A drug and people smuggling gang may have stolen three luxury powerboats, worth over $500,000, in a daring raid at the millionaire resort of Treasure Cay.
The thieves broke into seven luxury houses to steal security keys for the boats and then made off into the night.
North Abaco’s chief district councillor, Stephen Pedican said he believed the thieves might have operated out of Freeport and probably intend using the craft for either drug trafficking or human smuggling.
“It is believed that individuals might have come from Freeport to steal these boats for human smuggling or drug trafficking,” said Mr Pedican. “Sometime last week, we had here in Treasure Cay seven homes broken into, where thieves attempted to steal seven boats.
These boats are valued in excess of $150,000 per boat. They (the thieves) got away with three boats”
According to Mr Pedican, “residents on the Cay do not feel safe and feel as though they are not getting the full cooperation of the police.
Annual Event
“Residents on the Cay believe as though there is incompetence on behalf of the police force,” said Mr Pedican. “To date, the police have been unable to recover any of these boats. The residents here in Treasure Cay are very concerned about this because this is not the first time this has happened.
It seems like each year, we have a number of expensive boats that are stolen and they are never recovered.”
Mr Pedican said officers on Treasure Cay left the island to go to Freeport to look around for the boats and reportedly found some of the vessels, which were missing from last year.
“These three boats that were stolen, we had officers leave Treasure Cay and go to Freeport to look around. My understanding is that they came across some boats that were stolen from last year,” said Mr Pedican.
Police Protecting Thieves?
However, he said an owner of one of the luxury boats was warned by a law enforcement official in Freeport, to stay out of the investigation and not participate in the identification of his first boat, which was stolen.
“One of the owners whose boat got stolen for the second time, went to Freeport to ID a boat about a year ago but he said that an officer in Freeport told him that he couldn’t come to ID the boat because he could be shot in the process,” said Mr Pedican.
According to the North Abaco chief councillor, it has been rumoured that one of the individuals who was asked by the authorities where he got the boat from, said that he had purchased, the boat from an Inspector on the Police Force.
Mr Pedican said he believed that this information might hinder the police from diligently pursuing leads into the matter.
“This incriminates a police officer. So now I guess this thing takes another turn,” said Mr Pedican.
However, Mr Pedican said the residents in Treasure Cay do not feel safe and are losing hope that law enforcement officials will be able to stop these bandits before someone gets killed or hurt – as they may be armed.
The Guardian tried to reach ASP Wayne Miller, who is responsible for crime matters in Abaco but was unable to reach him up to press time.
By LASHONNE OUTTEN Guardian Staff Reporter
