Smits had been on 35-year-old Ploeger’s trail for almost one-and-a-half years in an intensive search that covered several countries in Europe, South America and the Caribbean. Smits and the children’s mother, Ms. Aneta Joanna Szadkowska, had travelled to Guyana in June last year after receiving reports that the children and their father were here.

The Chronicle understands that Ploeger was arrested last December in Namur, Belgium and the two children he abducted are safely back in the arms of their mother and are reportedly in good health.

Ploeger had taken the children even though he had lost parental custody of them on four separate occasions during a bitter divorce in his country’s court system

The Chronicle newspapers, which broke the high-profile child-abduction story to the Guyanese public on June 23 last year, had attracted the attention of the mainstream media in the Netherlands and law enforcement agencies in several countries.

In an email to this newspaper yesterday, Dr. Smits indicated that he is happy that Ploeger has finally been arrested and is in jail.

Smits told the Chronicle last year that he had conducted investigations and searches in countries such as Spain, Germany and Italy for Ploeger, who was at the time wanted by the Dutch Police, by the Venezuelan law enforcement agency and by Interpol (the International Police Organisation) worldwide for "international child abduction".

Szadkowska (a Polish national) and Ploeger were married on October 3, 1997 in the Netherlands where they settled and lived together for about three years.

They officially divorced on September 12, 2000, with the court awarding Swadkowska custody of the two children on four separate occasions, the last time by the Supreme Court in Holland, Smits had told this newspaper in an exclusive interview.

Szadkowska said then that the last time she saw her two children was on June 24, 2001 when Ploeger disappeared with them.

Smits said he eventually tracked the wanted man to Margarita, a tourist island off the Venezuelan coast in September 2001.

Ploeger, however, managed to escape with the kids after he allegedly "paid off" some people there.

Smits said that while in Margarita Island, Ploeger reportedly told the children that their mother (Szadkowska) had died of cancer.

According to Smits, Ploeger, who was using "forged and falsified documents" for travelling, fled Margarita Island and went to Caracas, Venezuela where he stayed a while. He subsequently took a flight from Caracas and arrived in Guyana on November 28, 2001 with the two children.

Intelligence also revealed that Ploeger and the kids stayed at the Woodbine Hotel in Georgetown for six nights. The child abductor was also said to be in New Amsterdam, Berbice during December 2001.

But Smits lost track of Ploeger in Guyana and, based on intelligence gathered that the child abductor had also fled Guyana, the specialist criminologist and the distraught mother also left these shores.

According to the email sent by Smits yesterday, Ploeger went by "backtracker" to Suriname, Guyana's neighbour to the east.

"We picked the trail again in Suriname. From Suriname he went to Trinidad an I kept on following him, hoping he would go to Europe again," Smits said.

"From Trinidad he went to Paris (France) and directly to Antwerp (Belgium). I was hoping he went to Holland, so when he should cross the Dutch border I could arrest him without any International `problems'."

According to Smits, the Atwerp Police made a big mistake when they checked Ploeger's hotel in Belgium and alarmed the child abductor. Smits said Ploeger cunningly evaded them again and went to Namur (French part of Belgium) trying to go to either Luxembourgh or Germany.

"Early in the morning, we (together with the Namur Police) arrested Herman (Ploeger) in the front of his hotel. The kids are back with Aneta again and they are healthy," Smits said.

Smits also reported that Herman's brother and mother were arrested because they sent money to him in Venezuela, Guyana and Suriname “so he could continue this crime."

Smits said Ploeger is in jail serving a six-month jail sentence for kidnapping and is scheduled to appear in court on March 5 to stand trial for other charges.

"The D.A. (District Attorney) will asked for six years imprisonment and after these six years, he (Ploeger) has to go to a (closed) mental institution - and this can mean for years and years, because Herman has a real psychological problem," Smits asserted.