Mastermind, gunman in Lusignan Chinese supermarket robbery arrested
As investigations continue into the robbery of a Chinese-owned supermarket, which occurred in Lusignan on the East Coast of Demerara (ECD) on Tuesday evening, the Police have apprehended two suspects.
Ryan Goodluck, a 29-year-old vendor from Herstelling Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara (EBD), and Jamal Seymour, a 25-year-old mason residing on Sussex Street, Georgetown, were arrested on Wednesday evening.
According to the Police, the two men carried out an armed robbery at the Chinese-owned supermarket. The breakthrough in their capture came as a result of information and feedback received after the release of CCTV screen grabs of the suspects on the Police’s Facebook page.
One of the arrested suspects is believed to be the mastermind behind the robbery, while the other is suspected of being the one who held the cashier at gunpoint.
“Commander Division 4 ‘C’, his Deputy, along with a team from Divisions 4C and 4A, conducted searches at the homes of the two suspects at about 23:00 hrs last night,” the Police reported.
During the search, law enforcement discovered the clothing worn by the suspect who brandished the firearm during the robbery. Both suspects are currently in Police custody and are expected to face charges in the near future.
According to a statement from the Guyana Police Force (GPF), four armed men approached the business establishment via XR motorcycles, one red and the other black.
CCTV footage seen by this publication showed that the perpetrators brazenly parked their bikes in front of the supermarket before storming inside, brandishing firearms, and threatening two cashiers, 50-year-old Xie Zie Ying and 46-year-old Xie Zi Xia.
The criminals then confiscated a stack of phone cards and an undisclosed sum of cash before returning to their motorcycles, which they mounted and rode off the scene.
Ryan Goodluck is no stranger to the law, he has a prior history with the law, having been among six individuals charged and remanded to prison for a $13.4 million heist at GTT’s Giftland store in September of the previous year.
Goodluck, along with Andrea Dover, Priecy Roberts, Ashley Mansfield, Jamal Haley, and Osman Brummell, appeared in court at the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court, where they faced armed robbery charges. They all pleaded not guilty and were remanded to prison.
On September 8, 2022, at the Giftland Mall, two individuals posed as security guards from Amalgamated Security Services Limited (ASSL) and stole $13.4 million in cash and $6 million in checks from GTT store located on the mall’s second floor. The suspects were apprehended after Police tracked down the getaway car, a white Toyota Raum, which was owned by Priecy Roberts.
During questioning, Roberts admitted to being the getaway driver and led the Police to recover $500,000 from his share of the stolen money. Andrea Dover, a cleaner at Giftland Mall’s GTT branch, confessed to her involvement in planning the robbery but claimed she wasn’t the mastermind.
She identified Haley, known as “Biggs,” as the mastermind and revealed her role in providing key details about GTT’s cash movements and the layout of the building. She received $800,000 for her participation, which was found hidden in her sister’s backyard.
Police later located Haley and arrested him, along with his accomplice, Goodluck, who had a significant amount of cash in his possession. Both men confessed to their involvement in the robbery. Additionally, Biggs handed over $1.1 million to the police, which he had given to a bus driver for safekeeping.