A 25-year-old from Toronto has been charged in connection with robberies at jewelry stores in Kitchener and Guelph.
Waterloo Region police say Abdullah Malek-Mohammad is the fourth man charged in the Dec. 1, 2010 robbery at the Peoples Jewellers in Kitchener's Fairview Park Mall.
He faces charges including robbery with a firearm, robbery, wearing a disguise with intent to commit an offence, pointing a firearm, weapons dangerous and mischief under $5,000.
He was actually arrested by Peel police in February for an unrelated incident.
Waterloo Regional police spokesperson Olaf Heinzel says "We have now arrested four individuals in connection with a robbery in Kitchener and two of those individuals have been additionally charged with a robbery in Guelph."
Mohammad Saeid Kermani, Baseer Ahmed and Nima Malek, all from the Richmond Hill area, were previously charged in the Kitchener robbery.
Malek-Mohammad is also the second suspect charged in connection with a robbery at the People Jewellers location in Guelph's Stone Road Mall on Jan. 28, 2011. Malek is also charged.
Malek-Mohammed will appear in court on April 12 while Malek is scheduled to appear in court on April 13. Kermani and Ahmed are to appear on April 25.
Police say no further arrests are expected in the robberies.
Around the time of the Peoples Jewellers robberies, there was also a rash of armed robberies by a second group of men of two other jewelry stores and a Cashmax location.
That had local jewelers on high alert, and many say they still are.
Melanie Heffernan at Heffernan's Jewellery in Waterloo says "We did upgrade our security system here at Heffernan's. I think it made the whole industry a little bit more aware and on their toes."
But now Heffernan says they are also relieved to have the bad guys behind bars.
