Nearly four months after a dramatic high-seas rescue foiled a cross-border kidnapping plot in Trinidad and Tobago, five men have been formally charged with the abduction of 73-year-old landlady Tara Poliah from her San Juan residence. The accused, identified as Hakeem Amzad Ali, Hector Jimenez, Reynaldo Alexander Martinez, John Evans and Johniken Gonzales, have remained in preventive detention at Golden Grove Prison in Arouca since authorities first disrupted the scheme in March. On July 9, investigators from the country’s Anti-Kidnapping Unit, led by Woman Corporal Rajkumar, carried out the formal charging process at the prison, with a Spanish interpreter on hand to assist with procedural communications. The five defendants are scheduled to make their first court appearance next week before a master of the District Court in North Trinidad. The investigation into the kidnapping has been overseen by a team of senior officers led by ASP Lazarus, Inspector Phillip, Sgt Katerson and Rajkumar.
The kidnapping unfolded on March 25, when four assailants confronted Poliah inside the garage of her San Juan home, forced her into a waiting vehicle, and fled the area. By midnight that same day, investigators confirm the kidnappers had moved Poliah to a small vessel, with plans to sail her across the Caribbean to Venezuela. The plot was derailed before it could be completed, however, when the Trinidad and Tobago Coast Guard intercepted the boat roughly one nautical mile off the country’s North Coast, acting on advance radar intelligence that tracked the vessel’s movement. Poliah was recovered unharmed from the vessel, and multiple suspects were taken into custody immediately during the interception. Authorities later confirmed that eight people—six Venezuelan nationals and two citizens of Trinidad and Tobago—were on board the intercepted boat.
In additional details of the operation, the Trinidad and Tobago Defence Force confirmed that two other suspects tried to avoid capture by jumping overboard during the coast guard chase. The pair was rescued by a local fisherman the following day, March 26, and turned over to the coast guard before being transferred to police custody. In total, law enforcement detained 11 suspects in connection with the kidnapping: the eight intercepted at sea, plus three additional suspects—two men and one woman—who were arrested at Tyrico Bay shortly after the interception. While unofficial police sources have confirmed that some detainees were released without charge, the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service has not issued an official public update on the status of the other six detainees not named in the recent charges.
The five charged men were first listed in 23 preventive detention orders (PDOs) signed by Homeland Security Minister Roger Alexander on April 13. In those orders, 12 people total were identified as members or associates of a dedicated kidnapping enterprise that operates across national borders. The five charged men, alongside seven other uncharged co-conspirators named in the PDOs, are accused of participating in coordinated, multi-offender criminal operations that rely on cross-border infrastructure, including dedicated maritime vessels and pre-established land transport networks. The PDO documents outline that different network members take on specialized roles: some act as facilitators, others as drivers or coordinators, while core participants directly carry out the abduction, transport and holding of kidnap victims. Of the five men now formally charged, only Martinez is listed as having a residential address in Venezuela. The seven other people named in the April 13 PDOs are Diogenes Adrian Arcia, Crystal Le Blanc, Daniel Williams (also known as “Kimba”), Eduardo Jose Febres Rodriguez, Ishmael Salvary, Nathaniel Rojas, and Jorge Casadilla Caldea.
Shortly after the March rescue and arrests, Police Commissioner Allister Guevarro announced that law enforcement had successfully dismantled a well-established transnational kidnapping ring. “This successful operation represents a significant breakthrough in our ongoing efforts to dismantle organised criminal groups involved in cross-border kidnappings,” Guevarro said in a statement following the operation. “The speed, precision, and professionalism displayed in this rescue demonstrates that Trinidad and Tobago’s law enforcement agencies are prepared, united, and resolute in protecting our citizens.”