Andrew Erato Arrested, while warrant is out for his father and brother.
PHIILIPSBURG:---- Information reaching SMN News states that a large amount of police officers swarmed around a school building in Cole Bay in the vicinity of Island Water World Friday afternoon and arrested the son of a well-known businessman. According to information provided to SMN News police are working on an investigation involving the Rainbow Hotel located in Red Pond Guana Bay.
Efforts made to reach police spokesman Ricardo Henson and the press prosecutor Tineke Kamps Friday evening proved futile as none of them did not answer their telephones.
Several persons that are close to police said that at least one person that was arrested on St. Maarten this week refuses to go down alone and this person has been providing police with valuable information. However, the information SMN News received could not be confirmed by law enforcement. An eyewitness told SMN News that a number of law enforcement officers surrounded the Cole Bay School and arrested the businessman son.
SMN News learnt that police arrested Andrew Erato the son of Johnny Erato a well known businessman. The source said that there are warrants out for Jhonny Erato and his son Mark Erato as they are being investigated for several crimes such as tax evasion and other crimes related to Rainbow Hotel and other businesses on the island. When contacted on Saturday morning police spokesman Richardo Henson said he was not aware of the raid and arrest that took place in Cole Bay Friday afternoon, Henson said he is of the opinion that the Chief of Police Peter de Witte and the team hid the information from him because they did not want the information to be made public. He even questioned if SMN News contacted the Chief of Police Peter de Witte for information on the raid and arrest. It should be noted that SMN News did contact De Witte and he too could not be reached by telephone but incoming Chief of Police Carl John who is currently off island answered his phone when he was called Friday night and he said he will message Henson in order for him to contact the press. Howevevr, Henson never made such effort. He said he was already sleeping when he was called Friday night.
It must be noted that members of the media are having a hard time getting information from the police even when it relates to preventable crimes. Henson told some reporters that he will not answer his phone after 7pm, therefore reporters must not contact him after that hour because he too has family. It must be noted that due to the lack of information from KPSM several insurance companies on the French side are losing monies when vehicles are stolen on the French side and recovered on the Dutch side. One insurance agent said he tried to meet with the police to discuss their predicament because insurance companies are obliged to pay off vehicle owners within a specific time frame when they reported their vehicles are stolen. The agent said that on several occasions these vehicles are recovered by the Dutch police and is taken to 'pound yard' of varoius towing companies and they are only informed long after the payout time elapse. The insurance broker said that when they are finally informed they are handed huge bill for the storage of the stolen vehicle and in most cases the vehilcle are fully stripped by the time they are informed. "Once a vehicle was recovered in good order, the theives did not get to strip the car but when I went to the towing company to recover the vehicle not only I was handed the huge bill for storage but the vehicle was fully stripped, which gave me no choice but to leave the vehicle with the towing company."
A few minutes after this article was published Police Spokesman Ricardo Henson called SMN News and confirmed that Andrew Erato was arrested on Friday because the judge of instruction issued a warrant for his arrest. Henson said Andrew Erato was arrested and taken to the Pointe Blanche prison.
