MARIGOT--The Gendarmerie said a thief had been arrested in the act of robbing a restaurant in Baie Nettle on Monday night.
Several robbers approached the restaurant Mezza Luna around 9:00pm with the intention of stealing contents of the cash register, but were surprised by Gendarmes, who arrested one of them.
For several weeks now, investigators have been concentrating their efforts and adapting tactics to counter a resurgence in armed robberies.
“In addition to mobile patrols and checkpoints at key points in the territory, we are deploying a maximum number of personnel in civilian clothes,” stated Commandant of the Gendarmerie in St. Martin and St. Barths Lt.-Colonel Wintzer-Wehekind. “Combined with the judicial work, these discreet actions should allow us to be in the right place at the right time, as was the case Monday evening, and this shows the effectiveness of the system.”
The Gendarmerie aims to surprise perpetrators at multiple locations, by being visible and not visible. As a reminder, a robbery committed with the use or threat of a weapon (real or fake) is punishable by a sentence of 20 years.
The suspect was placed in provisional detention. The Prosecutor’s Office of Basse-Terre has opened a judicial procedure for continuation of the investigations.
The Gendarmerie reminds that the website
https://www.referentsurete.fr/ offers useful information to secure one’s business or home.
