Bandits held at ATM machines

POLICE believe they may be able to solve several serious crimes including abductions, rapes and robberies perpetrated between East and West Trinidad, after the arrest of three men on Wednesday night.

Up to late yesterday, the suspects who are from Malick and Palo Seco remained in police custody where they underwent interrogation and are expected to be placed on several identification parades.

They were arrested shortly after they abducted three women, robbed them, and then left them in bushes at Happy Hill in Malick. The victims were picked up in Diego Martin, San Juan and Barataria.

According to police reports, at about 9.30 pm, a man driving a car in Diego Martin picked up a woman who asked to be taken to Port-of-Spain.

She was instead taken to the Eastern Main Road, San Juan by the man who picked up another woman, who thought the car was a taxi. He then picked up the third victim in the Barataria area.

The driver later picked up his two accomplices. Police believe the men intended to rape the women who are aged 23, 24 and 26. The victims were threatened with death if they screamed or tried to escape from the car.

The driver then drove to Happy Hill in Malick where the women were ordered out of the car and taken to some bushes behind an abandoned house.

They were ordered to hand over cash, jewelry, cell phones, their ATM cards and their personal identification numbers to access money from ATM machines, to the bandits.

The men then bound, gagged and left the women in the bushes promising to return later. However, a man who saw the women squirming in the bushes telephoned the San Juan police who rescued the women.

Told about the bank cards and the bandits’ descriptions, the police quickly staked out several ATM machines in the area and held one of the bandits who was in the process of withdrawing money. The suspect led the officers to other ATM machines where the remaining bandits were held. The victims’ stolen belongings were recovered.

Police believe the suspects, aged 29, 24 and 23, are linked to several rapes and robberies along the East/West corridor after several women reported being abducted, robbed and raped by a man posing as a taxi-driver who was subsequently joined by two other men. Investigations are continuing.