The Police & Public Prosecutor’s Office held a press conference with the media of St.Maarten to inform them and the general public alike, of the recent robberies and other criminal acts that have been presently taken place on St.Maarten. The Police & Public Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the solving of the robberies and other criminal acts and stated that thus far the robbers were all local persons.
The following is the press statement released by the Police & Public Prosecutor’s Office:
Ladies and gentlemen of the press!
We have invited you here this afternoon because we can announce that in recent weeks Police and Public Prosecutor’s Office have solved a string of serious crimes that have caused a great feeling of insecurity on this island. We considered it fit to inform the public about these crimes and the fact that the main suspects have been arrested and are in custody.
However we will not be able answer any questions because the investigation is still ongoing and we are trying to solve as many crimes as we can.
Yet this is such important news, that we chose to invite you to share this news with us.
The 8 suspects, varying in age between 19 and 26, that were arrested the past few weeks are all persons from Sint Maarten. They were working in small groups in these various serious crimes that were committed.
The Public Prosecutors’ Office and the Police Department joined all forces in gathering evidence and thus solving these cases. A total of twelve detectives were assigned to these cases and worked alongside detectives of the Marechaussee.
1. The first case that we would like to mention is the Maho Reef Investigation.
In the early morning hours of Saturday October 16th 2010 the lifeless body of the man who later turned out to be Wouter Romeijn, was found on the Friendly Island Boulevard in Maho Reef. The investigation into this case showed that earlier that evening, three suspects of the ages 20,
21 and 24 years old, had forcefully abducted the victim, robbing him of all personal belongings and ill-treating him on the road between Maho Reef and Atlantis Casino.
The victim was beaten and thrown into the trunk of the stolen car the group of suspects were using. The intention of the suspects was to take the victim to a "cash point"(cash machine) and force him to withdraw cash from his bank account by using his debit or credit cards.
However it never reached to that. The victim apparently managed to free himself from the trunk and fell out of the fast driving car. The results of the autopsy showed that the victim had suffered severe bodily harm causing the death of the victim, Wouter Romeijn.
2. Further investigation showed that around midnight of October 15th and 16th 2010 five suspects robbed a couple of their rental car in the vicinity of Marigot. The suspects used violence and threatened the victims with a gun. A witness who tried to stop the suspects, was shot at twice. The car that was stolen was used not long there after for the abduction of Wouter Romeijn.
Other cases that were investigated and that were committed by this group are:
3. An armed robbery on October 21st 2010 at a home in Point Blanche.
While the caretaker of that residence, a Haitian national, was asleep at the time, three unknown men forcefully gained access to the house. The victim was struck on the head with a solid object. He was taken to another bedroom, covered with a blanket and a knife was put to his throat.
His life was threatened while part of the household, such as a safe and a flat screen television were taken.
4. A robbery in the Cay Hill area on October 12th 2010.
While driving in his car the victim in this case was blocked by two other cars. Suspects exited their vehicles and approached the victim.
Maize was sprayed in his face and then he was robbed of all personal belongings such as wallet, cellular telephone, passport and clothing.
The vehicle the victim was driving was also taken.
5. An armed robbery on October 10th 2010 in Dawn Beach area.
The victims, while driving in their car, were overtaken by the suspects.
The suspects’ vehicle stopped in front of the victim’s car. The suspects’ vehicle was then intentionally reversed into the victim’s car. At the same time four suspects walked to the victim’s car while throwing a stone through the window and pulling the driver out of the car. The female victim saw a fire arm. The male victim received blows to his head and body. Their money, I-phones, handbags and cellular telephones were stolen.
6. An armed robbery at Guana Bay on October 12th 2010 Four American tourists were staying together in an apartment. They were asleep when three men armed with knives forced their way into the building. They attempted to cover the mouth of one of the victims with tape. A physical confrontation took place between another victim and two of the robbers. He was severely beaten by the robbers. A rental car, an envelop containing U.S.$ 900.- cellular telephones, camera and binoculars were taken from the apartment. After the robbers left the apartment the victims heard several gun shots going off. The security officer stated later that four suspects were seen leaving the property and that one of them had a rifle in his hand.
7. Armed robbery in Cole Bay on October 10th 2010 The victim dropped a friend off at home and waited for a while in front of the house waiting for the friend to bring her a glass of water.
At the same time a car stopped behind that of the victim blocking her from driving away. Two suspects stepped out of the car and began pounding with a gun on the hood of the victim’s car, demanding her to open the door, which she finally did. The victim’s bag and telephone were stolen. The other robber attempted to gain access to the friend’s apartment by pulling on the door, but was unsuccessful.
As further investigations shows, this group of suspects has also been involved in various break-ins in the Pointe Blanche and Guana bay areas. Stolen cars were used as transportation to and from the crime scene.
Currently investigation into the involvement of the suspects into several other crimes on the island is ongoing.
The Public Prosecutors’ Office and the Police are convinced that with the arrest of these 8 suspects further crime by these men has been prevented.
This intensive and extensive investigation was conducted while several other crimes caught the public’s attention. Since these were also serious crimes the Police were forced to divide their limited attention to these crimes too.
For example The Public Prosecutors’ Office together with the Police department have paid much attention to several cases which in first instance seemed to be quite serious. Such as a recent case in the Dawn Beach area, in which a suspect claimed to have been a victim of an armed robbery and then was locked in the trunk of his car. An in depth investigation done by detectives, resulted in the conclusion that no robbery had taken place and that the suspect had fabricated the story and had taken the money for personal use. Yet, the information that another "trunk case" took place shortly after the Maho case, resulted in a broadly felt feeling of insecurity. Therefore the Police were glad having been able to establish that the latter case was a fabricated story. The suspect nevertheless was arrested and was dealt with.
Around that same period a telephone call came to the Police department informing them that two young women had been abducted by several young men after a night out. They were allegedly kept against their will in a house in the Pointe Blanche area. The reports seemed to be serious that a special team was put together to coordinate the large police effort that was involved in investigating this case.
After two days of intense investigation, it showed that the story was fabricated by one of the young girls. This young lady has been in custody for questioning and then released. The police department believes that this young lady is in dire need of psychiatric attention and hopes she gets that real soon.
Although these two examples in the end showed that nothing serious had occurred, yet coming to these results had gone to great cost and effort by both Police and prosecutors.
In a nutshell these are the results so far of these intensive Police investigations. It took a joint effort of the departments involved in these investigations to come to this these results. If the ongoing investigations will show further remarkable results, this will be forwarded to the press and the public as soon as possible. Since the investigations are still ongoing and prosecution likely will follow, we are not in a position to divulge any further information about the investigation and the cases presented. We count on your understanding with respect to that.
The Police and the Prosecutor’s Office are proud of all men and woman who contributed with relentless efforts to solving these cases that have troubled the public so much and want to thank them for their great achievement.
The Public Prosecutors’ Office and the Police Department also want to express their gratitude to the general public and in particular those persons who in some way have contributed to the achievement of these results.