Police recapture escapee accused of K1.2mil armed robbery

The National National

A PRISON escapee accused of armed robbery and detained for a K1.2 million heist was recaptured by members of the NCD Armed Robbery Squad at Gerehu in Port Moresby.
Police detectives attached to the robbery squad spotted Joel Taha Ruana, alias Taiveri, drinking liquor near a shop at Gerehu on Nov 3.
He ran away from police who chased and captured him.
NCD Met Supt Perou N’dranou commended the detectives for their efforts in capturing Taiveri who he said allegedly committed other crimes, including car-jackings and armed robbery while on the run for the last three years.
Taiveri, from the Central, escaped from the Waigani Committal Court premises when he was being taken to court for his alleged part in the K1.2 million robbery at Jackson Airport in 2016.
According to police records, in 2016 several gunmen held up employees of a logging company at the Tropic Air hanger at Jackson Airport and made off with K1.2 million in cash contained in a trunk.
N’dranou said the money was destined for logging operations in Kimbe in West New Britain and Baimuru in Gulf when it was robbed.
Four others involved in the same crime were arrested, charged, prosecuted and are now awaiting sentencing. N’dranou said of late the NCD robbery squad had been working hard to pin down a number of suspects involved in various robberies around the city, but public cooperation was proving difficult.
“People are not volunteering to give information to police and this is really discouraging.
“In some cases, people are only divulging information to police when they become victims of crime or when they have vested interest in a particular police matter. This attitude must change because everyone is or can be a victim of crime at any time and as such the public and police must work together to fight and discourage crime,” N’dranou said.
N’dranou appealed to Port Moresby residents to voluntarily provide information on crime to the police by contacting the police operations centre on telephone 3244 331 or 3244 330.