Santa Cruz kidnapping victim rescued in police operation

A 43-year-old San­ta Cruz man who was kid­napped from his home on Thurs­day was res­cued by po­lice dur­ing an op­er­a­tion in Laven­tille on Fri­day.

Po­lice said the man was ab­duct­ed around 5 a.m. on May 8 af­ter sev­er­al men en­tered a house in San­ta Cruz where he and his girl­friend were present.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, the in­trud­ers took the cou­ple’s cel­lu­lar phones be­fore leav­ing with the man in a ve­hi­cle.

Of­fi­cers of the San­ta Cruz Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tion De­part­ment re­spond­ed to a re­port of kid­nap­ping for ran­som at about 6 a.m.

Po­lice said about one hour af­ter the ab­duc­tion, the vic­tim’s sis­ter re­ceived a tele­phone call from one of the vic­tim’s cel­lu­lar phones de­mand­ing mon­ey for his re­lease.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors from the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit lat­er car­ried out en­quiries in La Canoa, San­ta Cruz, and dis­tricts in San Juan. Res­i­dents were in­ter­viewed and of­fi­cers al­so searched for CCTV footage con­nect­ed to the in­ci­dent.

Of­fi­cers of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Crime Scene In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit processed the scene.

Po­lice said an in­tel­li­gence-led op­er­a­tion was lat­er launched un­der the com­mand of DCP In­tel­li­gence and In­ves­ti­ga­tions Natasha George, with co­or­di­na­tion by ACP Smith.

The ex­er­cise was led by Snr Supt Pa­ri­man and in­volved of­fi­cers of the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit, Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions De­part­ment, Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Unit and the In­ter-Agency Task Force.

Dur­ing the op­er­a­tion, of­fi­cers car­ried out en­quiries at sev­er­al lo­ca­tions, in­clud­ing Kel­ly Vil­lage, Readymix Road and Laven­tille.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers lat­er went to a two-storey struc­ture with an an­nex be­hind a sec­ondary school in Laven­tille.

While search­ing the an­nex, of­fi­cers found a shirt­less man wear­ing blue jeans who had in­juries about his body.

Po­lice said the man iden­ti­fied him­self as the kid­nap­ping vic­tim.

The vic­tim was tak­en to a med­ical fa­cil­i­ty for treat­ment.

Po­lice said in­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing as of­fi­cers work to iden­ti­fy and ar­rest the peo­ple in­volved in the kid­nap­ping.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice said the res­cue re­sult­ed from co­or­di­na­tion among sev­er­al polic­ing units in­volved in the in­ves­ti­ga­tion.