The Police Force says that it is investigating a “fake kidnapping” after a man allegedly staged his abduction to repay a drug dealer.
The man has been identified as a 23-year-old taxi driver of Essex Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice.
According to the Police, on April 22, 2022, the man abandoned his motorcar and ran away from the Police in Region 5 after marijuana was found in the vehicle. As a result, the person he was transporting the illegal drug for demanded that he be repaid $1 million for his losses.
It is this demand, the Police say, that led them to believe the taxi driver staged his own kidnapping.
In a statement, the Police Force said that at about 02:35 pm, a 21-year-old woman went to the station and reported that her fiancé was missing since May 05 after he left their home to go drop off a passenger in Georgetown.
She said he had a passenger in his vehicle at the time.
The woman told investigators that she called her fiancé at 9:24 pm on his cell phone the said night to find out where he was and he told her that he was at Weldaad, West Berbice and that he had to turn back to make a pick up at Bath Settlement. That was the last she heard from him.
At about 01:30 am on Friday, she received a call from a male who related that her missing fiancé had his ‘stuff’ (narcotics) in his car and he wants $1 million for it. If she failed to pay up then his body would show up at the road corner.
The woman said she told the male caller that she does not have that amount of money and requested to speak to her fiancé but the person ended the call. Yesterday, at about 10:09 am, she checked her phone and saw a number of photographs of her fiancé on a bed with his hands and feet tied up with a yellow rope.
The photos were sent to her from her fiancé’s phone.
She also received some text messages demanding $500, 000. The woman told investigators that she was also warned against making contact with the Police or “it will be worse.”
The passenger is currently in custody and being interrogated.
Investigations are ongoing.
