Eighteen visitors were robbed recently while touring BASH's Earth Village site.

Published On:Wednesday, November 25, 2009

By ALISON LOWE

Tribune Staff Reporter

alowe@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the "troubling" possibility that there may be some "connections" between a number of recent tourist robberies that have taken place in the capital, the Minister of National Security said.

Revealing this development yesterday, Tommy Turnquest said police have some "significant leads in that regard."

He made his comments when asked in an interview with the media yesterday morning to give an update on the dramatic robbery of 18 tourists who were on an eco-tour in the former Perpall Tract last Friday.

Mr Turnquest did not state which robberies are believed to be connected. In the case involving eight tourists at the Queen's Staircase on October 11, three people have already been charged with that crime and remanded in custody.

Mr Turnquest said: "There are some troubling parts of that crime event (the eco-tour robbery) itself that the police are looking at that we want to review...I want to believe that this was an isolated incident (although) you can say well it also happened at the 66 steps (and) there may have been some connections."

"There are some significant leads in that regard."

The Minister said he could say no more at this time as he would not wish to compromise the police investigation.

Initial police reports on the robbery suggested that two gunmen robbed separate groups of cruise tourists at around 1pm in the Bahamas Association for Social Health's (BASH) Earth Village last Friday.

According to reports from tourist Paul Coladonato, 51, who was among the second group, he and others were ordered by the masked assailants to lie face-down while the men robbed them of their valuables, kicking and hitting some of them with their weapons.

At the same time, the men fired a shot at the ground and demanded that their Bahamian tour guide jump into a nearby canal.

Mr Coladonato, who was with three Malaysian friends among a group of nine passengers from the Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas, said they had feared that the tour guide was about to be murdered.

The tourist said that merely recounting the traumatic episode is "stressful" and he has no desire to return to Nassau or recommend it to friends.

Dutch Royal Caribbean passenger Ad Koens also spoke out about his ordeal in a video posted to the website YouTube. He highlighted what he described as the incompetence of the Bahamian police in the aftermath of the event.

No charges have yet been brought in connection with the dramatic incident, although Mr Turnquest said yesterday morning that police have a "person of interest" in custody at this time.

The Minister added that police are working with BASH to beef up security at the site, which is commonly visited by tourists.

In an interview with the Florida Sun-Sentinel, which reported on the tourist robbery in an article entitled "Robbery Shakes Bahamas Tourism" yesterday afternoon, BASH Executive Director Terry Miller was quoted as saying the government has promised to set up "an intensive security system" in the Earth Village forest.