THE teenaged son of a San Juan dry-goods and liquor businessman was snatched at gunpoint yesterday morning in Aranjuez while being driven to school. Gewan Geelal, 13, is the third child to be kidnapped in the last month.

Senior police officers yesterday expressed concern at this trend noting that since adults who consider themselves targets have increased security around them, the criminals are now targetting their children. This was the case yesterday as Gewan’s father had been kidnapped one year ago. And while worried relatives of Gewan would not speak to reporters, police sources said he was grabbed by the neck while a gun was placed to his head and pulled out of the car in which he was being driven to school.

Up to late yesterday evening, police sources said the persons who abducted Gewan had not made any ransom demands. Gewan’s father Premnath, 44, who operates the family business – Geelal’s Dry Goods Store on El Socorro Road, San Juan – was kidnapped in March 2002. According to police reports, around 7 am yesterday, Khaman Maharaj of Chootoo Street, Aranjuez, who drives Gewan from home to the Trincity East College, arrived at the Geelal residence and collected the youngster. While Maharaj was driving through Aranjuez to pick up another student, a grey B13 Sentra sped alongside his car and forced him off the road. Two armed men alighted from the Sentra and ran to Maharaj’s car. One of the gunmen quickly snatched Gewan by the neck, dragged him from Maharaj’s car and forced him into the Sentra which sped off. A report was made to the Barataria police. Anti-Kidnapping Squad (AKS) officers led by Snr Supt Gilbert Reyes, including ASP Henry Millington and Sgt Netram Kowlessar arrived at the Geelal residence to commence investigations.

North-Eastern Division police, co-ordinated by Snr Supt Desmond Lambert, led by Supt Waldron Bishop and including ASP Gregory Correia and Sgt Mongal Hazarie, arrived shortly and also took statements. When Newsday arrived on the scene, worried-looking relatives quickly bolted a large iron sliding gate and shouted, “we have nothing to say to the media right now.” The store remained closed yesterday. Gewan’s father Premnath, who has three sons, was shot in both legs and kidnapped on Monday March 25, 2002 as he was closing the dry goods store located at the front of his home. Although a one million dollar ransom was demanded, Geelal managed to sneak out of the Couva house where he was being kept the following day. Two men have since been charged.

Gewan Geelal is the third child to be kidnapped within the past three weeks in what investigators say is developing into a “worrying trend”. On Saturday March 15, nine-year-old Micha Bernard was snatched at gunpoint outside his Don Miguel Road, San Juan home as he was riding a bicycle. $300,000 was demanded for Bernard’s safe release. Four days later, Bernard was found wandering near the Aranjuez Villas by police, who had received an anonymous telephone call which indicated that the child had been freed. Six hours after Bernard was found, eight-year-old Adriana Ramsingh, daughter of Ramesh Ramsingh, who operated Ramsingh’s Glass Specialists in San Juan, was snatched outside her 11th Street Barataria home.

She was rescued five hours later by police who found her bound and gagged in a shack in Champs Fleurs. Police sources told Newsday that several very prominent businessmen have resorted to using armed security guards to escort their children to and from their schools, while others have taken the decision to send their children to schools abroad. Sgt Mongal Hazarie of the Barataria CID is investigating the Geelal abduction.

Four men armed with guns walked through a door on the eastern side of the Ellerslie Plaza branch of Scotia Bank around 7.15 pm on Tuesday and got away with over $200,000 in cash.

Although there was a surveillance camera in operation inside the bank, there was no record of the drama on the tape that was played by the police yesterday. According to reports, after ordering a bank teller to hand over the money, the gunmen opened safety deposit boxes which were relieved of their contents. Reports said that at the time about 10 employees and two cleaners were in the bank. Conflicting reports have emerged as to how the armed men were able to gain entrance through a door that should have been locked at the time. An employee of the bank said that he had checked the door on the eastern side, after the two guards left at 6 pm, and the door was locked.

Police believe that the bandits had a key for the door. Speaking on behalf of Managing Director, Richard Young, the senior manager of sales and marketing, Simone Penco, said the bank could not understand how the front door came to be open at the time the robbers walked in. She said the bank was still calculating the exact amount of money that had been taken. Investigators were yesterday questioning how the door came to be open for the bank robbers to gain entry into the building. Police reports revealed that the gunmen announced a robbery and ordered everyone to lie on the ground. They then ordered one of the tellers to hand over cash which was already stored in money bags.

The gunmen then ordered a teller to open a vault where several safety deposit boxes were kept and filled the bags with cash. After spending close to one hour inside the bank, the robbers fled the scene. Officers of the St Clair Police Station were contacted and a party of officers led by ACP (Crime) Oswyn Allard, Snr Supt Ali, Ag Supt Denoon, Inspector Rodriguez, Sgts Alleyene, Peterson and others went to the scene. Checks on the bank revealed several prints were lifted for further investigation. Police investigators also seized the tape from a surveillance camera at the bank which should have recorded the entire robbery, but surprisingly the robbery in progress was not recorded. Police investigators believe that the robbers were aware where the surveillance camera was located and they avoided that area. Investigators said that the tape has proven to be useless in the investigation.

