Three teens and a 20-year-old man were held by po­lice af­ter snatch­ing chains, cell­phones and purs­es from passers-by in down­town Port of Spain on Thurs­day af­ter­noon.

Po­lice said of­fi­cers of the Port of Spain Task Force were on pa­trol at around 2 pm when they were oap­proached by peo­ple who com­plained that a group of men were wan­der­ing along Pem­broke Street and rob­bing peo­ple.

The of­fi­cers went to the area in an un­marked ve­hi­cle and no­ticed the ban­dits.

The ban­dits on see­ing the of­fi­cers ran in dif­fer­ent di­rec­tions but were chased and caught by po­lice.

The sus­pects, a 17-year-old Sea Lots boy and 19-year-old Char­lotte Street man were ar­rest­ed.

A sec­ond team of po­lice al­so ar­rest­ed a 16-year-old Sea Lots boy and 20-year-old Char­lotte Street man on Knox Street near­by.

The sus­pects were hand­ed over to the Bel­mont CID and are ex­pect­ed to be charged with rob­beries.

The ex­er­cise was co­or­di­nat­ed by Sgt Alexan­der with sup­port from PCs Aguillera, Davis and WPC Payne.