Deadliest criminal trapped

He is of slight built, shy and unassuming. A number of people who saw him described him as anything but threatening.

And yet Nii Boye Town resident and Krobo Odumasi native, Gabriel Newman, 25, has been on the Accra Police’s most deadliest murderous robbers list since August 2011.

Gabriel, alias Angel or Coach, was a member of the late playboy armed robber Rabiu’s gang. Rabiu was killed in a shoot-out with police at Ogbojo, near Madina, in Accra in February 2012.

Gabriel Newman got on the police most wanted list after August 21, 2011 when his name came up as a member of the gang which attacked the Ecobank branch at the Accra Shopping Mall, during which the robbers overcame the security man after knocking the latter with the butt of a gun.

Gabriel’s status as a ruthless robber was later confirmed when he was again identified as a member of the gang which attacked a United Bank for Africa (UBA) branch in Tema and killed a policeman on duty during the robbery operation.

According to police source, after a robbery expedition involving Rabiu and gang at Madina which ended in a fire fight between the police and the gang and the resultant death of three gang members, namely Rabiu himself, Baba Hasan and Sam Petters, police intensified the search for the robbery accomplices.

Angel Gabriel, sensing police closing in on him, escaped to Libya. Police’s difficulty with apprehending Angel Gabriel was due in part to the fact that they did not have much information about his identity.

So when Angel Gabriel came back this year telling friends that with Rabiu dead he was sure police had lost interest in his case, police had no way of knowing he was back in the country because they had no knowledge of him apart from his name and nicknames.

Luckily for the police and law-abiding citizens, police information has become very active since the rewards for actionable intelligence from informants were increased significantly.

So with the help of informants, police on Thursday, July 18 arrested the elusive Angel Gabriel at Akweteman at 9:30 pm in his hideout without firing a shot.

With Angel Gabriel now firmly in police hands, intelligence sources say there are two more high-profile members of Rabiu’s gang still on the run.

They have been identified so far only as Mohammed, alias Lucky, and Liberia, alias School Boy.

Police expect to apprehend these also.

“They can run but they cannot hide,” Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCOP) Christian Yohuno, the Accra Region Commander of the Ghana Police, repeated the famous saying to The Finder.

“But the trouble,” he said, “is that even as the numbers of criminals gangs are depleted, those who manage to escape go on to form new gang.”