Sparking renewed crime fears, a taxi driver was kidnapped on Thursday night by men who are said to be holding him in the Buxton back dam and have since contacted the family with a $5M ransom demand.

The abduction comes almost five months after a bloody crime wave mostly along the East Coast of Demerara which included robbery, kidnappings and the murder of policemen.

Vivickanan Nandalall, also called `Boyee’ and ‘Scogie’, of Block 12 Non Pariel has not been seen since a call was made to his taxi base by a man who asked to be picked up at the Amax Junction in Enterprise.

Following the discovery of his car, PGG 3846, and a call made to his cellular phone, it was discovered he had been kidnapped. Scores of policemen have since descended on the area in search of the youth.

Yesterday morning, armed police were seen at a roadblock at Ogle while a number of vanloads of armed policemen were seen circling villages on the East Coast.

And a police release said that a number of abandoned structures had since been searched while searches were also continuing in the back dam area, where the man is suspected to be held.

The police release yesterday said that they were conducting investigations into the “alleged kidnapping” of a twenty-year-old male taxi drive, “...who was allegedly kidnapped, sometime yesterday [Thursday] afternoon, on the East Coast Demerara.”

The release said that the man’s car had been found abandoned on the Annandale Railway Embankment Road.

The police release said that the Anti-Kidnapping Unit had been dispatched to the area. Additionally, reinforcements from Headquarters and other Anti Crime Units from Georgetown have also been dispatched “and a combined operation is in progress in the Buxton area and other surrounding areas were it is suspected the kidnappers may be holding their victim.”

It was only after the man’s car was discovered that the family learnt something was amiss. According to reports, a resident reported the abandoned car to the police after someone contacted the taxi service base in Non Pariel.

A relative yesterday told Stabroek News that the taxi service then contacted them saying the man was not seen after he was requested to do a pick-up.

That he did not return home on Thursday night was not strange to his cousin with whom he lived as Nandalall would sleep out from time to time.

The relative said that the man lived with his cousin since both of his parents were overseas.

After being notified the cousin immediately dialled Nandalall’s cellular phone number and he told her he was kidnapped and was being held in Buxton back dam and that his kidnappers wanted $5M.

A man, who informed the relatives that he could not speak on the phone at that time, answered another call to the cell phone made by other relatives.

It is understood that at around 11:20 am a call was made to Nandalall’s home when the ransom demand was once again made.

Relatives were yesterday reluctant to divulge information on the kidnapping and one relative said that he was planning to lay low until his nephew was released.

Nandalall’s kidnapping followed a number of abductions, which were a feature of Guyana’s worst-ever crime wave.

At the beginning of the crime spree in April 2002 a number of East Coast residents were kidnapped and while some were released after ransoms were paid others were found dead by police and army ranks.

A 19-year-old resident of Lot 114-115 Mon Repos Village, Heeraman Sahadeo was kidnapped on December 17 when he visited Buxton to collect money owed to him by a building contractor. His family had initially heard from the kidnappers who made a ransom demand of $5M but he has not been heard from or seen since.

The crime spree spilled over well into this year and a number of persons were again kidnapped and held in the Buxton area.

On January 17 a Guysuco pump operator was seized by six gunmen at Strathspey and released an hour later after being severely beaten and warned to pay a ransom or risk having his house torched.

On March 6 an official of the Georgetown Chamber was snatched from his vehicle in front of his Agricola home and his wife shot and injured. Dev Sharma escaped his kidnappers hours later while in Buxton.

On March 19 an 11-year-old girl was snatched from the Strathspey Primary School by two men who attempted to take her away on a bicycles but were forced to release her after a resident in the area fired a shot.

On March 23 a gang of about four men kidnapped an elderly resident of Non Pariel, as he was about to enter his yard. The man, who was forced by his kidnappers into his own red 4x4, was released the following day.

On March 28 a Trinidadian engineer, contracted to Guyana Water Incorporated (GWI), was kidnapped and taken into Buxton by about fifteen armed men. He was released the same day after a ransom of $3M was paid.

Another Trinidadian was kidnapped on April 9. Lalchan called `Coz’ was kidnapped by gunmen at his Strathspey work site by gunmen who arrived on bicycles and who forced him into a pick-up van. He was released shortly after a ransom of $2M was paid.

On April 11 three gunmen at the Vryheid’s Lust Railway Embankment Road kidnapped 33-year-old Deo Basdeo of 113 Mon Repos.

The man later escaped his captors hours before the deadline for the payment of the $10M ransom expired.

One day after Basdeo’s kidnapping, the Regional Security Officer (RSO) of the United States Embassy in Georgetown, Stephen Lesniak was seized while playing golf at Lusignan. He was released unharmed sometime after being held in a church among other places and after a ransom was paid. This kidnapping signalled the beginning of the end of the gang operating in the Buxton area.

But on April 14, a 16-year-old youth, Roy Bell, was kidnapped somewhere in the city and his body was later found lying under a suitcase on the parapet of the Pattensen/Turkyen Public Road. A ransom demand of $10M was made to relatives.

On May 13, Viticharan Singh, a businessman of Mahaica, was kidnapped by four armed men and was rescued by members of the army and the police five days after he was kidnapped. The businessman was found handcuffed in a house with his feet bound. Soon after the army and police moved into the Buxton area and in a number of raids killed known criminals including those who took part into the Mash Day 2002 prison escape that had provided the spark for the crime wave.