Police in B Division (Berbice) have reported an increase in serious crimes between January and August 2016 when compared with the same period for 2015.
Divisional Commander, Assistant Commissioner Ian Amsterdam, said while the murder rate has shown a slight decrease – that is, 50 reported cases compared with 53 for the corresponding period – there were 31 reported cases of robbery under arms for the period
Commander Ian Amsterdam
outlined above in 2016, an increase of 10 cases from the same period in 2015.
Break and entry and larceny recorded 34 cases, doubling the amount recorded for the same period last year. This equates to a 100 per cent increase from 2015 to 2016.
Amsterdam noted, however, that the Division still has much to boast about when it comes to crime fighting. He said “we had the piracy where five persons were charged; we have the West Coast [Berbice] arson and murder, they were charged; we had Springlands; then we had the famous British teen murder – those are all work that was done to date.”
So far for 2016, 66 rounds of ammunition were seized by Berbice Police as against to 14 rounds for the corresponding period in 2015.
According to the Divisional Commander, during the year ranks have been able to seize 96,858 kg of marijuana. “It just tells you how much marijuana is in this area or passes through this area.” With respect to cocaine, Amsterdam posited “already we have seized 1143 kg of cocaine thus far for the year as against 49 kg in 2015.”
