Total ransom demand of $8M for 5 kidnap victims

MEMBERS of the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) were up to late evening searching for five kidnap victims, two of whom have been snatched for a total ransom demand of $8 million, police sources told Newsday. “It’s unprecedented (the number of people in captive at any one time),” a senior officer attached to the Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) told Newsday yesterday. The five are teenagers Yves Ayoung Chee, 18; Benedict Bharath, 18; Kendra Kissoon, 19, her boyfriend Mark Samlal, 20 and Damien Schneider, 35 — all of whom have been snatched within the last five days. Another kidnap victim, Darryl Chootoo, is feared dead. They are five of six kidnapped this week, the other being Chaguanas businessman Woodlam Wong who was snatched early Tuesday morning and released later on that night after a $50,000 ransom was paid. Four of the victims (Ayoung Chee, Bharath, Kissoon and Samlal) were kidnapped. Thursday within 14 hours of each other, two at a time, while Schneider was snatched and held on the morning of July 13.

Senior police officers are also now of the opinion that the “two at a time” snatching is a new fashion in kidnapping, designed to get money at all costs. The last two to be snatched were Samlal and Kissoon, who were kidnapped Thursday night in front of Samlal’s Silver Mill Street, San Juan, home. A $2 million ransom has been asked for Schneider’s safe return, while the people who have snatched and held Kissoon called her relatives just after 10 am yesterday and asked for a $6 million ransom.  No ransom has been demanded for the other three kidnap victims, police said. Several people, some of whom expressed surprise at the $6 million ransom demand, came to offer sympathy to the Kissoon family outside their small grocery store on Seventh Avenue, Barataria. Kissoon’s father, Ralph, did not offer any comment on his daughter’s kidnapping.  Her mother, Indra, was said to be taking the kidnapping terribly, while Samlal’s family has refused to talk with the media. “The police told us not to talk to you all,” one young woman who stood at the gate told Newsday. Samlal’s father, Gopie, is said to be a Pastor. Samlal had just returned to his front gate from picking up Kissoon from her workplace at Shoppes of Maraval when a white wagon pulled up behind them. Senior police officials said three armed men alighted from the wagon, ran up to Samlal’s vehicle, pulled the couple out then placed them in their white wagon, which later sped out of Silver Mill Street then headed in an eastern direction along the Eastern Main Road.  Screams were reportedly heard coming from Kissoon.

A report was made and a party of officers headed by acting Insp Coar and including PCs Murray and Silver of the North Eastern Division visited the scene and conducted investigations. Ayoung Chee, son of Dr Wilson Ayoung Chee, and Benedict Bharath were snatched around 5.20 am Thursday at Marli Street, Newtown, after coming from Club Coconuts. Both teenagers attend St Mary’s College. Nolan Cooper, a bar attendant at Club Coconuts, was also in the black Wrangler jeep driven by Ayoung Chee, who was forced to stop because the two men who snatched them had a siren on their black vehicle, and also said they were police. Schneider was snatched in the early hours of July 13 as he was making his way to his Sandhurst Street, Belmont, home. The kidnappers called his father, Martin Schneider, later that day and demanded $2 million for his safe release.  They have also been contacting Schneider’s mother, Maureena. AKS officers under Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes are continuing investigations in all the kidnappings.