A Ch­agua­nas res­i­dent, who has been charged with sev­er­al crimes in the past, was on Tues­day night held by the po­lice while vis­it­ing his apart­ment at One Wood­brook Place, one of the coun­try's most ex­pen­sive prop­er­ty de­vel­op­ments. Sel­wyn "Robo­cop" Alex­is, 45, of Cashew Gar­dens, En­ter­prise, Ch­agua­nas, was up to late yes­ter­day be­ing ques­tioned by of­fi­cers at the Cen­tral Po­lice Sta­tion in Port-of-Spain. A re­port said that around 7.30 pm, a team of of­fi­cers as­signed to the Cen­tral Po­lice Sta­tion, act­ing on in­for­ma­tion, went to the apart­ment com­plex. Po­lice said Alex­is, who had been un­der sur­veil­lance for some time, was held af­ter he drove his ve­hi­cle in­to the base­ment car park of the com­plex.

In­ves­ti­ga­tors said Alex­is was rent­ing an apart­ment in the mul­ti-mil­lion-dol­lar com­plex for sev­er­al months be­fore his ar­rest. Se­nior of­fi­cers said Alex­is had been un­der sur­veil­lance by the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit for some time. Up to late yes­ter­day, the sus­pect was yet to be in­ter­viewed by de­tec­tives of a spe­cialised po­lice unit. When he was de­tained on Tues­day night, of­fi­cers said he was in pos­ses­sion of a Toy­ota Hilux, but its chas­sis num­ber matched a Hyundai Tus­con ve­hi­cle. De­tec­tives say Alex­is has been co-op­er­at­ing with them but some in­for­ma­tion he has pro­vid­ed has yet to be ver­i­fied. Se­nior of­fi­cers said the in­ves­ti­ga­tion was still un­der way and he had not been charged up to late yes­ter­day.

Po­lice said he was ex­pect­ed to be charged un­der the re­cent­ly-passed An­ti-Gang Act as a gang leader. Alex­is' ar­rest comes days af­ter two Port-of-Spain res­i­dents were held while hid­ing out at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel. Last Fri­day, Cedric Burke, 36, of Sea Lots, and Keon Bain, 31, of Mar­aval, were ar­rest­ed while stay­ing at the Hy­att Re­gency Ho­tel, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain. Burke and Bain have since ap­peared in the Port-of-Spain Mag­is­trates' Court, charged with be­ing a gang leader and a gang mem­ber of the Pro­duc­tion Av­enue, Sea Lots Gang, re­spec­tive­ly.

At­tor­ney Gen­er­al Anand Ram­lo­gan con­firmed Alex­is' ar­rest yes­ter­day but de­clined to com­ment fur­ther. Ram­lo­gan said Alex­is' ar­rest was a po­lice mat­ter and they (the po­lice) were con­tin­u­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tions. Se­nior Supts John Mar­tinez of the Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit and Glenn Hack­ett of the Port-of-Spain CID head­ed the ex­er­cise.

CAMILLE CLARKE and DEREK ACHONG