FOUR armed and masked bandits, said to be speaking Spanish and broken English, robbed a Chinese mining company of $13.5M in raw gold and thousands of dollars in $US currency recently at Black Water backdam, Cuyuni River.
Enquires revealed two armed security officers were hired by the company to overlook the dredge.

While overlooking the production with the general manager, one of the security officers left the crew and visited the kitchen to eat and on his return he was confronted by the four bandits who emerged from nearby bushes.
The bandits held him at gunpoint and instructed him to drop his firearm and he complied. One of the bandits then seized the security officer’s shotgun and the other bandits ran toward the other security officer, opening fire in the air and terrorizing those in the camp. One person was shot in the hand.

The general manager, crew and security were overpowered and the men then gathered the workers and instructed one person to burn the ‘amalgam’ gold while they stood guard.
Thereafter, the men proceeded to search the camp’s office where a rifle was discovered in a strong box and they took possession of the gun and other valuables before escaping.
Police visited the scene after a report was made. Investigations are ongoing.