A view of the Chagville shoreline in Chaguaramas, where criminals are using boats to target unsuspecting people. PHOTO: KEITH MATTHEWS

The Chagville beach facility in Chaguaramas has been placed on high alert by police as gun-toting criminals, posing as fishermen, have been terrorising unsuspecting beach lovers. The criminals then make their speedy getaway in pirogues docked along the poorly-lit shoreline, Western Division police said yesterday. Police said the suspects looked like ordinary fishermen, dressed in three-quarter length pants and T-shirts, and sometimes wear rubber slippers. But the men are not members of the Chaguaramas fishing community, police warned. They are seasoned criminals who pounce on bathers and late-night lovers.

Before robbing their victims, the men rain blows on them, sometimes leaving them semi-conscious, police said. The assailants then race toward their pirogues and escape within minutes. According to Insp Henry Dann, who has been heading investigations, police have recorded four incidents in the last two weeks. Police said the pirogues normally approach the shore after 7 pm and remained docked in secluded areas for no longer than ten minutes. The assailants then walk along the shoreline, sometimes mingling with other people on the beach, while “scoping out” potential victims.

“These criminals like to slap and cuff people in the face and head...They target couples and lone seabathers,” an investigator said. “The suspects grab everything from the victims. Cellphones, jewelry, money and run back in the pirogues and escape on the high sea.” The whereabouts of the men, he said, were mainly from west Trinidad. “These are people with a good knowledge of the sea,” the investigator said. “They know how to manoeuvre pirogues, because within minutes they on the sea and out of sight.”

The victims, police said, were not from neighbouring Carenage, but rather east and central Trinidad. These “boat bandits,” as police have dubbed them, have so far managed to elude the law. “Chagville is an area where there is always a lot of boat traffic but we have received certain information and are thoroughly pursuing it,” Dann said. He said a team of officers from Western Division, including Sgt Ronald John, had narrowed down the suspects to a particular group of men who might also be wanted for other serious crimes within the division.

Businesses at risk

Neat wooden huts add to the rustic ambiance of Chagville beach. Proprietors, particularly women, whose normal business hours range from 5 am to 7 pm, fear that with increased criminals on the prowl, they would have to seek accommodation elsewhere.

“Of late we seeing strange men just lurking around the beach and it is worrying,” said a businesswoman. “They come on the beach for a short time and then head back in the boats.” In business for close to seven years, the woman also complained that she had been forced to reinforce the fencing around her hut with thick wire mesh. “We really fed up...This just getting from bad to worse,” she said. “If they not breaking into your place, they robbing you while you bathing or relaxing in your car.

“Chagville is not safe any more,” she cautioned. Echoing the same sentiments, another businesswoman called for more lights to be installed along the pathways leading to the beach. Describing Chagville as “often desolate,” she said this had created the ideal environment for thieves. “The authorities need to start beach patrols...work with the police because the area getting more dangerous with these boat criminals out there,” she said.

Police warn

Making an urgent appeal to beach lovers to be very wary, especially when using the Chagville facility on afternoons or at nights, Dann also urged people to pay close attention to vessels pulling ashore.

“People bathing or relaxing, especially in the area of KFC, must be cautious because this was where most of the incidents occurred,” Dann said.

He assured, however, that Western Division police were working closely with other law enforcement agencies to bring the perpetrators to justice.