A GANG of youths have gone on a rampage, raping, robbing and kidnapping women along the East-West Corridor over the past two months.

Their reign of terror has left more than 15 women traumatised from the brutal sexual attacks.

Some of the rape victims are running scared about being infected with the HIV virus.

The gang, operating in a car, has been targetting women at nights, while they are awaiting transportation.

Police say the gang members, whose ages range between 16,18 and 25, pose as passengers in a car making it appear that the driver is working “PH”.

The driver then picks up their victims, whose ages so far have been between 18 and 35, in Laventille, Morvant, San Juan, Tunapuna, Arouca and Arima and take them to lonely spots in the Arouca and Arima areas, where they rob and rape them.

The rapists have been operating since before Carnival and have also been involved in breaking into homes in the Arima area and robbing both men and women.

In Arima, police sources told TnT Mirror, they broke into four homes and raped three women in separate incidents before robbing them of cash and jewellery.

Two men were also robbed at their homes in Arima.

The gang is also suspected to be behind the recent theft of a policeman’s car at Cocorite Road, Arima.

The youths are said to be responsible for the rape of a maid recently at an Arouca hotel in the early hours of the morning.

The woman was reportedly cleaning the rooms in the hotel around 4 a.m. when three men entered and held her up.

Two of them raped her before making their escape.

When contacted, head of the North-Eastern Division, Snr. Supt. Gopiechand Ganga confirmed that the gang has been operating in a car and are picking up their victims in other areas and bringing them to Arouca and Tunapuna to rape them.

While he is sympathising with some of the victims, the senior cop is blaming women for not taking precautions.

“When a driver claims he is working ‘PH’ and stops with three men in the vehicle, the female passenger will still get in,” he noted.

“They are not concerned about their safety,” he said.

Ganga said most of the rape incidents occur during the late hours of the night when women are awaiting transportation to get home.

He drew reference to one of the victims, who said she was accustomed to hitchhiking on the Lady Young Road, Morvant.

She was picked up by three men in a car and taken to Arima and raped. “She should not have accepted a lift with those men in the car,” the senior cop said.

However, Ganga said the police might make a breakthrough in the rape incidents with the arrest of five youths in a car over the weekend in Arima.

Police held the men after receiving a wireless report that a car with a group of men had abducted a woman in Morvant.

The men are being placed on identification parades to determine whether they belong to the rapist gang.

Officers involved in the investigations are Inspector John Daniel, Cpls. Wayne Winston and Basdeo Sinanan and Constables Katwaroo and Newton of the Arima CID.