The Liberia National Police has charged and sent to court seven persons in connection to an alleged burglary that took place at the H & A Corporation where over US$300,000 worth of goods were stolen.
Following the arrest which was initiated by the Major Crime Division of the LNP, the seven suspects have been charged with criminal conspiracy, criminal facilitation and theft of property respectively.
The seven persons including a private security guard of Vigilant Security and a female staff of H & A were arrested by the Liberia National Police (LNP) in connection to an alleged burglary at the H & A Corporation located in Clara Town, which resulted to the disappearance of several goods totaling to US$354,754.61.
Appearing at the St. Paul Magisterial Court over the weekend, the seven suspects were acquainted with their Miranda rights and were also reminded that under the laws of Liberia they are entitled to legal representation as well as the filing of a valid criminal appearance bond.
It can be recalled that seven suspects were arrested last week following an investigation by the Major Crimes Division of the LNP into complaint over the disappearance of several valuable items which were kept at the entity’s warehouse directly behind the building hosting the Guarantee Trust Bank in Clara Town.
According to the entity, they later realized that several of their valuables were missing after taking stock of all materials stored in the warehouse.
The immediate stock-taking process was initiated after receiving a tipoff that several of their goods were being sold at low cost on the black market.
The company indicated that some customers had openly agitated that they (H & A Corp.) have refused to lower the prices of their goods while the very branded-goods are being purchased outside for reasonable amount.
Based on the responses from customers, the company decided to do a background check and take an inventory of all the goods in stock, but they soon realized that a huge consignment worth of goods have gone missing without any sign of breakage at the warehouse.
Following such shocking update, the company immediately alerted the private security firm of which one of its guards is being assigned, but the effort proved futile as the firm never showed up until the case was formally reported to the Liberia National Police to launch a full-scale investigation into circumstances that led to the disappearance of their goods amounting to over US$200,000.
Those sent to court are Varney Browne, a fellow who allegedly keeps the stolen materials at his St. Paul Bridge residence, Roland Kennedy, the Private Security supervisor, David Collins, Leviticus Kerkulah, Nuttu Keita (the alleged buyer of the stolen materials) and Madison Willie (the driver who allegedly operates a gray Nissan Pathfinder jeep during the night hours of their operations).
One of the suspects, Jallah Seaker, an alleged member of the team is at large while police have retrieved several thousand worth of the stolen materials.
Majority of the materials retrieved according to an LNP source were discovered at a shop belonging to one of the suspects, Nuttu Keita, who allegedly runs similar business in the Clara Town, Bushrod Island vicinity. A total of 96 different items including generators, batteries, lubricants, engine oil amongst others were recorded missing.
According to police sources, the suspected criminals admitted that they regularly tampered with the warehouse’s lock during separate times of the burglary incidents.
Additionally, police sources disclosed that the cartel has been operating since January of 2022 but was recently noticed by the company’s hierarchy. Writes D. Webster Cassell
