Police arrest three in weekend armed robbery

It was a brazen armed robbery in an upscale Belize City neighbourhood, but today police told the media that the case was quickly cracked and the perpetrators have been arrested.

Jacqueline Godwin, Reporting
Belize City police strongly believe the proprietor of the Tequila Bar, fifty-one year old Derek Nisbet may have been followed for days before the businessman was attacked and then forcibly taken inside his residence by two armed masked men around four on Saturday morning.

Aaron Guzman, O.C., C.I.B., Belize City
“Jackie, we have reason to believe that it may not have only been the night or the morning that the incident occurred that Mister Nisbet was followed but he may have been followed on different occasion. From the way that this crime was perpetrated it is obvious that on the specific morning that the incident occurred yes, he was followed.”

“Mister Nisbet was assaulted. I won’t get into the details of the assault but he was assaulted and he was forcibly taken inside his house where the items were stolen and they ransacked his house.”

Two days after they are accused of committing the horrible crime, Hilberto Gallego, Deon Richards and Giovanni Lauriano were arrested and charged for two counts of aggravated burglary and theft of motor vehicle.

Aaron Guzman
“Mister Nisbet was tied up. His son later came and he was tied up also and the culprits went on to ransack the house and they relieved Mister Nisbet of some five thousand plus dollars and his son had some monies at home, some two thousand plus that was stolen. Different items were taken from the house including some jewellery that were inside the premises, jewellery that was Mister Nisbet and his son, their watches which are expensive watches; cameras were stolen and importantly four firearms were stolen from Mister Nisbet.”

Jacqueline Godwin
“These are licensed firearms?”

Aaron Guzman
“These are licensed firearms, licensed firearms; a rifle, a shotgun and two handguns.”

“When the culprits left the residence with all the items they had taken they also took Mister Nisbet’s Mitsubishi L200-I believe it is a 2002 Pickup truck-with the items inside, they put them inside that they had stolen and they took his laptop computer that was in the vehicle and other documents that is his personal documents for his business place. But, yes we later recovered the vehicle about, I’d say three and a half hours after the incident we recovered the vehicle.”

Police also recovered this vehicle believed to have been used to transport the robbers and all of the stolen items once they abandoned Nisbet’s vehicle in the Button Wood Bay area. Further investigation then led cops to recover a small amount of the stolen cash.

Aaron Guzman
“I must say that cooperation from the public has helped us to follow certain tips and leads and as a result I believe it was about by midday Saturday we had in custody the first two fellows the other gentleman was sometime late Saturday evening.”

According to the officer in charge of C.I.B Belize City, Assistant Superintendent Aaron Guzman it is very likely that other people may be involved.

Aaron Guzman
“I would hope that Belizeans realize that the police cannot recover anything or make a good case unless we get cooperation from the public at large so I’ll ask that nobody purchase any of these stolen items and if there is any information there from anyone that could lead us to the recovery of these items if they could call us because you wouldn’t like that you would be the person to lose your valuables.”

The stolen jewellery and other items valued at over seven thousand dollars include a gold chain and medal, a gold and silver Tag Heuer wrist watch with blue face, a silver Pulsar watch with a red and blue face, a Toshiba laptop computer, an Ipod, and a Canon camera. The stolen licensed firearms include a Winchester twelve gauge shotgun, a Remington point twenty-two rifle, and a nine millimetre handgun.