A SERVING member of the Guyana Defence Force (GDF) and two of his alleged accomplices were on Tuesday remanded to prison over the multimillion-dollar gold heist last Thursday at Wallison Enterprise, on Gordon Street, Kitty.

Sergeant Keyon King, 32, of Vergenoegen, East Bank Essequibo, and two of Wallison’s security officers, Delroy Jackson, called “Bug”, 36, of Golden Grove, East Coast Demerara; and Peon Lee, called “Nino Brown”, 35, of Mocha, East Bank Demerara, were on Tuesday slapped with four counts of robbery.

They all appeared before Principal Magistrate Sherdel Isaacs-Marcus at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court and pleaded not guilty to the charges.

King was unrepresented, while his co-accused, reputedly ex-soldiers themselves, were represented by Attorneys-at-Law Dexter Todd, Dexter Smartt, and Jacy Archibald.

All three denied that on August 5, while being armed with guns, and in the company of others, they robbed Wallison Enterprise of $38 million in local currency, and $20 million worth of raw gold, property of Francis Santos Lumes.

King, who’d initially pleaded guilty to the charge, begged the court to allow him to change his plea, as, being unrepresented, he was confused as to what to say when the charges were formally read to him.
Surprisingly, the ploy worked, as the Magistrate accepted his “not guilty” plea, though not necessarily his claim that he had no prior knowledge of the robbery.

The trio was also slapped with three other charges, for allegedly relieving, at gunpoint, Fernanda Carmichael of a cell-phone worth $350,000; Francis Santos Lumes of gold jewellery and cash amounting to $224,000; and William Batista DaSilva of a cell-phone valued $60,000.

The three were all remanded to prison until August 24.

And as investigations into the matter continue, Crime Chief, Senior Superintendent Wendell Blanhum, noted on Tuesday that the police are in search of two other suspects believed to have been involved in the robbery.

He explained that the plan was hatched by Lee, who’s the Company’s Chief of Security, while Jackson, a security officer on duty at the time it was executed, reportedly confessed that it should have gone down on Wednesday, August 4, but because the owner’s family was there, it was done the following day instead.

At the time of the robbery, DaSilva, a 45-year-old goldsmith, and Carmicheal, a 20-year-old cashier, were at work at Wallison Enterprise when the bandits entered at 10:05hrs.

It is alleged that they’d come with a white car, which they parked on the northern side of the building, and entered the compound through the main gate. They were reportedly granted access into the building by a security guard, on the pretext that they were there to sell gold.

Once in the establishment’s waiting area, they reportedly impressed upon the cashier that the small package they were carrying contained the gold they’d come to sell, and after they would have gained her confidence, whipped out their firearms from their pants waist, and, at gunpoint, ushered her into an inner office where the goldsmith and another man were conducting some business.

Holding both men at gunpoint, the bandits reportedly ordered the goldsmith to open the two metal safes in the office, before handcuffing them, and, confiscating their cell-phones, valued some $360,000, made good their escape with the $38 million in cash and 60 ounces of raw gold valued $20 million they’d managed to lay their hands on.

By the time the cashier raised the alarm, and the security guard on duty realised what had transpired, the bandits were long gone, and all that was left for them to do was summon the police.
The entire incident was caught on CCTV cameras located inside the business premises.

Police, on Sunday, made a major breakthrough in the investigation with the recovery of a total of $18M found buried at King’s residence.