Newsday learned that only two of the four bandits were masked. The Manager of the bank Budwin Morales, Young and other managers visited the scene of the robbery yesterday. The bank remained closed for business as police investigators continued to search for clues, and counselling was made available to staff. Security has been increased at the bank which is expected to reopen today for normal business.

MAJOR SHARON ALFONSO is the new Comptroller of the Household at the Prime Minister’s residence.

She replaces retired Mayor Wayne Johnson who has gone back to the Volunteer Defence Force Unit. Alfonso, the most senior female officer in the Defence Force, took up duties on Tuesday at the residence of Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his wife Hazel. This is the second stint at the Prime Minister’s residence for Alfonso, who also served during the tenure of then Prime Minister Basdeo Panday between November 1999 and July 2000. The job of Comptroller at the PM’s residence became a household name on April 19, 1999 when the then Comptroller Commander Noel Penco was shot dead by a member of staff, Corporal Anthony Caesar who then turned the gun on himself.

Lt Wayne Armour of the Coast Guard replaced Penco, before Alfonso had a brief stint. She was later replaced by Captain Gary Griffith who remained in the job until early 2002. Major Alfonso was also Comptroller at President’s House at one time during the tenure of President and Mrs Hassanali. She also served as aide to Mrs Patricia Robinson when she was wife of Prime Minister Robinson in early 1987. She returned as aide to Mrs Hassanali for a brief period when she was the First Lady at President’s House. Alfonso joined the TT Regiment with the first batch of female recruits on July 1, 1980. Months later, she was made an officer Cadet. The following year, Alfonso was promoted to Second Lieutenant. She was made a full Lieutenant in 1983 and four years later was promoted to Captain.

In 1994, she rose to the rank of Major, the only female soldier at that rank. During her tenure, Alfonso was the public relations officer of the Defence Force from 1991 to 1998. She had replaced Lt Col Dave Williams. She was eventually succeeded by Roman Catholic Priest Father Kennedy Swaratsingh, who also held the post of Welfare Officer. Alfonso was the first female officer to head a company in the Regiment. She was commanding officer of Admin Company, which was based at Teteron Barracks. Major Alfonso has attended several military courses during her career in the Regiment. In 1982, she attended the Women’s Royal Army College Commander’s course in England.

In 1986, she attended the Soldier Support Institute in Indiana and also a training institute for female soldiers in Alabama. In 1994, Alfonso attended the Adjutant General Officer’s Advance course as well as a public affairs course in Indiana. Major Alfonso was off in 2000 to the Land Forces Command and General Staff College in Canada. The mother of 14-year-old Carlon, Major Alfonso is pursuing her Master’s Degree in General Management at the School of Accounting and Management in Curepe.

A HIGH COURT judge yesterday issued a strong warning to drug traffickers by sentencing a Freeport man, found guilty of the crime, to 20 years in jail. 

On Tuesday, a nine member jury found Nanlal Sooknanan guilty of possession of 20 kilogrammes of cocaine for the purpose of trafficking. Sooknanan was arrested and charged for the offence on April 13, 1999. Presiding in the Port-of-Spain Fifth Criminal Court yesterday, Justice Pamela Elder said the seriousness of Sooknanan’s crime warranted that he be sent to prison for 20 years with hard labour. 

Justice Elder described Sooknanan as “a small fish in a sea with big fishes” and said the severity of his sentence would serve as a warning to the “big fishes” that they would be caught and would also face the full force of the law. She added that Sooknanan was “a small fish carrying a big load”. In his plea in mitigation, Sooknanan’s attorney Leon Gokool said his client had no previous convictions and had spent the last four years in prison while the matter was before the court. Kathy-Ann Waterman-Latchoo prosecuted the matter for the State.

A Colombian national who was held with over $1.5 million worth of heroin at a Port-of-Spain hotel earlier this week, is to be extradited to the United States of America to face charges of conspiring to traffick narcotics.

Jorge Luis Prieto, 36, was charged with possession of 2.22 kilos of heroin for the purpose of trafficking at Abercromby Street, Port-of-Spain, on Monday night. He was held after officers of the Organised Crime and Narcotics Unit (OCNU) arrested him at a hotel and allegedly found the heroin in a black suitcase. Prieto is also charged with conspiring to traffick heroin in the United States which is an extraditable offence as defined by the Extradition Act of 1995. Prieto had originally appeared before Chief Magistrate Sherman Mc Nicolls on Tuesday but was remanded overnight due to the unavailability of an interpreter.

