A wealthy university student has told the trial of his accused kidnappers that one of two men who forced him out of his car was brandishing a semi-automatic handgun.

Graham McMynn was driving to the University of British Columbia with his girlfriend on April 4, 2006, when a car blocked his way and two men walked toward his vehicle and ordered him to get out.

"I thought they were trying to steal the car so I got out of the car," McMynn said on the opening day of the trial.

He said the gun-toting man wearing a red ball cap threatened him repeatedly, especially as he was transferred to a minivan.

"He was antsy, the guy in the red hat," McMynn said. "It seems like he wanted to shoot me."

McMynn said he was made to lie down on the floor and later cuffed, with duct tape wrapped around his head and eyes.

About a 10-minute drive later, McMynn said he was driven to a garage, where he asked what was going on.

"They told me to stop asking questions," he told B.C. Supreme Court.

After the men apparently waited for someone to bring keys to the house, McMynn was led upstairs and put into a long, walk-in closet where he was told to strip to this underwear.

"They told me they were going to rape me, and laughed about that."

Earlier Monday, court heard that just hours after McMynn was snatched from his car, police were already tailing a man identified as the ringleader in the university student's kidnapping.

Crown prosecutor Richard Cairns said the victim's girlfriend gave police the advantage when she was able to provide the licence number of the rental car used to spirit McMynn away.

Accused Anh The Nguyen had called the rental agency to retrieve a cellphone charger left in one of the cars rented by the alleged kidnap team.

Police got the rental clerk to stall Nguyen until they could get a surveillance team in place. Thus began a painstaking effort to track him to his alleged accomplices and, hopefully, to McMynn.

Cairns told B.C. Supreme Court Justice Arne Silverman, who's trying the case without a jury, that 400 officers worked to piece together the plot and rescue McMynn, the son of a wealthy Vancouver businessman.

McMynn was located in a suburban Surrey home eight days after he was taken.

Investigators were able to find the three homes in Vancouver and Surrey where McMynn had been kept, the vehicles the kidnappers used and the disposable cellphones used to communicate, Cairns said.

Police arrested Anh The Nguyen, Van Van Vu, Joshua Ponicappo, Jose Hernandez, and Sam Taun Vu - all then between 19 and 22 years old - who are charged with one count each of kidnapping and unlawful confinement.

Charges against a sixth accused, Tuan Nguyen, were stayed.

McMynn was kidnapped April 4, 2006, as he and his girlfriend, Jacqueline Tran, left the McMynn family home in south Vancouver for the 10-minute drive to the University of British Columbia.

Cairns said the kidnappers had actually tried to grab him the previous day, an attempt that was foiled when McMynn saw a car suspiciously racing up behind him. He opted to blow through a stop sign to avoid it.

But the next day they succeeded when two men brandishing handguns flanked McMynn's car.

The university student was ordered into their vehicle. The kidnappers took Tran's cellphone but she was able to memorize the licence plate number and used a passerby's phone to call 911.

Meanwhile, said Cairns, the kidnappers transferred McMynn to a minivan.

"He was told if he did anything, he would be shot," Cairns said.

McMynn's head and eyes were wrapped in duct tape. He was taken to a house, where he was ordered to strip naked and put in a large upstairs closet.

When he asked why, McMynn said he was told "so that we can rape you," Cairns said.

His hands were cuffed and his ankles hobbled with plastic "zap straps."

Cairns said McMynn will testify that while blindfolded, he learned to distinguish his captors by their voices and noticed they referred to each other by the numbers one through six.

Even after security relaxed a little, Cairns said McMynn opted not to try to escape because the kidnappers threatened to kill him, his family and Tran.

Members of the group told him they had been hired to kidnap him and were to be paid $100,000. Another group was supposed to handle the ransom, Cairns said McMynn was told.

No ransom demand was ever made, despite pleas from McMynn's family for the kidnappers to contact them.

Cairns said the group described themselves as professionals and claimed one was a hitman.

Cairns said McMynn was moved twice and heard other people who have not been charged, including the girlfriends of two accused.

McMynn recalls the mother of one of the Vus getting into an argument with her son.

"She was angry that they were there and she spoke in a raised voice," Cairns said.

Besides McMynn's testimony, Cairns said the trial will hear from several other witnesses and see a mountain of forensic evidence, as well as records of cellphone usage near the abduction location, transfer points and hideouts.

Outside court, defence lawyer Lawrence Myers, who represents Van Vu, said the mere presence of the accused at various locations doesn't mean they were part of the plot.

"There are a number of witnesses, for example, who were seen by surveillance or found in residences or their DNA or fingerprints were found at residences and they weren't charged because it just wasn't enough," he said. "That's really going to be the issue.

"In regards to all of the accused, it's not just a question of identification, it's participation or lack thereof."

But Cairns told the judge that the evidence shows all of the accused were aware of the plan and involved in carrying it out.

Vancouver police spokesman Const. Tim Fanning said the department is watching the trial very closely.

"This is something, an investigation that we are very proud of because we got Graham back safely," Fanning said.