Ranks of the Guyana Police Force on Saturday morning made inroads in the carjacking network, arresting seven persons after a quantity of car parts and vehicles were found, as they swooped down on two separate houses.
In the first instance, acting on information received, a group of officers from A Division (East Bank Demerara) went to a property at Monument Hill, Kuru Kururu, Soesdyke/Linden Highway, and conducted a search.
They unearthed a quantity of vehicle parts and several vehicles suspected to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained. The vehicles were a silver-grey Nissan Bluebird, bearing registration number PSS 4593, and a white and black Toyota Runx with licence plate number PPP 5951.
These along with the parts were confiscated and have since been lodged at the Timehri Police Station.
Five persons including an ex-Policeman and four females were taken into custody and are assisting with the investigation.
Meanwhile, ranks of the Force’s Major Crimes Unit also on Saturday morning swooped down on Lot 96 Vryheid’s Lust North, East Coast Demerara, where they found a quantity of Allion, Premio and Spacio parts with engraved numbers on the premises.
A husband and wife have since been arrested and are assisting with the probe.
Head of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID), Paul Williams, told Guyana Times on Saturday afternoon that the seven suspects were still in custody at the CID Headquarters as detectives sort out the items confiscated, trying to trace the parts and the vehicles.
To this end, he noted that contact was made with the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) to obtain the relevant information regarding the finds.
“But what we know for sure is that the articles were stolen or unlawfully obtained because we haven’t been able to get any proper information or documentation about where they were obtained from,” Williams pointed out.
The Crime Chief went on to say that there are a lot of stolen vehicles that were either repainted or stripped and the parts attached to other vehicles that are on the road.
Williams noted that he had recommended that during the road blocks or even while on patrol, if an officer is suspicious of vehicles then they should ask for all the vehicle documents including the original registration so as to make the verification.
In the meantime, as the probe continues, the Crime Chief is asking members of the public, especially victims of carjackings, to be patient and cooperate with the Police. Nevertheless, he noted that persons whose vehicles were stolen and go the CID Headquarters at Eve Leary from Monday to check whether the parts found matched their vehicles that were carjacked.
Meanwhile, Guyana Times was able to trace an incident which occurred on November 12, 2017, whereby two money changers were robbed by two armed bandits, who escaped in a Silver Grey 212 motorcar bearing registration number PPP 5951, which was found affixed to the Runx vehicle that was seized from the Kuru Kururu premises.
During the course of last year, there was a spike in carjacking cases and the Police Force has since been grappling with crushing the network.The growing string of armed carjacking attacks has stirred much uneasiness among car owners, especially taxi operators, who are constantly in fear of being attacked.
In fact, earlier in 2017, the Police Force had issued a warning, particular to taxi operators of carjackers who amped up attacks on Toyota Allion and Toyota Premio motorcars under the pretext of wanting taxis.
Ever since this announcement last February, carjacking cases began 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 with their vehicles.
Last month, two private-hire operators were attacked, and their vehicles stolen in separate incidents on the West Coast of Demerara (WCD) and East Bank of Essequibo (EBE). However, one of the vehicles was retrieved after it was abandoned during a Police chase.
Investigators believed that the perpetrators in the two incidents were either part of the same network or were the same in both cases because of the modus operandi used.
At a press conference last month, then acting Police Commissioner David Ramnarine had stated that the Force believe there is a “criminal industrialised concept” of some sort whereby vehicles are stolen during the course of armed robberies.
Over the last three years, there were 41 cases of carjackings in 2015; 36 cases in 2016 and 47 cases in 2017. Of those cases last year, 16 of the stolen vehicles were Toyota Premio while eight were Toyota Allion.
Nevertheless, in December 2017, the Police had arrested two persons, one of whom was an ex-Cop, and charged them. One of them had three counts of robbery under arms where a motorcar was stolen.
Additionally, there is currently a case between C (East Coast Demerara) and D (West Bank Demerara-East Bank Essequibo) Divisions with one person under investigation for cases of carjackings. (Vahnu Manikchand)
