By GARY DARMANIE Monday, April 13 2009

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SEIZED: The quantity of jewelry and foreign currency seized yesterday from a man by police moments before he was to board a flight at Piarco Internati...

THE BANDIT behind the robbery of a laptop computer and cellular phone belonging to a high- ranking member of the American Secretariat for the Fifth Summit of the Americas, was nabbed yesterday by St Clair police officers moments before he was to board a flight out of the country.

According to senior officers from Port-of-Spain CID, at about 11 am, officers including acting Corporals Honore and Williams and WPC Charles, all of the Operations Unit of the St Clair Police Station, went to Piarco International Airport and carried out surveillance.

They subsequently arrested a 46-year-old man who on being searched, was found with a quantity of jewelry and large sums of cash including TT, US, Pounds Sterling, Deutch Marks, Jamaican and Eastern Caribbean currencies.

Police said the arrested man is the prime suspect behind the robbing of Calvin Smith, a senior official of the American Secretariat, who was held up at knife-point at his rented home in Flagstaff, Long Circular on Saturday April 5, and robbed of a laptop computer and cellular phone. The computer is said to contain sensitive information regarding the summit.

The officers subsequently traced the cellular phone to a house in the Beetham Gardens and three men from El Socorro were subsequently arrested. Based on information received, the officers decided to set up the ‘‘sting’’ operation at the airport which resulted in the arrest.

Police said the detained man is also wanted in connection with a string of robberies going back to Carnival. Three days ago, a senior member of the TT Defence Force was robbed of personal items. The officer yesterday positively identified some of the jewelry found on the bandit, as belonging to him.

The man will be placed on several ID parades during this week before being charged with a number of offences, chief among them — armed robbery. Smith’s laptop computer and cellular phone have not as yet been recovered.

Police are calling on members of the public who have been robbed within recent times, to visit St Clair Police Station and assist officers in identifying the recovered items. Investigations are continuing.