Police and US embassy officials continue to say little about the activities of the team of investigators from the US Federal Bureau of Inves-tigation (FBI) and the US State Department's Diploma-tic Security Service (DSS)) which is assisting the police with its investigations into the kidnapping of a US embassy official on April 12.
Stephen Lesniak, the Regional Security Officer at the US embassy was taken from the Lusignan Golf Course, on the East Coast Demerara by five armed men just after 9 am. He was released later in the day after his friends and family paid over a ransom for his release. Reports about the sum paid vary between US$10,000 to US$60,000. The kidnappers had asked for US$300,000 from Lesniak's mother in Illinois, USA.
The team arrived here soon after Lesniak was kidnapped and has been co-operating with the Police since then.
Informed sources say that the US operatives have been taking statements from a number of persons including Lesniak and the embassy's Public Affairs Assistant, Trudy Wong-You, who reportedly was the go-between for the kidnappers and Lesniak's friends and family in Du Page County, Illinois. Both Lesniak and Wong-You are in the US and have agreed to make themselves available for further questioning if required. The two flew to the US on April 15, informed sources have told Stabroek News.
Lesniak's kidnapping was one in a series since the February 23 escape from the Camp Street prisons that set off the wave of violent crime that has engulfed the nation. Three of the five escapees, Dale Moore, Andrew Douglas and Mark Fraser were killed. A notorious wanted man was reportedly the mastermind behind the Lesniak kidnapping.
The police and army launched a massive air and ground search after Lesniak was kidnapped, concentrated on the Lower East Coast and in particular the village of Buxton. Lesniak was reportedly taken to Buxton and paraded through the streets of the village at gunpoint but the joint army and police search failed to uncover where he was being kept.