THERE is an emerging trend of kidnappings for ransom in Jamaica, according to Senior Superintendent of Police Derrick Cochrane, head of the National Intelligence Bureau.

“What we see emerging is kidnapping for ransom, akin to the phenomenon in Trinidad,” the SSP told the Observer on Tuesday.

Up to 2003, oil-producing Trinidad and Tobago was reportedly regarded as second only to drug-plagued Colombia for kidnappings as abductors targetted the wealthy and powerful within the twin island republic.

In 2004, abductions in Trinidad and Tobago reportedly soared to 163, up from about 10 in 2001, according to different media reports, but not all were kidnappings for ransom. In 2003, there were 142 kidnappings, but only 51 ransom demands, the reports say.

In Jamaica, the kidnap victims in known cases are from different backgrounds, suggesting that no specific group is targeted and that any group might be at risk.

The police make a distinction between abductions and kidnappings, the latter referring to a forced abduction accompanied by a ransom demand.

Cochrane could not supply specific statistics on abductions, which, he said, are often buried within the reports of missing people, but pointed to a series of high profile kidnappings, which have occurred in recent years.

“We don’t have the statistics, but there are isolated incidents that are unusual in the Jamaican criminal topography. And that is why we are taking a keen look at it,” the senior superintendent said.

The police do not publish statistics on abductions/ kidnappings, as it does for other big crimes, nor comment on specific cases.

The most recent kidnapping case involved the daylight grab of an 11-year-old boy in Ocho Rios on April 7. The kidnappers demanded $1.5 million from his parents for his return.

The boy’s parents, said to be operators of a supermarket in Ocho Rios, subsequently handed over the sum and the boy was released unharmed.

A day later, one suspect, Stanford George Nembhard, was taken into custody in St Mary following a coordinated raid by police investigators from the special operations teams from the police Area Two command, the St Ann Police, the Organised Crime Investigation Division, Operation Kingfish and the Criminal Investigation Division.

The police also recovered $1.3 million of the ransom that was paid out. Shepherd, 46, said to be of Boscobel Views and Wilderness in St Mary, has since been charged with kidnapping.

Cochrane said Tuesday that the same coordinated effort that went into that investigation, would have to be replicated for all cases of abductions if the police were to bring them under control.

“We intend to replicate the action in Ocho Rios through good police work where these incidents have come to the fore,” he noted.

“It was very effective police work that brought that case to a successful conclusion where it is in the court now awaiting prosecution. And that shows that we have the capacity and the capability to treat with incidents of these types.”

Other kidnapping cases include the abduction for ransom of Christine English, 55, on May 10, 2004. The Craig Hill resident’s abductors demanded, through a ransom note, $2.5 million for her return. The abductors later reportedly lowered thefigure to $2 million, but it’s not clear the precise sum that was paid out.

English, then director of social marketing and fundraising for the Jamaica AIDS Support, was released after her family paid the abductors.

In July 2001, gas station operator Sylvia Edwards, 48, was snatched for $200,000 ransom. But she was killed, her body found in Papine, St Andrew two days after the abduction, with a bullet to the head.

Cochrane said the $2.5 million ransom demand for English was the highest on record, but he had no figures on how much ransom has actually been paid out to kidnappers over time.

CORRECTION

Senior Superintendent of Police Albert Edwards, who until recently headed the constabulary’s National Intelligence Bureau, is on vacation leave and not pre-retirement leave as reported in yesterday’s Sunday Observer.

We regret the error.