Seedy Muctarr Touray was speaking at a presser on Wednesday at the Anti-Crime Unit in Banjuliding. The presser was designed to update the public on recent arrests, ongoing investigations, and regional police cooperation efforts in tackling organised crimes in the country.
The recent unfortunate happenings in the country, he said, have not only threatened the public, but also lives and properties.
“Robbery cases on the increase and the crime was attributed to a lot of factors. Some of these factors included but not limited to the inability of The Gambia Police Force; the inaptitude as some will put it of the Gambia Police Force to be able to effectively and adequately and police this nation,” he added.
IGP Touray then gave sequential rundown of incidences of armed robberies that happened not only recently, but some dating back to 2014, where some robberies cases were reported by the police by those affected.
“Today, we were able to link some of these suspects to those robberies that occurred in the country, well before the advent of this new democratic dispensation,” he added.
To this end, he recalled that in 2014, Guaranty Trust Bank branch in Bakau was robbed and the principal suspect in that robbery case is one Ansuman Jarju alia Ansu, a resident of New Jeshwang, Serrekunda.
He was arrested sent to the Reman Wing of the State Central Prison and when he starts appearing before the Court, he later jumped bail and disappeared in thin air.
“On 4th September, 2022, a robbery case was reported in Senegambia Area and the owner of a business gave a lot of money to this same suspect- Ansumana Jarju to go and pay some of his workers. He, the suspect, left with these monies and later abandoned the car where some items were recovered including his own national ID card,” headed.
This time around, IGP Touray maintained, he was also able to evade arrest and later moved to a nearby country, where intermittently, he will appear in The Gambia briefly to conduct his operations with some of his accomplices and go back to that same location in West Africa.
Later on, he said, Ansumana built-up friendship with one Ousainou Jobarteh, an Ivorian national, who alongside Ansu, were once remanded at the Reman Wing of the State Central Prison in Mille 11.
He explained that subsequent to their disappearance at Mile 11, they teamed up and started conducting their operations.
“On 29 June 2021, the same prime suspect Ansumana Jarju, robbed a business entity belonging to one Momodou Taal, who he worked for and disappeared in thin air. On January 1st, 2025 on New Year Day, he broke into a store as reported by one Ahmed Sayd Mohammed, a 32-year Mauritanian national residing in Old Jeshwang and operating at Gam Food Complex at Denton Bridge, where he kept his goods and monies.”
The police chief revealed that the same gang of bandits went in there overpowered the night watchman and tight him up, forcefully opened the back door of the store and opened the save.
Later on, he added, the undermentioned suspects shared the monies, which totals to D400,000, adding that Ansu Jarju, Ousainou Jobarteh and Abdoulie Jallow, each got D100,000 and the remaining money was kept and later used to procured arms and ammunitions from a sister republic, which they later utilized to conduct these nefarious activities in the country.
“On Wednesday 22 January 2025, as seen in the CCTV footages on social media of the alleged robberies which was conducted at Access Bank in Bijilo. Three of them driven by a taxi driver went to the bank and conducted their operations using the same operations that they were able to procure. The suspects are no other persons but Ansu Jarju, Ousainou Jobarteh, and Abdoulie Jallow and one Omar Secka. This time around, they jointly shared the monies and each of them was able to get D400,000,” he added.
IGP Touray revealed that after that robbery and considering themselves as successful and now that they become embolden and in a rare and brazen attacks they strategies and attacked a Mauritania shop operated by El HELLA Enterprise at HEGAN Street in Banjul.
Prior to this operation, he said, they (attackers) jointly contributed to purchase a BMW ash colour-coloured car which they used in that operations.
“At the time of their operations, the vehicle was un-numbered but that when they checked in the system with the company responsible for printing number plate they were able to ascertain that the vehicle was registered and the number plate was legally given to them. But as criminals, they removed the number plate conducted their operations and later affixed the number plate, adding that the cost of that BMW was D150,000,” he added.
At the said El Hella Enterprise, he said, a sum of D1.245,000M, and CFA denominations 1,650000 was taken by the three suspect namely, Ousainou Jobarteh and Abdoulie Jallow.
“Jobarteh’s share was D377,250, with CFA 465,000; Abdoulie Jallow got D222,000 and 770,000 CFA. Initially, in this operation, they tried to trick investigators, saying they were three in number while in the actual sense they were two.”
However, IGP Touray revealed that both later confessed that the number of people in that operation was two, adding that after the operation at Access Bank Ansumana Jarju fled to Guinea Bissau, where investigators from the Crime Management Unit of The Gambia Police Force jointly with the sister colleagues from the Anti-Crime Unit, where able to re-strategies to see the best possible way to track the suspects in the string of robberies in the country.
The Gambia Police Force was able to dispatch a team of investigators who managed to work with their counterparts in Guinea Bissau, where a close associate of Ansu Jarju was apprehended in Guinea Bissau, who led investigators in arresting the prime suspect- Ansumana JARJU.
Later on, the investigators were able to track all the suspect as they widen investigation in string of armed robberies in the country.
IGP Touray went on to thank all partners including his equivalent in Guinea Bissau for the tremendous assistance in the arrest of prime suspect.
