Extortion – The Pen Hustle With Brandy Cavalli

Florida Couple Kidnapped and Held for Ransom by Haitian Gangs

This is very scary stuff. Haiti has been in ruins for a while. Their President was assassinated in 2021. The gang activity is that of the cartel rampant with kidnappings, murder, extortion. There is daily uprising and rioting against the government and the country is now battling a cholera outbreak.

Let’s hope and pray this couple is returned home safely to their families. I can’t imagine how traumatic this experience is.

It’s important to issue this warning when traveling to be extremely cautious of travel ban warnings. The risks are too great and most foreign countries don’t have the same manpower and resources to help mitigate crime.

CNN — Abigail and Jean-Dickens Toussaint, both 33, were kidnapped on March 18 around Port-au-Prince, the nation’s capital, according to a statement from their families provided to CNN.

“Please share this and get the word out as much as you can,” the statement says, hoping the two return safe “to their child and family.”

The couple went to Haiti to visit family and to attend a festival but were kidnapped on their bus ride from Port-au-Prince, according to a woman named Christie, claiming to be the victims’ niece.

“They stopped the bus at a stop and then asked for Americans to get off the bus and their escorts off the bus, and then they took them,” she told CNN affiliate WPLG.

The kidnappers asked for $6,000 for the couple’s release, but after their family paid, they asked for more money, WPLG reports.

“Once we sent that money, they tried to up the price to $200,000 per person and we don’t have that type of money,” Christie told WPLG.

Two Inmates Dead After Prison Riots In Nebraska

Two inmates were found dead Monday at a maximum security prison in southeast Nebraska after a wild uprising.

Inmates took control of at least part of the Tecumseh State Correctional Institution Sunday during an incident when two staff members and two inmates were injured, according to the state Department of Correctional Services.

Staff members were attempting to break up a large gathering of inmates in front of a housing unit when the disturbance began, James Foster, a department spokesman, said in a statement.

Foster said officers regained control of the facility that houses 11 death row inmates on Monday. The Nebraska State Patrol is investigating the deaths.

There were no reports of any escapes.

Smoke rose from two housing units on Sunday and driveways to the prison were blocked, the Lincoln Journal Star reported. But prison officials said the exterior of the facility was secured by Sunday evening and all staffers were accounted for.

Early Monday, no more smoke could be seen and employees were being allowed into the facility.

The Journal Star reported it received a call from inmate Jeffry Frank just before 11 p.m. Sunday via a case manager’s office phone.

“We’ve pretty much taken the whole prison,” Frank told the newspaper.

He said that no prison employees were inside the housing unit and described the scene, saying: “The ceilings are fallen. There’s drywall on fire. There’s cameras torn down,” according to the Journal Star.

Foster told the Omaha World-Herald that inmates had gained access to an office with a phone.

The 960-bed Tecumseh State Correctional Institution opened in 2001 in Johnson County, about 60 miles southwest of Lincoln.

The Associated Press