POLICE last were interrogating one of the alleged kidnappers of three women taken from a bar at gunpoint Thursday, and arrested a former cop and the man’s family for attempting to bribe airport police to allow the man to leave the island with false papers.

The man, said to be 32 years old, was nabbed in a sting at the Norman Manley International Airport, attempting to check in on a flight to the United States.

The sting was set up after the airport policeman pretended to go along with what police sources say was a US$800 pay-off to look the other way.

The former cop and three others – the suspect’s wife, mother and father – were arrested in connection with the abductions, and were also being interrogated last night.

Police have withheld the names of the five persons held and have refused them bail, saying they will face an identification parade later this week.

Three women were abducted from at about 9:00 pm last Thursday in what police sources now say is linked to a fight for turf in which women and children have increasingly become targets of gangs desperately attempting to cement power bases.

The women – two of whom were identified as Simone Vernon and Catrina Webb, both 20, of unnamed addresses – were taken from a bar along First Street, New Port West.

Three men entered the bar, brandished guns and robbed patrons, then grabbed the women by the arm, forced them into a car and drove away.

Police said it is believed the women were taken to Greenwich Town, raped, shot, and dumped into toxic sewerage and left for dead.

The third woman, whose identity is being safeguarded, reportedly escaped the pit after the men left.

A search is still underway by the Marine police to find the other two women, whose bodies are now believed to have washed out to sea, but up to last night detective superintendent Oswald Eyre, head of the Hunts Bay Criminal Investigation Branch said they had made no progress since Saturday.

The woman who survived is in critical condition, but Eyre declined to say whether she had been placed on the Witness Protection Programme. “All I will say is we are making every effort to protect her,” he told the Observer last night.

In the sting that was set up, police sources said that on Saturday night the 32-year-old, who sources say is a forklift operator employed at Kingston Wharf, came to the airport in a Mitsubishi Lancer motor car driven by the former policeman – said to be in his mid-50s – and accompanied by his mother, father, and his wife.

They spoke to a policeman they knew at the airport, told him the suspect was about to leave the island on a flight to the United States using a forged travel document, and allegedly offered the cop US$800 to allow him to pass through unhindered.

The airport cop pretended to agree to the bribe, but instead alerted the airline to look out for the forged passport, and immediately set up a sting operation.

Police sources said while the alleged kidnapper was being processed yesterday, the airline discovered the forged passport and called the cops.

The 32-year-old suspect was then arrested for tendering a forged document, fraudulent use of a passport and failing to give his correct address.

Police say the suspect lives at Fourth Street, Greenwich Town, but had given his address as Treadways, St Catherine.

The wife and mother were arrested for perverting the course of justice, the father for breaches of the Corruption Act, and the former policeman for harbouring a suspect.

When the alleged kidnapper was initially arrested on the forgery charge, he was given station bail of $30,000 by the airport police, with his wife as surety to appear in the Half Way Tree Criminal Court next week.

But when the Hunt’s Bay police got word of the arrest, said Eyre, they re-arrested the 32-year-old and is holding him and the family in custody.

The Mitsubishi motor car was also seized and is in police custody.

The Hunts Bay police heard of the arrest and rushed to the airport.

Meantime, the search for the other two women, whom the police still have listed as missing, continues in open water.

“We have sensitised fishermen at Rae Town, Greenwich Farm, Hellshire and South Side in Central Kingston. “They are very cooperative and are assisting us in the sea search,” said Eyre.

whytetk@jamaicaobserver.com