Four Latinos held for jewellery heist in Goa

Four Latin Americans, including a woman, were arrested in Goa in connection with the March 22 Rs1.5-crore jewellery heist at the Pride Hotel on Residency Road.

The stolen jewellery and precious stones were recovered from the accused.

A central crime branch team led by assistant commissioner of police Nyamegouda arrested the accused from Colva beach in Goa. Police said they had planned to leave for their native places on Tuesday.

The accused persons were identified as: Pedro Alejandro Maita Rodriguez (30) from Caracas, Venezuela, his girl friend Maira Alejandra Aranago Giraldo (22) from Colombia, Elenilson Amilcar Pocasangre Ruano (34) from El Salvador and Luis Alberto Giraldo Lopez (25) from Bogota, Colombia.

The main accused, Pedro, reportedly told the police that he was a freelance jewellery designer, who has been working for various jewellers in Malaysia since July 2009. He met and fell in love with Maria in that country. The two others joined the lovers when they decided to visit India on holiday.

Joint commissioner of police (crime) Alok Kumar said they first visited Nepal, from where they got the Indian visa.  On February 26, they reached Mumbai, and tried to rob jewellers there and even visited a jewellery exhibition in Kolkata with the same intention.

“They returned to Nepal after their visa had expired on March 11. They got it renewed and came to Bangalore on March 16. They had contacted one Suresh, who rented out his Maruti Swift car to the accused,” Kumar said.

In Bangalore, the accused started following a Jaipur-based jeweller and his employees, who were in the city to participate in an exhibition at the Kanteerava Stadium. “The jeweller from Jaipur, Shiny Derewala, is an expert in Italian designs. Pedro planned the theft, not only for gain, but also to copy the designs, which he wanted to market,” an investigating officer said.

On March 22, the gang entered the hotel room in which the jewellers had checked in, and escaped with the loot. “Surprisingly, they did not leave any finger prints in the room or on the door knobs. After taking away two bags containing jewellery from the room, they hired another taxi to go to Goa,” Kumar said.

However, closed circuit television cameras had captured their images, which helped the police solve the case.

The jewellery, wrapped in carbon paper, was concealed inside dolls to hoodwink customs authorities.