Two suspects held; 16 Venezuelan nationals found in Cunupia

Two sus­pects have been ar­rest­ed and 16 Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing two mi­nors, were found dur­ing an in­tel­li­gence-led an­ti-crime ex­er­cise in Cunu­pia amid in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to a re­port­ed kid­nap­ping.

The ex­er­cise was con­duct­ed by of­fi­cers of the West­ern Di­vi­sion un­der Op­er­a­tion R.E.S.O.L.U.T.E. Shield be­tween 7pm on Fri­day, Oc­to­ber 30, and 12.15am on Sat­ur­day, Oc­to­ber 31.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice state­ment, of­fi­cers act­ed on in­for­ma­tion about a pos­si­ble kid­nap­ping orig­i­nat­ing from Venezuela and re­ports that mi­nors were al­leged­ly be­ing kept at a par­tic­u­lar lo­ca­tion.

Of­fi­cers pro­ceed­ed to a two-storey, 14-apart­ment build­ing along Ramdeen Dri­ve, En­deav­our Link Up Road, Cunu­pia, where they searched Apart­ment No. 7.

Dur­ing the search, they found 16 Venezue­lan na­tion­als, in­clud­ing the re­port­ed vic­tim and an­oth­er mi­nor.

Two Venezue­lan women, aged 20 and 19, who were iden­ti­fied as sus­pects in the kid­nap­ping re­port, were ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the Four Roads Po­lice Sta­tion.

A 55-year-old Cunu­pia man was al­so ar­rest­ed and tak­en to the West End Po­lice Sta­tion.

The two mi­nors were tak­en to the West End Po­lice Sta­tion, while 12 oth­er Venezue­lan women were tak­en to the Care­nage Po­lice Sta­tion.

Of­fi­cers of the Cen­tral Crime Scene Unit sub­se­quent­ly pho­tographed and processed the scene, seiz­ing sev­er­al cel­lu­lar phones, doc­u­ments, a dig­i­tal video recorder (DVR) and oth­er items con­sid­ered to be of ev­i­den­tial val­ue.

The ex­er­cise was spear­head­ed by Deputy Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Suzette Mar­tin, As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Hen­ry and Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Williams.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing un­der the su­per­vi­sion of Act­ing Sergeant Hug­gins.