Nazim Baksh

Guyana born Nazim Baksh is an award-winning investigative journalist and producer at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and has worked extensively in Afghanistan, Pakistan and most recently reported from Guantanamo Bay.

Published on 03/9/2008

Given the level of crime in the idyllic Caribbean island — state of Trinidad and Tobago, everything from murder and kidnapping to corruption and robbery, I was surprised to find security at Piarco International Airport conspicuously absent.

This is after all the land of carnival and Calypso and it takes a great deal to disturb the festive atmosphere. But with a population of 1.3 million people and an average GDP of TT$90 billion, Trinidad has earned the unenviable reputation of being the "kidnapping capital" of the world.

Many influential Muslim leaders, who asked to remain anonymous, told me they suspect that Yasin Abu Bakr and members of his Jamaat al-Muslimeen have been behind a large number of the kidnapping for ransom schemes.