Smatta
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- Nov 5, 2008
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Nairobi Detectives investigating last week's theft of Sh80 million from the Co-operative Bank have arrested five more suspects, including an Administration Police officer, and recovered a box containing Sh10.5 million. This brings the total amount of money recovered by police from the robbery to Sh11.75 million.
The suspects, who are in police custody, identified to the investigators the masterminds behind the theft and gave details on how it was planned. One of the men arrested also provided information that led to the recovery of the money box with Sh10.5 million from a house in Buru Buru. The man, who is an informer for the Flying Squad, yesterday led investigators to a house in Buru Buru that belongs to a lecturer.
It is alleged that Flying Squad officers had attempted to stop the informer's arrest as he has helped them recover millions in several other raids. The detectives then asked the lecturer's neighbour, a clergyman, to accompany them into the house where the money box was recovered. The lecturer said a friend had asked him to keep the box for him. The officers drove the lecturer and the clergyman to the Nairobi Area Provincial Police headquarters where the box was opened in the presence of senior police officers, including the Nairobi CID boss Peter Muinde.
Sh10.5 million was recovered. The two recorded statements and were later released. According to the head of the Special Crime Prevention Unit, Mr Richard Katola, detectives are still pursuing more people suspected to have been involved in the robbery. Mr Katola said the AP was arrested for allegedly hired out his uniform to the suspects who posed as police officers escorting the G4S-branded vehicle.
The AP was arrested on Thursday afternoon while on duty at another bank in the city centre. Detectives also raided a Kariobangi garage on Saturday where the van that was used in the robbery was built and painted and arrested the proprietor and an employee.
They later arrested two more people at the house in Buru Buru. ''We have arrested five people, including an AP officer who hired out his uniform to the fraudsters who escorted the vehicle that was used to steal the money from Co-operative Bank. The officer is one of two APs we have been trailing because we have reports that they escorted the thieves to the bank. He was taken to court, but we are still holding four others who were directly involved in the theft''; Mr Katola told the Sunday Nation.
A long period Police believe the arrested suspects will lead them to where the rest of the Sh80 million is hidden. Detectives have since established that in addition to the 13 in custody, there are more people involved in the theft at large.
Detectives retracing the gang's steps have so far established that members had meticulously planned the heist over a long period. They first identified a van that was taken to a garage in Kariobangi where it was reassembled to look like a G4S Cash-In-Transit (CIT) van, painted blue and then later branded with G4S logos in the city centre.
The masterminds then obtained two uniforms and a rifle from AP officers that were used by the men who posed as security escorts. Three other men dressed in uniforms similar to those worn by G4S employees walked in with the officers'' With the help of some of the bank's staff, the gang obtained information on the time the Sh80 million was to be collected from the bank by G4S CIT personnel and taken to ATMs around the city centre.
Posing as a CIT team from G4S, the gang then entered the Co-operative Bank headquarters on Haile Selassie Avenue on the morning of September 30, gathered the Sh80 million and drove off with it to Matumbato Road in Upper Hill. They parked, unloaded the loot from the van and stashed it into an unmarked vehicle. Police in Kisumu recovered Sh1.25 million, believed to be part of the Sh80 million, on the Ahero-Katitu road in Nyakach last Sunday.
Five bank managers, two G4S employees and a former CID officer are among those who have been arrested and charged at a Kibera court.
allAfrica.com: Kenya: Suspects Reveal Details of Sh80 Million Bank Heist
The suspects, who are in police custody, identified to the investigators the masterminds behind the theft and gave details on how it was planned. One of the men arrested also provided information that led to the recovery of the money box with Sh10.5 million from a house in Buru Buru. The man, who is an informer for the Flying Squad, yesterday led investigators to a house in Buru Buru that belongs to a lecturer.
It is alleged that Flying Squad officers had attempted to stop the informer's arrest as he has helped them recover millions in several other raids. The detectives then asked the lecturer's neighbour, a clergyman, to accompany them into the house where the money box was recovered. The lecturer said a friend had asked him to keep the box for him. The officers drove the lecturer and the clergyman to the Nairobi Area Provincial Police headquarters where the box was opened in the presence of senior police officers, including the Nairobi CID boss Peter Muinde.
Sh10.5 million was recovered. The two recorded statements and were later released. According to the head of the Special Crime Prevention Unit, Mr Richard Katola, detectives are still pursuing more people suspected to have been involved in the robbery. Mr Katola said the AP was arrested for allegedly hired out his uniform to the suspects who posed as police officers escorting the G4S-branded vehicle.
The AP was arrested on Thursday afternoon while on duty at another bank in the city centre. Detectives also raided a Kariobangi garage on Saturday where the van that was used in the robbery was built and painted and arrested the proprietor and an employee.
They later arrested two more people at the house in Buru Buru. ''We have arrested five people, including an AP officer who hired out his uniform to the fraudsters who escorted the vehicle that was used to steal the money from Co-operative Bank. The officer is one of two APs we have been trailing because we have reports that they escorted the thieves to the bank. He was taken to court, but we are still holding four others who were directly involved in the theft''; Mr Katola told the Sunday Nation.
A long period Police believe the arrested suspects will lead them to where the rest of the Sh80 million is hidden. Detectives have since established that in addition to the 13 in custody, there are more people involved in the theft at large.
Detectives retracing the gang's steps have so far established that members had meticulously planned the heist over a long period. They first identified a van that was taken to a garage in Kariobangi where it was reassembled to look like a G4S Cash-In-Transit (CIT) van, painted blue and then later branded with G4S logos in the city centre.
The masterminds then obtained two uniforms and a rifle from AP officers that were used by the men who posed as security escorts. Three other men dressed in uniforms similar to those worn by G4S employees walked in with the officers'' With the help of some of the bank's staff, the gang obtained information on the time the Sh80 million was to be collected from the bank by G4S CIT personnel and taken to ATMs around the city centre.
Posing as a CIT team from G4S, the gang then entered the Co-operative Bank headquarters on Haile Selassie Avenue on the morning of September 30, gathered the Sh80 million and drove off with it to Matumbato Road in Upper Hill. They parked, unloaded the loot from the van and stashed it into an unmarked vehicle. Police in Kisumu recovered Sh1.25 million, believed to be part of the Sh80 million, on the Ahero-Katitu road in Nyakach last Sunday.
Five bank managers, two G4S employees and a former CID officer are among those who have been arrested and charged at a Kibera court.
allAfrica.com: Kenya: Suspects Reveal Details of Sh80 Million Bank Heist
