A co­or­di­nat­ed road check ex­er­cise con­duct­ed by the North Cen­tral Task Force on Wednes­day re­sult­ed in the ar­rest of a sus­pect in con­nec­tion with a re­port­ed kid­nap­ping and rob­bery.

The rov­ing ex­er­cise was car­ried out be­tween 10:00 am and 1:00 pm across sev­er­al ar­eas in the North Cen­tral Di­vi­sion. These in­clud­ed Range Road and Spring Road Ex­ten­sion, Five Rivers; Gold­en Grove Road, East­ern Main Road, and Thomas Trace, Arou­ca; Windy Hill, Bon Air North; Trinci­ty Mall, Trinci­ty Cen­tral Road, and East Gates; Dins­ley Main Road and Ed­die Hart Grounds, Tacarigua; and Orop­une Gar­dens, Pi­ar­co.

Dur­ing the op­er­a­tion, of­fi­cers re­spond­ed to a re­port of an in­ci­dent in progress at a bank at Trinci­ty Mall. A male sus­pect match­ing the de­scrip­tion pro­vid­ed was seen on the west­ern side of the bank. The vic­tim, who had re­port­ed­ly been kid­napped and robbed ear­li­er that day in the Mor­vant/Barataria area, iden­ti­fied the sus­pect at the scene.

A 32-year-old man from Barataria was ar­rest­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to the vic­tim, he had been lured un­der the pre­tense of pur­chas­ing a ve­hi­cle, and then was robbed of his white Ti­i­da and oth­er valu­ables, as well as as­sault­ed by the per­pe­tra­tors.

A sil­ver Toy­ota Axio be­lieved to be used in the in­ci­dent was found at the Trinci­ty Mall car park and tak­en to the Arou­ca Po­lice Sta­tion for foren­sic ex­am­i­na­tion.

In a sep­a­rate in­ci­dent, of­fi­cers al­so re­spond­ed to a re­port of an armed man at Build­ing 10, Apart­ment 1-2 West, Mal­oney Gar­dens. Up­on their ar­rival, the sus­pect, a 35-year-old man, fled the scene. A Tau­rus G2C 9mm pis­tol was re­cov­ered and seized.