Police focused on gang of local robbery suspects
(CNS): Detectives working on the long list of armed robbery investigations have honed in on what Police Commissioner Derek Byrne has said is around ten local suspects in a loosely affiliated crime gang. The police believe that these men are behind most of the recent stick-ups across Grand Cayman over the last three months. Since August, police have been working on almost two dozen unsolved robberies and muggings but Detective Superintendent Peter Lansdown said officers were now closing in on the culprits.
At a press briefing about the current crime spike, held in the RCIPS headquarters on Thursday, Lansdown explained that detectives are painstakingly piecing together hours and hours of CCTV footage to track the movements of the suspects to get the evidence needed to arrest and then charge the men responsible for these armed heists at shops, restaurants and gambling dens, as well as on the street.
He said it can take a long time to put together the footage to reveal the identity of these robbers, who are “forensically aware” and using masks, hoods, long sleeves and gloves to cover up.
Police have also seen “three cars constantly in the picture”, the commissioner said. All of these are Hondas but the robbers are stealing number plates from other vehicles and using a different one each time they commit a crime. Two of those cars have now been now seized but a third silver Honda is still out there being used in these heists.
At least two of the suspects in the latest incidents have been charged with other crimes, including a previous robbery, but officers are close to securing the evidence they need to arrest several more, Lansdown told the press.
Byrne said that this group of at least ten local men were all known to the police and most of them have served time in prison, some having been recently released. He said that the police were focused on securing the evidence needed to charge and remand the culprits in custody.
Of the 23 incidents since August that the RCIPS are classifying as robberies, at least 20 involved firearms, including one where a long gun was used to threaten the victims, he said. However, despite the presence of a gun in most of the robberies, no shots have been fired in any of the cases.
It seems that in each case the robbers are focused on cash and have targetted ten retail establishments and six illegal gambling locations. The other incidents are largely more opportunistic street muggings, where the robbers have grabbed phones or jewellery from people on the street or sitting in cars.
The RCIPS has “significantly increased” the visible and covert patrols of officers, Byrne said, adding that with the busy pre-Christmas commercial period now beginning, businesses are even more vulnerable. He urged people to be careful and vigilant, to reduce on the amount of cash they have on their premises and ensure that any CCTV systems they have are in good working order.
“Don’t make it profitable for people to engage in the robberies they have been committing,” the commissioner urged. He asked people in the community to come forward with any information they have and reminded everyone that it is an offence to help people who have committed a crime.
Deputy Commissioner Kurt Walton said he wanted to reassure the public that they can have trust and confidence that the RCIPS is being proactive and working hard behind the scenes to track down those responsible. He said they were doing everything they could to bring these people to justice. “We are doing everything we possibly can, but obviously, we need evidence,” he said.
As an example of the proactive work the RCIPS is undertaking, Walton noted that so far this year, the firearms unit has recovered 15 illegal guns from the streets.
- Fascinated
- Happy
- Sad
- Angry
- Bored
- Afraid
Don’t worry good people of Cayman. The Police Service Commission have gifted you 5 talented Superintendents. What could possibly go wrong.
It is not Byrne who the critism should be aimed at but the head of CID Lansdown the man has been a clueless failure.
Byrne was very effective at carrying out the lock down order. Great at threatening the entire public with prosecution for violating these anti human laws.
But when it comes to real crime he sits on his duff like every Gestopo before him.
Yep!
Only against foreigners. Ministers wife, no problem, parent a senior civil servant, no problem, drug runner, no problem, American or Canadian, jail time.
I obviously am from a different generation and experience than you. Calling this man a ‘Gestopo’ is simply naive to what the (correct spelling) Gestapo did. You obviously do not have the education, understanding or life-experience to understand what the Nazi Gestapo did. Very sad you ever brought this term up! Please get educated before you type!
Come on now RCIPS ( hmm those letters gonna work on them soon).
Listen up you can’t catch robbers because the people don’t trust you because you go and blabber the names of informants, the crooks get wind if it and send their people to threaten the whisperers FACT.
How about bringing in some undercover assets to infiltrate the areas of known criminality , oh that can’t work huh ? Well it worked previously of course john public doesn’t know , and shouldn’t know.
All we are saying is we need better policing techniques ir the cadre of youse need to depart. Much sooner than later. Serious serious.
Autocratic manager who simply Carry’s out the government of the days wishes. Investigations are not his thing.
Small group of about 10 locals?just like the small groups of people meeting up who were not gangs the church said.
They were never all caught and neither will these ex prisoners most of them no doubt im almost scared to go in any store if its not a massive food store. Or a big store in town or Camana
Get a grip folks .
Yes. What about the recent Brac robberies? Are they insignificant? Well, yes, if we only care about Grand-Cayman-gone-bad. The Brac is where we were 15 years ago. If we let the Brac go, then we have no place to flee to on holiday, not to mention that we will have lost something pure.
Good Point…
Pay the Officers well who travel to work in the Brac & Little.
