Five Venezuelans held in fraud enquiries in Central

A joint exercise by members of the Fraud Squad, the Immigration Division and the Central Division led to the arrest of five Venezuelans in Chaguanas early on Tuesday morning.

Police said several apartment buildings were raided around 3 am and five people were arrested.

Sources said the raids were carried out in response to reports of counterfeiting, ATM skimming and online fraud.

Police also documented over 100 Venezuelans during the exercise.

Investigators said the five detainees were taken to the Chaguaramas Heliport and are expected to be deported, as they did not have immigration documents.

Police said it was common for fraudsters to use a centralised location to store swindled money and plan activities.

"We've been seeing this trend where people have a house or an apartment that they use as a 'fraud den,' for want of a better term.

"There may be multiple people engaging in different types of fraud in a given area. So we're doing our best to crack down on it."