http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/_Ca ... 77033.html'Car thief' arrested
Hotel raid nets firearm
By Akile Simon
Story Created: Sep 13, 2011 at 11:59 PM ECT
Story Updated: Sep 13, 2011 at 11:59 PM ECT
POLICE have arrested a 32-year-old man they have described as a notorious car thief wanted in connection with several armed carjackings.
The man was arrested when police went to the Hibiscus Hotel in Chaguanas where they also detained a 25-year-old woman of Las Lomas No 1.
Cpls Robert Joseph and Wayne Praimdass along with PCs Vernon Mohammed and Robbie Halls of the Stolen Vehicles' Squad also searched the ceiling in the room where the couple were held and found a .38 revolver.
Police said around 1.30 a.m. SVS officers and officers from the Northern Division Task Force, led by Cpl Andre Joseph, went to the hotel after they received information that the suspect was staying in one of the rooms.
Officers said when they approached the room, they announced their presence and the male suspect shouted that he wasn't going to open the door since had no intention of being arrested.
Police said after repeated calls for the suspect to open the door were ignored, officers kicked open the door and detained the man and his female companion. A search was later conducted and the weapon and six rounds of ammunition were found.
The two suspects were taken into custody and their respective homes was searched but nothing illegal was found, police said. At the woman's Las Lomas home, her father and other relative broke down in tears after police entered the premises with her before conducting their search.
As the woman was being led out, a relative stated, "Well now she go learn a lesson because she too harden. I hope she learn now."
The weapon is believed to have been used in an armed robbery in Chaguanas two weeks ago which was captured on a surveillance tape.
The latest car stealing incident involving the suspect, police said, was aired on TV6's Crime Watch programme one week ago in which the suspect robbed a young man of his Mitsubishi Lancer motorcar at Xavier Street, Chaguanas.
The armed robbery, which was captured on a surveillance camera, showed the suspect relieving the man of his car. The video also showed the suspect, who was armed with a revolver, ordering the victim to start the car after he (the suspect) had earlier experienced difficulties in doing so.
He later fled the scene with the car, which police said has since been modified, with the chassis number in the vehicle being changed and the car sold.
Police said the suspect was previously charged with robbing a former senior judicial officer's relative of a motor vehicle several years ago and has two outstanding warrants. He is also wanted in connection with a botched car-jacking in La Romaine in which he fired shots at a woman who raised an alarm after he attempted to rob her of her motor car.
The suspect is expected to be placed in a series of identification parades in connection with armed car robberies within the Southern, South-Western and Central Divisions, police said. Up to late yesterday SVS officers were searching for more suspects believed to be linked to a criminal gang of car thieves.