Ridiculous. There are no visible police patrols, you know who these ten criminals are and you ask people to be self aware and not carry valuables and have their own cctv. How about for once we see bobbies on the beat walking the streets, you lock these criminals up, and do your job. All I see police here do is try to make money stopping rich expats and fining them for minor speed limit breeches when driving safely. Do your job and keep cayman safe for once.
The cops don’t want to deal with real criminals. It isn’t safe.
It was like 15 yrs ago when top cop said we know that there only 5 handguns illegally in cayman.
Yeah well if u can count them u must know who/where they are
23 incidents and 3 months later we finally received an update as to what the heck is going on….smh!
Ok look … we have illegal landers here. Alot of them are roaming our streets. Plus, illegal landers that we don’t even know if they are here. So, we have a serious issue. It involves our borders and more government aid to Customs and Border Control.
Is this Donald Trump talking?
Did you read the article? 10 people the RCIP know are locals indigenous.
Define indigenous
“Police focused”, is the first lie.
Poor Pete is in over his head.
RCIPS “closing in” on the robbers??! LOL!!
If they manage to make an arrest, it lasts a few days, then release on Police bail, then nothing more! No charges follow.
The few times when charges follow, the cases are so weak that DPP fails to convict.
Robbers back at large and emboldened!!
These low life scum are the winners.
We are a civilized place of laws, respect for the justice process, regard for the innocent until proven guilty, human rights and yada yada yada.
Meanwhile these imported POS are laughing at us.
Make the punishment harsh and severe and you’ll see some respect for the law. Why do you think that Singapore does not have a drug trade…death sentence. Why do the Emirates not have a crime problem.?
Change the punishments and follow through.
Instead of bringing the legal system of Singapore and the Emirates to Cayman, why don’t you simply go live there?
The thumbs down here are very telling. Cayman is a cesspool and it wants to be that way! This territory is beyond hope. I cry for what I saw in 1984.
Cesspool you say huh , we’ll I’ve seen much worse in your sophisticated countries snd I’ve seen them all, From th north yo the south and east snd west. We bad but no where half as bad as in some of those odious cities.
Lol. Ive seen plenty of crime in the cest pit of the middle east. Qatar nr 1.
Saudi and uae right behind. All of the 7 emirates. Even sharjah. I reckon u should kove there.
Despite the headline CNS, IMO the likelihood of RCIPS stemming this alarming trend any time soon is looking kind of blurry.
This will take some hard field work, something that our force of desk jockeys and cruiser zombies aren’t known for.
So I guess in true Keystone Cops fashion it’ll be swarmed by every division leaving other important duties like traffic less enforced than it already is.
RCIPS found the several pounds of cocaine and ganja stolen from the secure lock up at GT Central yet? Did anybody get suspended or fired?
This is another reason why the public lost confidence in the Cayman’s keystone cops.
Has anybody been suspended or fired for the poor dog who died?
no! because cmr publicly blamed the wrong person!
Has anybody been suspended or fired for failing to make Jon Jon take a breathalyzer?
Nah! You know that aint gonna happen.
the nationalist language used in the Cayman Islands recently, particularly since pact came in, is reflective of the world in general, with countries becoming more introverted and seeking to find someone to blame for a countries woes. its must easier than looking at oneself critically. of course the muppets currently representing the people are blameless and doing what’s best for the majority. yeah right.
Quite interesting indeed on this ongoing saga only thing missing is the perpetrators having a nickname like the “Slippery Bandits” or maybe the “Disappearing Honda Naughty Boys”. Hey Petey pass me the Corn Pops.
So stop releasing them? Lock em up for good this time. Pricks!
And deport the expats! It is an outrage that the police keep releasing known foreign criminals back onto our streets. If you do not have enough to convict, hand them over to CBC. Bad character is all it takes to get a work permit revoked!
Sounds like you’re from the Make Cayman Great Again Party.
No. Just someone who knows and understands Cayman Law and also knows that too many of those in charge either do not understand it or refuse to implement it. Ignorance or ineptitude prevail. Either way, Cayman suffers – as do all who live or visit here.
no respect for the police-farce after the jon-jon incident.
Took you that long?
“The RCIPS has “significantly increased” the visible and covert patrols of officers”
LMAO, is he delusional, deranged or just a complete mug and being lied to by his staff?
Please comment below how many police officers you have seen in the last few weeks, even just police cars.
Drive to East End from West Bay and back any weekend and you’re likely to not see a single patrol the entire time.
Where the hell are all these patrols? We are 25th in the world on the list of police officers per 100k. Where the hell are they?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_number_of_police_officers
I counted only 4 police officers at Pirates Week festival on Saturday. I regularly take long drives and hardly ever see police officers.
The only police I ever see are when they are sitting in Lime Tree Bay parking lot or just in front of Lloyd’s on West Bay road when they are trying to catch speeders. Yet I still regularly see people speeding on the highways.
YOU counted only 4 police officers…. did it ever occur to you, Mensanaught, that there were a dozen or more undercover officers on the scene, and many others in cars around the area? No? Didn’t think so.
