HARARE – A gang of 12 armed robbers stole US$716,340 cash after breaking into the offices of a financial services company in Harare and blowing up safes, police said on Tuesday.
Six suspects have been arrested and are due to appear in court on Wednesday.
The incident happened at around 1.30AM on Sunday at Quest Financial Services on Rochester Road in Belgravia.
The company was operating a money transfer service and bureau de change out of a residential property converted to business premises. The company has other branches in central Harare and in major cities.
National police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said: “Preliminary investigations show that there was a leakage of information from insiders to the criminals.”
The robbers armed with at least two guns, bolt cutters, drilling machines and explosives scaled a perimeter fence and broke into the house where a 47-year-old gardener was sleeping in a backroom.
They tied his hands and feet before rummaging through the offices. They stole two cash boxes and three HP laptops before blowing up a safe and stealing all the money inside which they loaded into a plastic bag.
The blasting alerted neighbours who called Safe Guard, the security company used by Quest.
As the guards parked in front of the building, said police, the gang used a back exit and broke down perimeter wall panels before fleeing.
The security guards found US$5,000 which was dropped by the fleeing armed robbers. It was discovered that one of the three safes had been blown open. Explosives had been planted on a second safe which were not detonated, it is believed because of the arrival of the responding security guards.
A manager told police that Quest had received US$400,000 on Friday, February 23, from their bankers Capital Bank for onward distribution to the company’s clients. Guards from Real Star Security company had made the drop.
Law enforcement sources told ZimLive that close to US$100,000 in cash has been recovered.
