Casino gang strike, but police expect to nail them
September 05, 2005 Edition 2
Alex Eliseev
Police are hunting 12 armed robbers who stormed the Emperors Palace casino, holding several employees hostage.
In the latest of a series of armed raids on Gauteng malls and casinos, the gunmen stormed into the Kempton Park casino at 5.30am yesterday and made off with a trolley with a “substantial”, but undisclosed, amount of cash.
The robbers did not open fire and no one was injured.
On Friday, armed robbers hit the First National Bank branch at Johannesburg’s Rosebank Mall, leaving empty-handed after they killed a guard and wounded two others who had tried to stop them.
On August 22, six gunmen went on the rampage at the Sandton Sun hotel, leaving five bystanders injured and making off with jewellery.
In March, eight robbers armed with AK-47s sprayed the inside of the Gold Reef City casino with bullets before making off with a cash box.
North Rand police spokesperson Superintendent Eugene Opperman said they would investigate to see whether the same gang was behind all the heists.
He said the robbers held up the staff handling the trolley and then “took them with” until they got to their getaway vehicle.
Police found the getaway car abandoned about a kilometre away, with a gun and some of the money inside.
“We have studied the CCTV footage and believe we will have an early breakthrough,” said Opperman. The North Rand Serious and Violent Crime Unit was investigating.
The casino’s management referred all inquiries to police.
Other casino heists in Gauteng have included:
n In February 2001, 23 men armed with AK-47s, handguns and hammers burst into Montecasino at Fourways and sprayed the place with bullets before making off with a huge haul of jewels and cash.
Witnesses described being forced to lie down for almost 10 minutes while the men went on a window-breaking, store-to-store rampage.
At least three jewellery stores were cleaned out.
After what Montecasino’s general manager Gavin Rimmer at the time described as “a well-planned operation, carried out with military precision”, security was beefed up at the entertainment centre.