Imagine believing that nobody would notice the 6ft 4inch Jamaican walking around super seriously during an event of enjoyment wouldn’t stand out like a sore thumb!
They had the Filipinos do the job for them, probably Security Centre, all dressed up like they are police officers because the Canadians, less likely Yanks, think the way they do things is best.
HOAs, Stratas, Security guards dressed up like action man, minorities working for them for minimum wage (appliance centre, building contractors etc).
This country is quite literally, and I mean literally, the only Western, 1st world place where slavery is for all intents is legal. Nowhere else in the planet (look at Quatar) do we accept the fact that people with no work, on barely minimum wage, that have the threat of deportation looming over their heads without criticism.
Slavery never left. We are an extension of the US South and Jim Bodden would attest to that, had he not been a frankly horrible man that learned his trade from Miami… You know, the arm pit of America.
you need help.
Like he said, they are covert and undercover…..LMAO!
Hope he checks their status papers
“Sad deluded bastard of the week” comment, 9:17. I guess you believe we Caymanians aren’t smart enough or are too lazy and unreliable to carry out these crimes?
‘The RCIPS has “significantly increased” the visible and covert patrols of officers’ – surely this is just a direct lie! Unless they are all ‘covert’. The only officers I ever see are in their cars in the Fosters carpark.
….or Police SUV taking up a parking space at GT post office at 11.30am on Friday so could not get to PO Box. How far is GT police station to GT post office especially with roads closed and traffic bad enough on Friday. What would you like me to do with your license plate number, send it to the Police?
In relation to this spate of robberies, I wonder if RCIPS is checking their own work rosters and activities of their own off-duty “officers”?
At least to rule them out?
Thanks for running this. As a former officer, it’s tiresome seeing armchair commentators dishing out the advice. It’s obvious they know who has been doing this, but gathering the evidence takes time. It’s not a 2 hour Hollywood movie, and montages don’t really exist in criminal justice.
If community members chimed in, even anonymously, it would be a big step.
I’m only talking about serious crime by the way. I fully acknowledge that the policing of the roads is terrible!
except we are afriad of the same cops you ask us to tell info too. we know too much about how they will sell us out to the criminals and then even intimidate witnesses.
if they patrolled the roads better I bet they’d get some of these losers.
Genuinely. You can submit information anonymously, you don’t need to leave a name or number, but please pass it on. Intelligence received is looked at and assessed. Name comes up a lot? great, let the investigation proceed with a trawl of CCTV, cell phone tower pings etc. You don’t need to record a statement.
Traffic policing cuts and eliminates other crime too. If cops were actually out in those fancy patrol cars we bought them, patrolling with their eyes open, challenging all of the traffic law infractions on the books, even if limited to defined high priority security and threat “beats”, there would be radically less opportunistic violent crime too, because an interception response would be much more probable in seconds rather than quarters of hours. However, the criminals know the cops are disinclined to do anything beyond Purple Ribbon season beyond cashing their paycheques, that policing for the day generally ends before midnight, which gives them the latitude and opportunistic discretion to roll the dice and win every bet they make.
And how about turning off the blue warning lights so the criminals can’t scurry away like the cockroaches they are?
Those blue warning lights on top that are clearly visible from a mile away – who came up with that idea? And who approved it? That is one of the very dumbest of ideas!
lol, you’ve been watching too much US TV!
maybe you have been watching too much Fox.
When MLA’s don’t get brethalysed when they wrap their cars round cuc poles in the middle of the night it’s pretty obvious the police can’t be trusted. Don’t underestimate the damage events like that do to the public’s trust in RCIPS. It is no surprise to me at all that the community is not helping.
Community Members chiming in would help ? You must be joking.
https://caymannewsservice.com/2022/10/cop-still-not-charged-for-helping-killer/
I don’t want any “pot bellied police officer” threatening me with death if I do so.
But but but the CMR crowd said it was these pesky illegal foreign workers who should be deported. Now what they gonna do when it’s one of their own? No doubt it will be everyone else’s fault they went bad. Poor Caymanians who couldn’t get a job because of the foreigners with their work permits. Caymankind!
Excuse me! It behooves me to say your comment is deeply offensive and has a lot of negative energy. On the contrary Caymanians are highly regarded worldwide and are trailblazers in new innovations and development. Nibble on those apples bobo.
Highly regarded armed robbers? Indeed those apples taste sour bobo! 🤡
You all itching for a fight huh fareinets, be careful what you itch fa!
Your dislikes indicate your thoughts are… Poor.
Out of interest what are these new (sic) innovations and developments?
marinated conch Bo & the mudslide, eat your fingers off boy. On a more serious note, Caymanians are awesome! The native people of the Americas were primitive savages and made awful slaves according to some. Turns out 500 years later, their environment practices and respect for it was the key all along. Moral of the story, come off that high 🐴 and appreciate other peoples points of view. You might discover that they are a bit more skilled and a lot less lucky or fortunate than you convinced yourself they are because they see thing differently.Many of these advisory firms have staff paid to see things differently, if you would. Try to approach it from that analytical angle.