`Blackie' gang linked to
food mart robbery .
AT LEAST two of the escapees in the daring prison
Mash Day jailbreak were in the gang that attacked
and robbed the food mart in
Annandale, East Coast Demerara last week,
a source said yesterday.
The source said Police uplifted the fingerprints of
two of the escaped prisoners from a mini-bus which
they hijacked after robbing the food mart last week
Wednesday night. The bandits
escaped with some $1.2M in cash and a quantity of
foodstuff from the business place.
Still at large after the jailbreak which claimed the
life of 21-year old Prison Officer Troy Williams of
Stanleytown, Berbice and left Woman Prison Officer,
Roxamme Whinfield critically wounded, are Mark
Fraser, Andrew Douglas, Shawn Brown, Troy Dick and
Dale Moore, all linked to the notorious `Blackie'
criminal gang.
The Police say the five are "armed and
dangerous" and wanted bulletins have been
posted countrywide for them.
The five prisoners who killed the prison officer and
shot Whinfield in the head when they fled the
Georgetown Prison, were suspected to have carried
out the precision movie-style attack on Jane's
Food Mart at Annandale.
Police intelligence reports last week said the five
were still operating together and may have been
joined by one or two more bandits, but the
fingerprints found on the mini-bus were the first
direct link between the gang and the robbery.
Witnesses said between five and seven heavily-armed
bandits closed in on the food mart at around 19:00
hrs and like in the `Dog Day Afternoon' movie, held
the proprietors, their staff and about 20 customers
under siege for about half an hour.
The bandits demanded cash and jewellery, and after
terrorising the proprietors
Vivekanand and Jane Parasram at gunpoint, beat
customer Kampta Persaud on the head with a gun. Mr.
Parasram was also beaten on the head and the wound
took about 10 stitches, he said.
Then loading a quantity of
groceries in Persaud's mini-bus, the bandits made
off with the vehicle and about $1.5M in cash.
During the ordeal, they were also said to have cut
the telephone line to the building from outside, in
an attempt to prevent anyone making contact with the
police or anyone else outside the premises.
The `Blackie' criminal ring was led by Linden `Blackie'
London who was shot dead when he was cornered in a
Police-Army operation in an Eccles, East Bank
Demerara guest house in February 1999.