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The An­ti-Ex­tor­tion Unit of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has re­ceived 41 re­ports since the year be­gan, from vic­tims who are be­ing “taxed” by un­scrupu­lous per­sons look­ing to make a quick and easy dol­lar.

This was re­vealed dur­ing a meet­ing at the St Au­gus­tine South Com­mu­ni­ty Cen­tre, Free­man Road, St Au­gus­tine, on Wednes­day by As­sis­tant Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice Crime, Richard Smith. He said they had so far man­aged to achieve a 61 per cent de­tec­tion rate.

But de­spite this, he ap­pealed to peo­ple to come for­ward and re­port when they en­coun­tered in­stances of ex­tor­tion, as he said the po­lice can­not act on hearsay but re­ports from vic­tims of such crimes.