A gang of men with “drug dealers’ connections” on Monday afternoon abducted a young man just outside of his Lama Avenue, Bel Air work place and later forced him to call two of his friends who are businessmen, from whom they demanded money.
The young man and the businessmen are adamant that the abductors are extortionists, adding that the same group has been going around extracting money from wealthy businessmen using this and other nefarious means.
The young man, Mario Stephens said his encounter with the men, who were all armed with guns, and are known to have connections with “big drug dealers in Guyana”, was horrifying. He said he tried to make a report to the police following the incident on Monday but was given a royal runaround and now feared for his life.
Contacted last evening, a senior police officer said the young man should ensure that he lodges a formal report to the police. The officer said that if ranks at the stations were refusing to take a statement from him he should go to the Criminal Investigation Department headquarters at Eve Leary.
Stephens said his attackers threatened to kill him several times during the ordeal if he did not get his business associates to provide a substantial sum of cash for his release.
He recalled that around midday on Monday he was in the vicinity of Shell Gas Station on Vlissengen Road on his way to have lunch when a man he knew from playing basketball approach-ed him. Stephens said by the time he reacted, two other men pulled up alongside him in a gold coloured car. Stephens said he was grabbed and bundled into the car.
Stephens said he was driven to a popular bar on Station Street, Kitty, where a fourth man appeared. At Station Street, Stephens said, he was placed into a grey Mitsubishi car and taken to another popular location on Garnett Street. At Garnett Street, the young man said, the four men took him into a house where he observed large quantities of marijuana and several handguns. All this time, Stephens said, his abductors were ordering him to call his business associates and when he made contact with them he was forced to put his cellular phone on speaker so that his abductors could hear the conversation. “Them tell me that I should ask for a substantial sum of money and if I don’t get it they would shoot me,” Stephens said.
The young man related that the abductors seem bent on getting money from his business associates. Leaving Garnett Street, Stephens said his attackers drove along Brickdam and when they were in the vicinity of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company on Upper Brickdam Dam, his abductors pushed him out the car and commanded him to grab a woman’s handbag. Stephens said he did all of this, but could not escape since the men had their weapons trained on him. He returned to the car and was again asked to call his business colleagues. During this round of talking, Stephens said, his business colleagues threatened the abductors to report the matter to the police, but one of them said that they were not afraid of the police. The businessman also warned that he was going to inform members of the army but the abductors maintained that they were not afraid of anyone.
Stephens said he was later driven back to Vlissengen Road and dumped out of the car. However, his abductors threatened that they would return. Since then, Stephens said, he has received telephone calls from one of the men demanding money.
He said that he went to make a report to the Kitty Police Station, but ranks there sent him to Brickdam and at Brickdam he was sent back to Kitty. Stephens said it was clear that the police, once they heard the details of his attackers, were not keen on taking any statements.
He said he now feared for his life, but plans to return to the police to make an official statement. He said the next time he would go with a lawyer. With regard to his business associates, Stephens said the two men have a successful business and the gang seems to be after their wealth.
Stabroek News spoke to one of the businessman yesterday who said that he had stopped appearing at certain public places because of the said men. The businessman said the gang was after a number of wealthy persons and had used the same method as was used with Stephens to extort money from businessmen.
Meanwhile, political activist George Correia said some of the said gang members abducted his son, Shawn Correia two years ago at a popular nightclub and assaulted him. Correia said that his son apparently had a falling out with the owner of the club, when the gang attacked him.
Correia called on the police and the other authorities to put an end to the activities of the group which he said was feeding off the proceeds of the drugs trade.
