THE Cuban national who initially claimed he was being held against his will and used in a ransom demand has been remanded to prison alongside another Cuban national after both were charged with conspiracy to commit a felony.
Iban Martinez, 28, of North Road, Georgetown, and Daikol Tartabull Rodriguez, 22, of Grove, East Bank Demerara, appeared before Magistrate Fabayo Azore at the Georgetown Magistrates’ Court on Monday.
The men were charged following an investigation into what police suspect was a staged kidnapping plot. They were not required to plead and were remanded to prison until June 22.
Police had launched the investigation on June 3 after receiving a report that Martinez was being held captive and that a ransom demand had been made for his release.
Investigators later located Martinez in Grove, East Bank Demerara, and subsequent enquiries reportedly uncovered inconsistencies in the report.
According to police, Martinez allegedly sent a photograph of himself appearing to be held at gunpoint in the back seat of a vehicle and requested US$1,500 from his father, who lives overseas.
An air pistol matching the object seen in the photograph was later recovered during the investigation.
This is not the first time a foreign national staged their kidnapping in Guyana. Back in 2017, Trinidadian national, Sawak Maraj, was arrested for giving false information to the police, stating that he had been kidnapped, and that his abductors had demanded US$700,000 for his release. He was eventually sentenced to four years in prison.
Maraj arrived in Guyana on October 27, 2017, claiming to have come for a job interview. He was picked up at the Cheddi Jagan International Airport by two other Trinidadians who had arrived in the country earlier that week.
Later that same day, Maraj’s relatives in Trinidad reportedly received a call from an unknown person claiming to have kidnapped Maraj shortly after his arrival here and demanding that a ransom be paid for his release.
The man’s family was also sent a photograph showing him clad only in his underwear and socks, and one of his alleged abductors holding a cutlass to his neck.
After being contacted by the man’s family in Trinidad, local police and agents from the Force’s Major Crimes Unit immediately sprang into action.
The first thing they did was to review footage from the surveillance camera at the airport, which showed Maraj warmly embracing his two so-called abductors, who turned out to be the said two ‘Trinis’ who’d picked him up at the airport, before boarding a taxi without incident.
Aided by the surveillance tapes, the investigators were able to track down the taxi driver who transported the men from the airport and trace the call that was made to demand the ransom. It was that call that gave away the location from where the call was made.
Armed with such vital information, the agents then hurried to the location, and there they found Maraj, the supposedly kidnapped victim, in an apartment, relaxing and sipping on beverages.