The police force was on the alert on the evening of Wednesday 26 July to track down a car with four occupants on board, including a woman. They were posing as police officers from the Anti-Drug and Smuggling Unit (Adsu) and were able to extort a sum of money from two victims. During the day on Thursday 27 July, the suspect vehicle, a grey Nissan Juke, was spotted on Safe City CCTV footage. The movement of the car was tracked by officers stationed at the Police Main Command Centre, before it was intercepted by an Emergency Response Service (ERS) unit on the M3 motorway in Verdun. A resident of Vuillemin, Quartier-Militaire was arrested. The Criminal Investigation Division (CID) in Flacq took over the investigation and arrested five other suspects.
The whole affair began on the Belle Mare public beach near the Thalassa hotel. It was around 5pm on Wednesday 2 July. A 66-year-old insurance agent was sitting at the wheel of his grey Toyota Vitz, when another grey car pulled up alongside. Four people, including a woman, got out. They identified themselves as Adsu police officers. The insurance agent was asked to produce his identity card, after which one of the so-called policemen showed him a warrant form, before he was forced to sign it.
His vehicle was immediately searched. He was then shown a black circular object, believed to be drugs, which had been found in his car. It was the beginning of a long ordeal for this resident of La Source, Flacq. He was held hostage in the car by three unknown men. One of the three men took control of his Toyota Vitz. He was taken to the village of Queen Victoria where the two vehicles had stopped in a cane field.
He was questioned about his bank cards and secret codes. He was then taken to the Maubank and State Bank in Flacq where ATM withdrawals were made. He was taken back to Queen Victoria and released so that he could get back into his car. The 60-year-old told police that he will be able to identify the four suspects.
On the evening of Wednesday 26 July, a company director was returning home to Trou aux Biches in his Toyota Rush when he was intercepted by four occupants of a car, one of whom was a woman. The men were all heavy build. One of them told him, “nou bann l’Adsu nou bizin fer la fouy ek ou”. Just as he was about to arrive in front of his house after going to the northern hospital, he was forced to get back behind the wheel of his car under the guard of two strangers to drive to an isolated spot in Solitude. One of the men showed him a ball wrapped in black adhesive tape and said, “sa sintetik sa , ena dis ou kinzan prison ladan”. They then returned to the Trou aux Biches area and went to his home, where a search was carried out in the presence of his wife. Nothing unusual was found, but they demanded Rs 200,000 in cash. The 52-year-old man said he insisted that he did not have this money in his possession.
Two men took him to an ATM in Trou aux Biches to make withdrawals.
