Kidnappers want $$ and cocaine

AN 18-year-old woman was kidnapped outside Mario’s in San Juan on Tuesday night. Her kidnappers are demanding a ransom of $50,000 cash and five kilos of cocaine for her release.

Relatives of Zaheeda Mohammed yesterday told her kidnappers to put her in a box and drop her off at Globe Lane, San Juan. Mohammed’s aunt, Zamina Hosein, a nurse at the Port-of-Spain General Hospital, said this is what she told the kidnappers around 11.30 am yesterday when they called asking if the ransom was ready for them. Hosein, a nurse for the past 30 years, said she told the kidnappers she would try to raise the $50,000, but was not going to get involved in drugs, since it would tarnish her character and job. “I am not getting involved in any drugs and I have no connections to get any cocaine. If she have to dead, she have to dead.”

Police sources said Mohammed, of Globe Lane, San Juan, was kidnapped on Tuesday night in the vicinity of Mario’s Pizzeria in San Juan. Her cousin, Hafeez, said she left home at 8 pm but never returned. Hafeez said around 12.15 am Wednesday, he received a call on his cellphone.   Hafeez said he passed the phone to Kenneth Ramroop, Mohammed’s uncle-in-law. On the other end was Mohammed, who told Ramroop she had been kidnapped by four men in a vehicle. She also said she did not know where she was. Mohammed told her relatives the kidnappers wanted $50,000 cash and five kilogrammes of cocaine, which sources at the Organised Crime and Narcotic Unit (OCNU) said would have an estimated street value of $700,000.

Hafeez said someone with a heavy male voice called his cellphone around 10.30 pm Wednesday, saying that 11 am yesterday was the deadline for payment. During all the ransom calls the kidnappers never said where the money and drugs should be dropped off and they did not make any threats. For this reason, Hosein does not know whether to believe the kidnapping is real or fake. “I just don’t know what to think,” she said. Hosein said she raised Mohammed from birth. However, when Mohammed reached 18 she went to live with her 80-year-old grandmother at Globe Lane. Up to late yesterday, the whereabouts of Mohammed were still unknown.  The Anti Kidnapping Squad (AKS), headed by Sr Supt Gilbert Reyes and members of the San Juan CID, under Cpl Tom Bernard, are continuing investigations.