“Several persons” are presently in police custody regarding the recent break and enter of L. Seepersaud Maraj and Sons jewellery store located at the Stabroek Market, which resulted in millions of dollars in losses.
This is according to Police “A” Division Commander, Leslie James during a telephone interview with INews on Thursday morning.
“I won’t be able to give you an exact number of persons but several persons are being questioned,” he said.
According to the owners of the Jewellery store, at about 07:00hrs on Tuesday last, they were informed by an occupant of a neighbouring stall in the Market, that their business had been broken into.
The matter was reported to police, who, upon arriving at the scene were able to recover tools –including blow torches- suspected to have been used to commit the crime.
Media operatives were informed that the business’ heavy duty vault which stored the millions worth in jewelry had three doors, and each door was cut with precision.
“It is sufficient to say that the perpetrators of this crime aren’t novices, but highly skilled thieves…Our losses cannot be estimated at this time as we have not done a full check of inventory,” the proprietors explained in a press statement.
Moreover, they noted that several Security Specialists and others trained in ironwork and welding were contacted and it was disclosed that it would have taken no less than five (5) hours for the vaults to be cut open.
Furthermore, police revealed that there were no signs of forced entry on the gates of the Stabroek Market itself, and the only entrance point would have been to the southern end which is usually only accessible to City Constabulary officers after the facility closes.
“We have spoken directly to two city Constables who claimed that checks were done earlier in the market but nothing was discovered. As stall owners operating under market rules, we have no choice but to depend on the City Constabulary for security whenever the market is closed. At the time of writing this, we have not been contacted by anyone from the Mayor and City Council’s Office or the Town Clerk’s Office. We are surprised at the lack of care and diligence by the City Constabulary in not observing that such an elaborate crime was being perpetuated over so many hours,” the entrepreneurs penned.
Additionally, it was disclosed that the stall was secured with an alarm system that was being monitored by the MMC Security Force.
“We contacted the MMC Security Force … and we were informed that the alarm was indeed set off three times last night. However MMC never informed us or the police that the alarms went off. On every other occasion, whenever the alarm is set off, MMC would call us immediately and the fact that we never received any calls or reports from them is puzzling.”
The Force’s Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has been conducting investigations are continuing their investigations. (Ramona Luthi)
