Police note change in money couriers operations

However, there is “room for improvement” cautioned the chief commanding officer of the division during a quarterly virtual town hall meeting on Sunday.

Since the start of the year a new crime trend has emerged with criminals targeting armoured couriers contracted by large financial institutions.

Heavily armed gangsters have managed to  successfully ambush security crews in-transit, pulling off some of the most daring heists ever witness on the island.

Three of these heists occurred within the jurisdiction of the St Catherine South Police Division with SSP Phillips appealing for greater collaboration with the business community and security companies.

Asked by Old Harbour News to provide an update regarding his calls made months ago, the senior crime fighter says: “Since those attacks I can say that we have more persons reaching out to us in terms of seeking our additional support when handling or dealing with large sums of cash, but there is still room for improvement though.

“We have observed that some of the couriers they have changed their operational approach in some regard, but there are still areas of weaknesses in some of those approaches that they still have to be mindful of because the moment you start to do pick-ups you have to remember that gangs and their players are out there observing these space, seeking out an opportunity. Once you start to do a pick-up somewhere, you are being watched. You have several pick-ups in a small space you are being watched. You still have to target hard and strengthen your operational approach and I think we are still observing some weakness in those operations.

“But notwithstanding the JCF has responded in a very effective way though with some of those main players who carried out the Beryllium attack being taken into custody… and I know the investigation continues around those. But we would still want to appeal to those persons to seek the support of the police in a timely way.”

Last week it was reported that a private security team thwarted an attack by armed gunmen in Manchester, injuring one of the guards.  The gunmen escaped, however.