Business owners in Warrenville, Cunupia say they are scared and fed up of crime in the area and are calling for an increased presence and faster response times from the police.
This after businessman Suvesh “Cooksie” Ramnarine, the owner of Cosura Trading, was kidnapped by men dressed as police.
The kidnapping was captured on CCTV footage and shared on social media.
Around 7.10 pm on October 12, five men approached Ramnarine, 33,while he was seated in a bar metres away from his home on the Southern Main Road in Warrenville.
In the video, the men were seen dressed in black short-sleeved jerseys with “POLICE” written on the back, and one man wore what appeared to be police tactical kit.
They escorted Ramnarine, who was seated alone at a table, out of the bar and into a waiting black Hyundai Tucson SUV with blue flashing lights.
One of the suspects stood watch by the door as Ramnarine was bundled into the van before one of the armed men got into Ramnarine’s black Toyota Prado and drove off.
The two SUVs drove in different directions with Ramnarine’s Prado heading south while the kidnapper’s SUV drove north.
Less than 15 minutes later, Ramnarine’s mother received a call from his phone and he told her he had been kidnapped and a ransom was being demanded for his release.
Up till newstime he had not been released.
Newsday visited the area on Sunday and the bar from which he was kidnapped was open for business.
A businessman in the area, who gave his name only as Mohan, said he knows Ramnarine’s family and described him as a “good, hard-working boy.”
He said Ramnarine was well-known among businessmen in the community after putting a lot of effort into building his business in a relatively short space of time.
He said unlike Ramnarine, though, he has “held back” from doing the same as he believed it would have garnered him too much attention and made him the target of criminals.
“At one time we used to have a bandit bag. It was a bag filled with cash so that when the bandits come we could just give them that. Because if they don’t get anything, we don’t know what they will do. They might kill everybody! If they get the cash they will leave fast.”
He added, however, that the measure was no longer used.
He said crime had risen to unacceptable levels in Warrenville and there has not been sufficient action by the police to counter it.
“We have too much crime in this little area, too much! We have no kind of form of security here.”
With customers being served in his yard at the side of the Southern Main Road, Mohan has a clear view of the road and said it was rare to see officers having daily interactions with business owners or even conducting daily patrols.
“You normally see police passing with the siren on and driving fast. But no (patrols), except maybe once every two weeks. That's it. It's bad here.”
With Ramnarine’s kidnapping casting a shadow over the community, Mohan said his family was upset with his decision to continue to operate his business
“I'm a US citizen and lived the
