Ari­ma po­lice of­fi­cers have launched a ma­jor in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to the kid­nap­ping of three Venezue­lan women, who were brazen­ly snatched on Sun­day evening in full view of passers­by.

The in­ci­dent, which oc­curred around 6 pm along Hoyte Av­enue, has sent shock­waves through the com­mu­ni­ty.

Wit­ness­es told po­lice that the women had just been dropped off near a su­per­mar­ket to meet two friends when a grey ve­hi­cle pulled up along­side them. Two men and three women re­port­ed­ly emerged from the ve­hi­cle, forced the vic­tims in­side, and sped off, leav­ing by­standers and the women's friends stunned.

Po­lice said the rel­a­tives of the vic­tims lat­er re­ceived a text mes­sage de­mand­ing mon­ey. They were al­so told that the women were be­ing held un­til the pay­ment was made. 

In­ves­ti­ga­tors have not dis­closed the amount re­quest­ed.

Po­lice from the Ari­ma Po­lice Sta­tion, along with of­fi­cers from the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit, have been search­ing for the vic­tims and try­ing to iden­ti­fy the per­pe­tra­tors. 

Of­fi­cers are ap­peal­ing to any­one with in­for­ma­tion about the grey ve­hi­cle or those in­volved to come for­ward im­me­di­ate­ly.