Trinidadian man pleads guilty to sex trafficking in US

A 33-year-old Trinida­di­an na­tion­al and law­ful per­ma­nent res­i­dent of the Unit­ed States has plead­ed guilty to sex traf­fick­ing and ad­mit­ted that he kid­napped six ad­di­tion­al women.

The US De­part­ment of Jus­tice says Chad Bar­clay ad­mit­ted that on Sep­tem­ber 13, 2022, he en­ticed a woman to his res­i­dence to en­gage in com­mer­cial sex, where he robbed and sex­u­al­ly as­sault­ed her.

As part of a plea agree­ment, Bar­clay ad­mit­ted to kid­nap­ping six ad­di­tion­al women be­tween 2022 and 2023.

The DOJ says Bar­clay was charged in Au­gust 2023 in a 20-count su­per­sed­ing in­dict­ment in­volv­ing five vic­tims.

The charges in­clud­ed in­ter­state pros­ti­tu­tion, Hobbs Act rob­bery, kid­nap­ping, ac­cess de­vice fraud, ag­gra­vat­ed iden­ti­ty theft, and wit­ness tam­per­ing and ob­struc­tion of an of­fi­cial pro­ceed­ing.

In May 2026, Bar­clay was charged with sex traf­fick­ing in­volv­ing one of the orig­i­nal five vic­tims, as well as in­ter­state pros­ti­tu­tion, Hobbs Act rob­bery, kid­nap­ping and oth­er re­lat­ed of­fences in­volv­ing two ad­di­tion­al vic­tims.

As­sis­tant At­tor­ney Gen­er­al A. Ty­sen Du­va of the Jus­tice De­part­ment's Crim­i­nal Di­vi­sion de­scribed Bar­clay as hav­ing ad­mit­ted to kid­nap­ping, vi­o­lent­ly rap­ing and rob­bing mul­ti­ple fe­male vic­tims.

US At­tor­ney for the East­ern Dis­trict of New York Joseph No­cel­la Jr. de­scribed Bar­clay as a “dan­ger­ous preda­tor” who used force and in­tim­i­da­tion to sex­u­al­ly as­sault a vic­tim and ad­mit­ted to kid­nap­ping six oth­er women.

He said the guilty plea holds Bar­clay ac­count­able for the harm in­flict­ed on his vic­tims.

FBI As­sis­tant Di­rec­tor in Charge of the New York Field Of­fice James Bar­na­cle said Bar­clay's “bru­tal and preda­to­ry ac­tions in­flict­ed pro­found harm on his vic­tims”.

The DOJ says the FBI New York Field Of­fice and the New York Po­lice De­part­ment are in­ves­ti­gat­ing the case as part of the Child Ex­ploita­tion and Hu­man Traf­fick­ing Task Force.

Bar­clay faces a min­i­mum sen­tence of 15 years in prison.

NEW YORK, Sept 5, CMC