Five men held by cops after Saturday heist

– drivers from two taxi services implicated

Quick action by police ranks attached to the Tactical Services Unit on Saturday afternoon saw the apprehension of several persons believed to be involved in a robbery at the Phone Depot Store on Middle Street during which two men were assaulted and cell phones and other items stolen.

The ranks not only arrested five men-believed to be involved in the robbery-at different locations around the city but also seized an unlicensed Uzi semi-automatic pistol along with 30 matching rounds.

According to a police release at around 4 pm on Saturday three men, two of whom were armed with firearms, entered the store and held up the security guard Balram Pooran, the supervisor Damion Dorwish and three female employees and a male customer who was in the store at the time.

The release said that the armed men assaulted Dorwish and the male customer with their firearms during the robbery following which they took away an ipod and cell phone from the customer along with a quantity of cell phones, ipods, laptop computers and cameras and $200,000 in cash from the business entity. They then escaped in motor car HB 7819 in which two accomplices were waiting.

But luck was not on the bandits’ side as two anti-crime patrols from the Tactical Services Unit responded quickly to the report received and located the motor car used in the robbery at a taxi service on Hadfield Street along with the driver who was arrested.

“Acting on information received the police went to another taxi service at High Street where nothing was found and then to a house at Tucville, Georgetown, where another suspect was arrested,” the release said. The cops acting on further information conducted a search on a house at Sussex Street, Charlestown, where three other suspects were arrested.

The Uzi semi-automatic pistol and rounds were found along with a quantity of the stolen articles comprising cell phones, ipods, cameras and laptop computers.