When Prieto reappeared before Magistrate Mc Nicolls yesterday, the charges were translated to him by court interpreter Murchison Centeno Elie. Prieto was not called upon to plead as the charges were laid indictably. State attorney David West informed the magistrate that Prieto had one of two options. He could either consent to return to the United States to face the charges of conspiracy or fight the extradition proceedings in Trinidad. Prieto asked that he be allowed to discuss the matter with an attorney. Attorney Patrick Godson-Phillips was then appointed by the court to represent Prieto in the matter. Godson-Phillips told Prieto that if he agrees to be extradited to the United States, the Trinidad & Tobago Government will not proceed with the charge of heroin trafficking that was laid against him in Port-of-Spain.

Prieto asked if the United States Government will be able to proceed with the Port-of-Spain charge. He was informed that US officials would not be able to proceed with charges that were laid in Trinidad & Tobago. He would only be prosecuted on the conspiracy charge that was laid by US officials in the United States. Godson-Phillips advised Prieto to return to the United States. Prieto agreed and shook his hand. As Godson-Phillips informed the magistrate of his client’s decision, Prieto began to cry and wiped his eyes with his handkerchief. West then asked that the State be granted time until Monday to make proper arrangements for Prieto’s extradition.

Dressed in the same yellow T-shirt and blue jeans that he wore when he first appeared in court, Prieto requested that he be given his personal belongings that were in his suitcase. He said he needed a phone number from his wallet to contact his family. Magistrate Mc Nicolls informed Prieto that his attorney would make the formal requisitions for his belongings. He then remanded Prieto into custody until Monday and advised him of his right to apply to a judge in chambers for bail.

Government and Education Minister Hazel Manning were “congratulated” by the World Bank yesterday as a four-member World Bank Supervision Mission sat down to review the Fourth Basic Education Programme. The programme is being funded with a US$50 million loan from the Bank.

Manning and Planning Minister Dr Keith Rowley met with the World Bank Supervision Mission at the Twin Towers in Port-of-Spain. At the end of the hour-long meeting, Education Specialist from the Bank, Dr Alberto Rodriguez, said the Bank was particularly excited with the site-based management component of the programme. “Principals in Trinidad and Tobago for the first time are getting money today to do what they think is most important for their schools,” he said. He said the principals had “tremendous appreciation and excitement and they really feel that their schools have changed significantly because of that shift that has allowed them to make decisions”. Rodriguez said that this portion of the programme had really changed the image of the education system “from the bottom up, from the school up”.

Rodriguez said that early childhood education had been successfully implemented with a community-based approach, sometimes helping the poorest populations with direct intervention from the Government and sometimes using the private sector. He said early childrhood education was a very broad subsector which required intervention from “every possible corner of society”. He congratulated the Minister of Education and the Government as a whole for taking this huge step which had changed the face of education in this country. The loan programme started in 1997 and would end in June 2003. There is a grace period of five years and then Government begins repayment and has a 15-year period to pay off this loan. Out of the $50 million loan, Government would be spending some $48 million and it has already signalled that it would be looking to apply for a new loan aimed at producing quality education.

Education Minister Hazel Manning said that Government, using the funds, had been  able to put in place a number of early childhood care and education centres and was able to train 385 teachers. It was also able to put in place curricula for math, language arts, science, aesthetics and a pilot Spanish programme, she said.  Government was also able to put in place two tranches of textbooks, delivered to needy students in 1999 and 2002, the Education Minister stated.  She added that Government was also able to train 474 primary school teachers and build 20 primary schools, with the last five of these schools now under construction. It was able to disburse 477 School Maintenance Grants and 477 School Improvement Grants, she noted.

Manning said the programme had been a success. Though, she conceded that  some early childhood care and education centres still had to be constructed and some teachers had to be trained. Rowley said that in the past, there were problems with the rate at which the country was accessing of the Bank’s resources. But, he stressed, the Government one year ago, gave the Bank the commitment that it would do everything possible to accelerate the drawdown of the loan in order to come within the Bank’s description of “acceptable”. Noting that the Ministry of Education had achieved this objective, he congratulated the Ministry (of Education) for being able to pick up the programme and reach the point today where almost 100 percent of the loan would be spent. Rowley said this loan more or less completed the physical aspect of the education portfolio. “The next phase as we approach the bank in the coming months would be in the context of quality education – teaching, training and evaluation processes and procedures…using some of the systems that have been tried and tested in developed countries,” he said.

Several local entertainers marched through the streets of the Port-of-Spain yesterday stopping at the two major television stations and several radio stations.

The protest was to sensitise the electronic media to the quota law that the artistes want implemented. The chant was “60 percent is all we asking for, 60 percent local content or more. Play the music we only want to live, 60 percent the government must give.” The band of about 50 entertainers including Cott directors Christophe Grant, Bill Trotman and Kenny Phillips, moved with a rhythm section and was received by all the radio stations (except 96.1 FM) where they were able to voice their concerns. When the protesters reached 96.1 FM on Tragarete Road, no one answered the doorbell, after about 15 minutes, an employee tried to enter the building and four members of the crowd forced their way into the building. They were greeted by a member of the station’s management team who collected a petition. The protesters then proceeded to the Roxy Roundabout where they gathered around  Lord Kitchener’s statue and gave thanks.