it was mainly for questioning, even as other sources close to the investigation say that the man may have information on the robbery but thought that he would go undetected since he was at the Georgetown Magistrate’s Courts at the time the incident unfolded – a fact he could easily use as an alibi.
Sadloo’s girlfriend and one of her sisters were also arrested by the police for questioning in relation to the matter.
The Chronicle has learnt that the GPOC driver involved in yesterday’s brazen incident is the same driver who had been driving the same vehicle to deliver cash at the Beterverwagting Post Office last year when the cash was snatched from that facility.
Investigators decided to place their colleagues under close arrest after listening to the divergent accounts they promulgated with regard to the incident. One police source has said that the ranks being under close arrest does not necessarily mean that they had participated in the heist; but because of the nature of the ordeal, the missing weapon and the amount of money involved, it was necessary to place the ranks under close arrest to facilitate the investigation.
When the Chronicle visited the area yesterday, persons there were not willing to give any account of what had transpired. At one point, a woman, whose name was given as Kim Walker, even became physically and verbally abusive to the Chronicle reporter as he attempted to question someone else about the incident. A report in this regard has been lodged at the Alberttown Police Station, and the matter is currently under investigation.