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Cops hot on trail of Negril robbers

Published:Thursday | January 21, 2021 | 12:09 AMHopeton Bucknor/Gleaner Writer

Negril, Westmoreland:

Despite three armed men removing the surveillance system during a multimillion-dollar robbery at a Courts Ready Cash outlet in Negril, Westmoreland, on Tuesday, the police say they are are expecting to collar the crooks soon.

The men struck the finance outlet shortly after 1:30 p.m., posing as customers before brandishing handguns and holding the security guard, the manager, and two female employees at gunpoint.

They proceeded to rob customers and staff of cellphones and other valuables and made off with an undetermined amount of cash and cheques.

The robbers removed the surveillance camera system before exiting the building and making their getaway in a waiting motor car.

It was the first major robbery in Westmoreland since the start of the year.

Superintendent Robert Gordon, commanding officer for the Westmoreland Police Division, told The Gleaner that they believe they are hot on the gunmen’s trail.

“It’s early days yet, but we are actually seeing some positive signs, and we hope that in short order, we will be able to make a breakthrough,” said Gordon. “We are trying to connect some dots as the robbers removed the surveillance apparatus, in that they would have taken the VCR set-up from the institution, but there are other things that we would have picked up that we believe would be able to assist us in our investigations.”

Gordon said that the police are stepping up covert operations within the western parish as part of their effort to blunt robberies.

Last July, gunmen pulled off a similar daring daylight robbery at the Jamaica National Bank in Whitehouse in the parish.

In that incident, they stole cash amounting to more than $3.5 million, along with the security guard’s firearm.

On exiting the building, they stole a taxi operator’s vehicle and made their escape.

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