Devon Evans, Gleaner WriterOCHO RIOS, St. Ann: THE POLICE have launched an islandwide manhunt for two employees of Guardsman Ltd. who they believe were
the masterminds behind a multimillion-dollar robbery, which took place in St. Ann on Wednesday night.
The money was stolen from a Guardsman armoured vehicle on the Haddon Pen main road near Walkerswood in St. Ann at about 10:30 p.m. by two security guards with the assistance of at least two accomplices.
While the exact amount stolen is yet to be determined, the St. Ann police, and sources at Guardsman Ltd, have estimated the loot to be over $200 million. The robbers also escaped with two firearms belonging to the company.
TWO BANDITS IDENTIFIED
Police sources have identified the two bandits as Harvey Green of Bay Farm Road and Copeland Samuels of a Waltham Park Road, both of St. Andrew addresses.
Reports are that both Green and Samuels travelled with two other colleagues from Kingston to pick up a quantity of cash at the Ocho Rios office of Guardsman Ltd.
The dramatic series of events began shortly after 10 p.m. when the crew of the armoured car
collected the money and was heading back to Kingston.
On reaching a section of the Haddon Pen main road, one of the guards who was travelling in the front of the vehicle, reportedly pulled his gun and pointed it in the face of the driver and ordered him to stop.
The other rogue guard who was travelling in the back of the vehicle then held up and disarmed the crewmaster of his firearm.
A car then drove up and stopped beside the armoured vehicle from which one man alighted and entered the vehicle, taking charge of the wheel with the driver sitting in the middle, and the other guard on the
passenger seat. The driver was handcuffed to the steering wheel and the man who entered the vehicle drove it into the nearby Windalco property with the car following behind.
It is reported that they stopped at a point on the property, but as they opened the back door, the crewmaster immediately jumped from the vehicle and escaped in the dark woodland.
MONEY PACKED INTO THE CAR
The men from the car, along with the two rogue guards, then packed money into the car and left the area with the other guard still handcuffed to the steering wheel of the armoured vehicle.
CCN liaison officer for St. Ann, Constable Courtney Johnson, said the guard was handcuffed and had a bag tied over his head.
Constable Johnson said the police found $30 million in the armoured vehicle, which is now parked at the Moneague Police Station.
Up to news time, the police could not give any account of the security guard who escaped from the vehicle, and so far no one has been arrested in connection with the incident.
