Suspect held, 700 crates of beer recovered in Red Stripe robbery probe
Published:Thursday | December 30, 2021 | 12:12 AMAndre Williams/Staff Reporter
Investigators probing Sunday morning’s multimilion-dollar heist at the Red Stripe brewery on Spanish Town Road in St Andrew have recovered nearly half of the stolen beer and have seized one of two trucks believed to have been used in the robbery.
The police told The Gleaner that 700 crates of the 1,664 crates of Red Stripe and Dragon Stout stolen were recovered in New Haven, St Andrew, and in a section of western Kingston.
Some time between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. on Sunday, four men reportedly held up a security guard and then tied him up before taking a key to open a gate to the property.
The men reportedly then drove two trucks on to the compound and went to a warehouse, where they broke off the lock to the building and made off with 1,440 cases of Red Stripe beer and 224 cases of Dragon Stout valued at $8 million.
“Over the last two days we have made some recoveries. We were able to seize a motor truck that we believe was one of the two trucks that were used to carry out the robbery,” Senior Superintendent Kirk Ricketts, head of the St Andrew South Police Division, told The Gleaner.
“We recovered 100 crates in the Ebenezer Avenue area in New Heaven, and we recovered 600 on Bond Street,” Ricketts said.
One man from New Heaven has been taken into custody, and the police are seeking a 40-year-old man believed to have been the driver of the truck during the robbery.
The police are advising the public not to purchase liquor suspected of being obtained through looting.
“That could put you in legal jeopardy yourself ... . For one, you don’t know the person to be in the business of selling a particular product, and the product will be selling below its street value,” Ricketts said of the earliest flashpoints that should be noted.