Po­lice are in­ves­ti­gat­ing two sep­a­rate in­ci­dents in­volv­ing a Venezue­lan na­tion­al who was kid­napped and a Unit­ed King­dom na­tion­al who was ab­duct­ed and robbed in un­re­lat­ed at­tacks over the past week.

In the most re­cent case, a US$10,000 ran­som was de­mand­ed for a Venezue­lan na­tion­al liv­ing in Ch­agua­nas af­ter he was kid­napped on Sat­ur­day night.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, 30-year-old Al­bert George Navar­ro Ar­cia went with a teenag­er to sell cheese in the Wa­ter­loo, Cara­pichaima area in a blue Nis­san B13.

While at the meet­ing point, a group of peo­ple ap­proached them and forced Ar­cia in­to an­oth­er ve­hi­cle that was near­by be­fore dri­ving off.

The teenag­er es­caped and ran to the Ch­agua­nas Po­lice Sta­tion, where he re­port­ed the in­ci­dent. Some­time lat­er, the vic­tim’s sis­ter re­ceived a What­sApp mes­sage de­mand­ing US$10,000 for his re­lease.

Po­lice said that af­ter tak­ing the re­port, of­fi­cers were un­able to lo­cate the scene of the kid­nap­ping. The Freeport Po­lice Sta­tion and the An­ti-Kid­nap­ping Unit are con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

In a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent, 27-year-old UK na­tion­al Aman Bains was ab­duct­ed and robbed on Thurs­day night.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice, Bains re­port­ed that around 10.30 pm he was walk­ing along Ari­api­ta Av­enue near Hamil­ton Hold­er Street in Port-of-Spain when he was ap­proached by four masked men and one un­masked woman.

Bains said he was tak­en to an un­known lo­ca­tion where he was beat­en and held against his will. He al­so re­port­ed that his life was threat­ened if he did not com­ply with the at­tack­ers’ de­mands.

The as­sailants stole three bank cards and US$200 be­fore re­leas­ing him at a bus shed off the Au­drey Jef­fers High­way.

Bains said he re­turned to his Mar­riott Ho­tel room around 5.30 am the fol­low­ing day, where he con­tact­ed his man­ag­er and in­formed her of the in­ci­dent.