Claude Mills, Staff ReporterTHE POLICE have launched a hunt for two men who staged a multi-million dollar robbery at the Shoppers Fair Supermarket in the Portmore Plaza, St. Catherine, yesterday morning.
Reports from the Constabu-lary Communication Network (CCN) say that at about 8:30 a.m. a security guard opened the door to allow a worker to leave the building. Two men who were in hiding reportedly forced their way inside.
One of the men, brandishing a gun, held up the security guard and the store manager. The men then robbed the supermarket of cash amounting to $1.5 million before escaping on foot.
This is the third major robbery at the Portmore Plaza since the start of the year, but Inspector Aston Pollack of the Greater Portmore Police Operations Division said crime is "basically stable in Portmore."
"There is no flare up in crime. There are incidents from time to time, but major crimes are almost down to zero in Portmore. There has been almost nothing happening over the last three weeks," he continued.
Yesterday, police mounted roadblocks in the area and scoured the surrounding communities in search of the perpetrators, said Inspector Pollack.
In February this year, three men and a woman made off with more than $800,000 after they surprised the manager and three other workers at the Portmore branch of Churches Co-operative Credit Union Limited.
The credit union was robbed again in May by three men and a woman. In that incident the robbers engaged a security guard in a shoot out before making good their escape.
There have been other major robberies in this south eastern St. Catherine community in recent years. In June 1997 two of four armed robbers who staged a daring daylight hold up at Michelle's Jewellery Supply in the Port Henderson Plaza were shot by police who arrived on the scene as the robbers left the store.
In November 1995 three gunmen robbed the same store of more than $1 million in cash and jewellery. An unsuspecting police officer who entered the store was relieved of his firearm and ammunition before the robbers made their escape.
