Police announced yesterday that they arrested nine individuals, including a female, in a covert operation on Sunday.
For years, legitimate taxi drivers have been complaining about the unfair competition from hackers who are unregulated and unlicensed.
The hackers were specifically targeting persons of Haitian decent who came in on flights from Haiti and Abaco, according to Police Press Liaison Officer Inspector Walter Evans.
“They had this network down to a science,” he said of the hackers who were arrested. “They knew exactly when these flights were coming in. They would walk into the terminal, speak to individuals and then transport them.”
The covert operation was a joint effort that involved members of the Royal Bahamas Police Force and the Traffic Department. The clandestine practice was under surveillance over a period of two and a half months, Inspector Evans disclosed.
The hacker network was particularly lucrative between 10a.m. and 3p.m. on Sundays when there was heavy traffic through the airport, authorities revealed.
Officials were particularly concerned about the hackers because they were eroding the lucrative profits of licensed taxi operators who are organized under a specific system to collect their fares.
The police operation culminated on Sunday in the arrests of nine of the 10 persons who were allegedly observed soliciting business from travelers.
The arrests were made on the main thoroughfare and resulted in the passengers being transferred to 12 licensed taxis, Inspector Evans said.
Those arrested were initially booked at the Airport Police Station and are expected to be arraigned early next week. They face penalties for operating a franchise without a license.
Inspector Evans also proffered an explanation about why the hackers were inclined to make a pitch for Haitian passengers with whom they tended to communicate in Creole.
“Generally speaking, Bahamians do not accept a ride with a person who is a hacker. They would accept a ride with a taxi driver who is a legitimate businessperson,” the police inspector said.
Mr. Evans also gave an assurance that the Royal Bahamas Police Force will continue to enforce the law in regard to any offence that it uncovers, including the practice of hacking which occurs in certain other pockets of the community.
The vehicles that were used by the hackers were confiscated and were being stored at the Airport Police Station. One of them had an Abaco license plate, according to police.
The Bahamas Taxicab Union has been on a consistent campaign to have authorities deal with the problem of taxi hacking once and for all with several executives demanding a meeting with transport and airport officials as the first step in resolving the issue.
The practice has been shrouded in secrecy with the culprits parking their vehicles some distance away from the airport entrance and covertly approaching disembarking passengers, according to authorities.
It was one of the main reasons that police officials approved the undercover surveillance and subsequent infiltration of the network, which would have likely been hard to crack otherwise.
One taxicab union executive has reasoned that hackers compounded the problem by undercutting the industry fares and their willingness to take passengers to areas that licensed taxi drivers would not have normally traveled.
By: Tameka Lundy, The Bahama Journal
