ABOUT six heavily armed bandits, shortly after midday yesterday, swooped down on the offices of the Guyana Stockfeed, Farm, East Bank Demerara, assaulted employees and hurriedly scooped up several bales of cash, presumably totalling millions of dollars.
In the process, they disarmed a female security guard. The raid lasted about twenty minutes, with members of the gang cooperating fully, witnesses said.
They successfully fled the scene with their booty, and it is believed that problems with their splitting up the booty lead to the police arresting two of them at Diamond.

Company officials remained tight-lipped, refusing to speak with the media, but could be seen moving up and down the compound, occasionally huddled together in small groups for discussion as police carried out investigations.

The saga unfolded in the presence of several customers who had visited the company to make purchases of baby chicks and poultry feed, and it was a ‘rather busy day’ with heavy inflows of cash from the sales.

This newspaper also learnt that when the bandits arrived at the facility, cash already packed and intended for handing over to two security firms made the job easy for the robbers.
There was high drama, observers related, as the bandits, said to be ‘well dressed’ and neatly clad in black pants, white shirt jacs and ‘clean’ Clarkes shoes, invaded the compound, first hand-cuffing a lone male security guard in a hut at the main entrance. Then moving deeper into the compound, they approached a female security guard manning one of the entrances to the office. They manhandled her, took away her firearm, then emptied the contents of her handbag on to the ground.

It is not clear how they entered the office, but observers figured they compelled someone inside to open up the grilled green heart door, letting them in. On entering the building the men fastened the padlocks on the door, locking themselves in.

Once inside, they forced the panicking staff to lie face down on the floor. Two accounts clerks, ‘Dosti’ and Rocky Johnson, were bundled together and thrown to the ground, as the men, pointing guns to their heads, ordered them “Don’t move, or yuh dead!”  They kicked them violently.
The ordeal lasted for about 20 minutes, witnesses who had gone hiding in various parts of the compound said. Having secured the cash which they stashed in large bags, the robbers fled.
Police are continuing their investigations.