(Trinidad Express) A week after their kidnapping for a ransom in Venezuela, five fishermen have returned home.
They arrived in the south coast fishing village of Morne Diablo early on Thursday.
The Express has learnt that the families of the fishermen paid for their lives.
In exchange for the fishermen, the kidnappers got US $60,000, several boat engines, and gold.
Six fishermen had initially been abducted but one – Jerry O’Brian – returned to Trinidad within two days, after a US$30,000 ransom was paid.
The families of the other fishermen were given a last Friday deadline to pay the rest of the US$200,000.
The men who came home today are O’Brian’s brother, Jason O’Brian, 38, Jagdesh Jude Jaikaran, 16, Brandon Arjoon, 28, and Ricky Rambharose, 35.
The Trinidad and Tobago Police Service (TTPS) had communicated with Interpol seeking its intervention to bring the men home.
And last Friday, the Ministry of National Security revealed that the fishermen who were kidnapped for ransom last month were up a river in Venezuela when they were taken.
National Security Minister Stuart Young warned nationals of Trinidad and Tobago that they should be aware of the risks of leaving T&T’s territorial waters and venturing into the territorial waters of other countries where this country has no jurisdiction.
