WHILE swift action by police intelligence ranks has put them on the trail of a Trinidadian who reportedly has been renting cars and reselling them locally, there is now evidence that the individual, Daniel Ali, (whose last address was Lot 57, Roraima Housing Scheme, West Bank Demerara) was working along with local accomplices.

His ‘partners in crime’ have been holding assets for him and even opening bank accounts on his behalf, while being well aware of his illegal practices.
The story all came to light over the weekend when several car dealers turned up at the Vigilance and Leonora Police Stations with reports that Ali who had rented several cars from them had failed to return the vehicles and had in fact sold them to other persons.
The Police, on Friday last, had already received three similar reports, while another was made at the Vigilance Police Station even as police there were preparing to intercept Ali and his accomplice (Steven Baboolall) who was seen in the vicinity of Vlissengen Road, Georgetown.
However, although the police at Vigilance were informed of their location, no ranks turned up and the man who made the final report was sent to the Brickdam Police Station since the rental of his vehicle was done in Georgetown.
Brickdam was contacted by someone who was secretly investigating the culprits, but by the time ranks arrived at the guest house in Eccles where the duo was staying, a security guard there informed that the individuals had suddenly checked out of the location although they had paid for several more days.
While the police failed to check at Room 102 where the men were staying, this newspaper was reliably informed that the security at the guest house had lied since they were indeed inside the said room with two other male friends.

HOW IT ALL WENT DOWN
The activities of Ali and Baboolall became noticeable when they moved into an apartment at 57 Roraima Housing Scheme (owned by the Aracari Resort), earlier this year and were observed spending lavishly and driving several expensive cars. The concern of curious neighbours was met with explanations that the men who had come from Trinidad were wealthy and were here to invest in a catering business.
At that time they were overheard making arrangement for the sale of cars with ‘Rajin’, an ex-manager of the Aracari Resort who was renting an apartment at the same building and was sharing it with a ‘male deportee’ who was rumoured to be in ‘hot water’ over something that went sour in another ‘car arrangement.’
‘Rajin’ and his deportee friend were subsequently evicted from the premises but not before he was fingered in the disappearance of another vehicle belonging to his relatives, which he claimed he had innocently lent to another business associate.
Subsequently, ‘Rajin’ was seen with the vehicle that was reported missing.
When a strange man hanged himself in the yard of the very building and police began to frequent the location, Ali and Baboolall hurriedly abandoned their apartment and began operating a catering business at Uitvlugt, West Coast Demerara.
A source explained that after some three months they returned and attempted to rent the said apartment again and seemed surprised that it was already taken by another couple.
Last Thursday, Ali who had befriended our informant sent him a text that read, “I am in deep shit with Steven… I moved out and took my things by Anita, Steven is jealous… please help me.”
Not knowing who the text had come from, our informant did not call the number from which the message was sent until after two days and realised he was speaking to Ali who sounded frantic and seemed to be in great distress. The informant agreed to meet him in front of Ashmins in Georgetown and was surprised to see him driving a shiny car but noted that Ali was crying.
Ali then informed our source that himself and Baboolall were in the process of lending money to villagers in Uitvlugt and would collect interest on the sums loaned. He told our informant that a resident from the village had turned up to borrow $1.5M from them and had left two cars with them until the sum would have been repaid.
Ali said that Wednesday last week police came to their home and arrested Baboolall who had worded the contract that secured the loan arrangement. However, such claims have turned out to be lies as discovered later.
In the meantime, the informant had no idea what was really going on until Ali asked him to accompany him on the East Coast of Demerara to collect personal items that Baboolall’s relatives were refusing to give him, since they were blaming him for the young boy’s imprisonment. Suddenly when they arrived at Non Pariel where the residents resided, Ali refused to go to the home and instead sent our informant to the relatives in a separate taxi while he and two other friends waited in another taxi by the roadside.
When our informant arrived there he received the shock of his life, since one of Baboolall’s male relatives brandished a cutlass, refused to deliver the items and summoned the Vigilance Police instead. Shocked beyond belief, the poor man was then informed that Ali and Baboolall would normally sell rented cars and had recently put the family in ‘shambles’, since they had managed to persuade a female relative of Baboolall to take them to their most recent car dealer.
The poor man immediately left the scene and immediately made a report via telephone to police at Vigilance and Brickdam, and has being doing his best to help with the police investigations. Ali had told the informant that since he was very wealthy, he had recently asked a friend, ‘Anita’, a worker at the Aracari Resort to open a bank account for them in her name and would normally bank sizable amounts on a fortnightly basis. This was indeed confirmed by the woman who even said she had closed the account when Baboolall was caught by police and was keeping a large sum of cash and personal household items for the couple at her home. The household items were shown to our informant when he accompanied the distressed Ali there two days earlier.
When the story blew over the weekend and the woman was contacted she seemed angry and claimed that the two had “removed their things”, and that she had deeply regretted “helping them.”
There are reports that the latest car dealer who was conned by the duo woke up early Sunday morning to find his car parked in front of his premises and the ignition keys thrown into his front yard. Meanwhile one of the associates of Ali, obviously terrified after reading a newspaper article on their wrong doings in yesterday’s Chronicle, called and informed that the couple were indeed at the guest house at Eccles when police from Brickdam had visited, and that Baboolall yesterday checked into an unknown hotel in the West Demerara region.
Ali on the other hand has managed to elude the police and may be attempting to leave Guyana for Suriname using the ‘back track’ route.
Relatives of Baboolall are stilling holding on to personal items belonging to him and Ali, and Baboolall who was placed on $20,000 bail on Friday at the Leonora Police Station, has failed to return there as instructed by senior CID ranks.
Persons with any information on the whereabouts of Daniel Ali, and Steven Baboolall are asked to contact the nearest police station on 227-1152, 225-6411, 226- 0869, 227-2272, or 911.

(By Alex Wayne)