Cunupia business owners 'fed up' after kidnapping

Business owners in Warrenville, Cunupia say they are scared and fed up of crime in the area and are calling for an increased presence and faster response times from the police.

This came after businessman Suvesh “Cooksie” Ramnarine, the owner of Cosura Trading, was kidnapped by men dressed as police.

The kidnapping was captured on CCTV footage and shared on social media.

Around 7.10 pm on October 12, five men approached Ramnarine, 33 in a bar metres from his home on the Southern Main Road in Warrenville.

In the video, the men were seen dressed in black short-sleeved jerseys with “POLICE” written on the back, and one man wore what appeared to be police tactical kit.

They escorted Ramnarine, who was sitting alone at a table, out of the bar and into a waiting black Hyundai Tucson SUV with blue flashing lights.

One of the suspects stood watch by the door as Ramnarine was bundled into the van before one of the armed men got into Ramnarine’s black Toyota Prado and drove off.

The two SUVs drove in different directions ,with Ramnarine’s Prado heading south while the kidnappers' SUV drove north.

Less than 15 minutes later, Ramnarine’s mother received a call from his phone in which he told her he had been kidnapped and a ransom was being demanded for his release.

Up till newstime he had not been released.

Newsday visited the area on Sunday. The bar from which he was kidnapped was open for business.

A businessman in the area, who gave his name only as Mohan, said he knew Ramnarine’s family and described him as a “good, hard-working boy.”

He said Ramnarine was well-known among businessmen in the community after putting a lot of effort into building his business in a relatively short space of time.

He said unlike Ramnarine, though, he has “held back” from doing the same, as he believed it would have garnered him too much attention and made him the target of criminals.

“At one time we used to have a 'bandit bag.' It was a bag filled with cash so that when the bandits come we could just give them that. Because if they don’t get anything, we don’t know what they will do. They might kill everybody! If they get the cash they will leave fast.”

He added, however, that the measure was no longer used.

He said crime had risen to unacceptable levels in Warrenville and there has not been sufficient action by the police to counter it.

“We have too much crime in this little area, too much! We have no kind of form of security here.”

With customers being served in his yard at the side of the Southern Main Road, Mohan has a clear view of the road and said it was rare to see officers having daily interactions with business owners or even making daily patrols.

“You normally see police passing with the siren on and driving fast. But no (patrols), except maybe once every two weeks. That's it. It's bad here.”

With Ramnarine’s kidnapping casting a shadow over the community, Mohan said his family was upset over his decision to continue to run his business

“I'm a US citizen and lived there for some time, but I love this country. My daughters vex because I'm in Trinidad. But I love Trinidad. I never badtalk this country with anybody in America, because this is a good country.
"But people have to stop these criminal activities.”

Another business owner who goes by the alias “Redman” said he had no confidence in the police.

He said his business had been broken into twice in the last year, but after his experience with the police the first time, he didn’t bother to report the second incident.

“I told them that fingerprints don't make sense on my door because I have lots of people coming in here.
"They make me close my store all day. The fingerprint people came at the end of the day, when I lose a whole day business, and tell me they can’t lift any fingerprints because it have too many on the door.

"I told them that from the start, and I waste a whole day sales for nothing.
"So this time I ain't call the police, because we know we're not going to get a timely response.”

He said businesses in Warrenville were being targeted, and questioned why the police had not yet installed cameras along the road.

“It's spilling out of places like Enterprise and then now coming up here. It have an increase (in crime) going on right now.”

Redman said filing a report was useless as residents were frightened to co-operate with any investigation.

“Residents never see anything. They are scared and they prefer to not say anything. This is a main road so you can’t say nobody saw. Somebody must have seen something, but I don't even bother to ask. If we had co-operation I would try, but this is just going to end up on a desk somewhere, so why should I waste my time?”

He said, just like Mohan, he too had fears of being noticed by criminals, and that was a consideration in his decision to scale down his business.

“I sell all my vehicles and now I drive a little car. You don't want to be noticed. You have to keep yourself on a lower look.”

Pointing to his unbranded polo jersey and uncombed hair, he said, “You see how I does look? That is deliberate. If you target me, it'll be real desperation.”

He said while he was making less money, it was a simpler life and he is making enough to survive.

A Muslim businessman named Ali told Newsday his faith kept him from being fearful, but he worried about the effect of crime on his children.

“Imagine my son gone to the supermarket, walking distance form here, and when he coming back a Spanish-speaking man cuff him in his belly and steal his phone.”

A Chinese national running a small business said everybody was fearful as crime had got worse in the area.

“This area get bad. The people dressing up like police, so you don't even know who is who.”

The businessman, who refused to give his name, said he also chose not to expand his business over crime fears.

“I prefer to stay as a small business rather than attract too much attention.”

He said he would return to China if he could, because “right now crime is really bad.”

He added, though, that is not an option, as too many people depend on him.

“I have family here and I need to take care of them, and, too, if I go back I will have to give up everything I have built here.”

Another businessman refused to give his name or even be recorded.

“I don't want somebody to say I say something. I don't want to get mixed up, because it have killing in that. I have two little children and I can't afford for that to happen.”

He said while fears over kidnapping were well founded, businessmen in the area faced other daily threats.

“All the businesses around here prone to tax, extortion and robberies. Those are the main issues.”

He said businessmen were aware of who the criminals were but were too scared to say anything.

“If you ask who doing all the crime around here, is only two set of people who name calling ,and if you talk about it they will kill you!”

He said the fear stemmed from a belief that police in the area might also be involved in crime.

“If it wasn't police, then how (the men in the video) get the uniforms? How (the criminals) getting away right through?
"I believe is police and bandit who doing crime. But I don't want to say any more because next thing you know the police framing me up or something.”

Ramnarine is the second Cunupia businessman in three weeks to be kidnapped by people dressed as police, after used-car dealer Sachel Kungebeharry was abducted in Chaguanas on September 25.

Kungebeharry's decomposing body was found days later and two police officers have been charged with murder, kidnapping for ransom and misbehaviour in public office.

ACP Curt Simon, at a media conference on October 11, said it might be time to change the police's uniforms to something that could not easily be replicated by criminals.

On October 13, a Warrenville businessman lamented the lack of cameras along the Southern Main Road.

“They need to put up cameras. This is a key access road. Lots of cars will pass here.”

He said if the police were unable to instal cameras, in the meantime, they should make static patrols on the main road.

“The police already always late and taking long to respond. They need to do something!”

Repsonding to the pleas, Snr Supt Garvin Simon said the police are not directly reponsible for the installation of cameras but added the call for static patrols will be "looked at."

He said decisions of that nature are usually guided by statistics from the TTPS's Crime and Problem Analysis Unit (CAPA).

"As you would appreciate, crime migrates, so we are always looking at our data and adjusting our strategies to suit."