Carjackings part of “criminal industrialised concept” – Top Cop

…as 47 cases of hijackings reported

The increasing cases of carjackings have led the Guyana Police Force to believe that there seems to be a “criminal industrialised concept” of some sort whereby vehicles are stolen during the course of robberies under arms.
This was the position of acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine when he spoke about the crime at a press conference on Friday.
“These carjackings, in our opinion, seem to have some sort of criminalised industrialised concept. It seems to be collusion in some cases between several players in this criminal enterprise. Of course, the issue of insurance, the insurance element seems to stand out,” he asserted.
During the course of last year, there was a spike in carjacking cases and the Police Force has since been grappling with efforts to crush the network.
According to Ramnarine, the increase in carjackings in the first two months of the last quarter in 2017 was worrisome.
“We took no comfort over the fact that in 2015 there were 41 cases (of carjackings); in 2016, 36 cases; and in 2017, 47 cases. We have not taken any comfort in the fact that it was just a few more reports in 2017. We deem it to be unacceptable,” the acting Police Commissioner said.
He went on to outline that of the 47 cases of robbery under arms where vehicles were stolen in 2017, 16 Toyota Premio motorcars were stolen and eight Toyota Allion motorcars stolen.
Nevertheless, the acting Top Cop posited that the Force has been working assiduously to clamp down on the carjacking network. To this end, he pointed to the good investigative work done in December that led to two persons, one of whom is an ex-Police Officer, being arrested and charged – one with three counts of robbery under arms where a motorcar was stolen.
Additionally, he revealed that there is currently a case between C Division (East Coast Demerara) and D Division (West Bank Demerara-East Bank Essequibo) with one person under investigation for cases of carjackings.
The growing string of armed carjacking attacks have stirred much uneasiness among car owners, especially taxi operators who are constantly in fear of being attacked.
Earlier in 2017, the Police Force had issued a warning, particularly to taxi drivers operating Toyota Premio and Allion motorcars of an apparent scheme to relive motorists of the vehicles.
Ever since this announcement back in February, carjacking cases had begun to spike, with carjackers starting to pounce on private vehicle owners.
Some of these cases have seen taxi drivers and vehicle owners being brutalised in the ploy as bandits cart off their vehicles.
One particular case in early December saw armed hijackers driving off with a vehicle carrying a sleeping child. After realising the child was in the car, the young girl was tossed out of the motorcar as the perpetrators made good their escape.
Meanwhile, as the Force continues efforts to clamp down on the criminal activity, they have approached certain mechanic shops with the hope of finding the hijacked vehicles, but have come across stumbling blocks.
To this end, a multi-agency approach was conceptualised which will allow for investigators to be armed with the necessary tools and information on specifications so as to narrow in on suspects and ultimately recover the stolen cars.