Four minimarket robbers arrested, one still at large

The Central Jakarta Police have arrested four alleged members of a gang of robbers who targeted minimarkets throughout Jakarta, one other gang member remains at large.

The alleged robbers are identified as Pasha, 22, Rio, 27, Tato, 37, and Lili, 26, while the one still on the run is a female and identified only as “I”.

“We’ve arrested four suspects. The other one is still at large,” Central Jakarta Police chief Sr. Comr. Angesta Romano Yoyol said on Tuesday at the Jakarta Police headquarters as quoted by kompas.com.

The gang, he said, operated between 2011 and 2012 either in a group or individually.

He said the gang planned their robberies in the morning before executing them the same day.

“The spontaneously robbed a minimarket,” Yoyol said.

“But they continued robbing minimarkets after the first attempt succeeded.”

He said the alleged robbers would travel in Pasha’s car in the morning looking for a minimarket with minimum security.

At times, one of the alleged robbers pretended to be a customer, browsing inside, he said.

The ‘customer’ then would have his friends, who often used masks to hide their identities, point air soft guns belonging to Pasha and Roy at the cashier, he said.

“The total amount of money [they managed to steal] amounted to around Rp 30 million (US$3,270). But we only confiscated Rp 16 million from them,” Yoyol said. (mtq)