Taxi driver fakes kidnapping to pay for ganja he abandoned in car

A 23-year-old taxi driver is now evading Police after he allegedly faked his kidnapping to pay for a quantity of ganja he abandoned. The man had reportedly run away from cops in Region Five (Mahaica-Berbice) and abandoned his car which contained a large amount of marijuana.
Police said the incident occurred on April 22.
At the time the cannabis was found, the man was allegedly transporting the drug for another person. Guyana Times was informed that the man’s vehicle was stopped and searched by Police ranks and the drug was discovered.
Upon seeing this, the man buckled from the scene and made good his escape.
Shortly after, Police said, “the person he was transporting the cannabis for demanded that he (the taxi driver) paid him $1 million for his losses”.
This caused the taxi driver to allegedly conspire with others to fake his kidnapping.
It was also reported that at around 14:35h on Saturday, the man’s 21-year-old fiancée of Essex Street, New Amsterdam, Berbice, went to the Police and reported that on Thursday last at about 07:50h her partner left home to drop a passenger to Georgetown.
The passenger, Police said, is known to her as “Buckboy”.
The woman said she called her fiancé at 21:24h and he told her that he was at Weldaad, West Coast Berbice, and had to turn back to make a pick up at Bath Settlement. That was the last she heard from him.
At about 01:30 h on Friday, she said her landline phone rang and a male voice at the other end told her that he had narcotics in her fiancé’s car and he wanted $1 million for it.
She said she was also threatened that if she did not pay the money, “she will find his body at the road corner.”
The woman said she told the male caller that she did not have that amount of money, and requested to speak to her fiancé, but the person ended the call.
However, on Saturday at about 10:09h, she checked her phone and saw a number of photographs of her fiancé on a bed with his hands and feet tied up with a yellow rope. The photos were sent to her from her fiancé’s phone.
She also received some text messages demanding $500,000. She told investigators she was also warned against making contact with the Police or it would be worse.
The passenger – “Buckboy” – who was in the car with the taxi driver, is currently in custody and is being interrogated.
Investigations are ongoing.
For the past two months, Police have been grappling with fake kidnapping reports. In the month of March, there were three fake kidnapping reports in three days.
The most recent case was that of an 18-year-old who claimed that she was abducted at Jimbo Bridge, Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD), by persons unknown.
The teen was eventually found at the Kitty seawall, and was interviewed at the CID Headquarters, Eve Leary, by investigators and admitted that her kidnapping story was fake.
She told investigators that she contacted one of her friends via cell phone and asked her for a place to stay for a few days. She said that she told her friend she was feeling flustered and was drifting further into depression.
The teen then left her home to conduct business for a relative after which she met with her friend in Georgetown who gave her the keys to the house.
She then proceeded to her friend’s house. She stated that while in the house she was feeling mentally and physically tired, so she inflicted injuries on her stomach, legs, arms, and back with her fingernails.
The teen also said that she took a pair of scissors and cut off her hair, and scratched her face because she was feeling the same way. Asked about burn marks visible on her skin, the teen said that she had inflicted those on herself with a metal comb.
She told investigators that she left the house, joined a taxi that was provided to her by her friend, and proceeded to the Kitty seawall, Georgetown, in hopes that someone would see her and call her parents. She said that it was while at the seawall she decided that she would tell her parents that she had been kidnapped. (G9)