Third suspect charged in Operation Purple Ryain

Six months af­ter the Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU) launched Op­er­a­tion Pur­ple Ryain in Rio Claro, a third sus­pect has been charged in con­nec­tion with the on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

On Mon­day, 14 Sep­tem­ber, CTU of­fi­cers ar­rest­ed 40-year-old Se­monne Mark of Rio Claro. Mark was for­mal­ly charged yes­ter­day with five of­fences un­der the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act, Chap. 12:10.

He faces four counts of traf­fick­ing in per­sons by har­bour­ing, in­volv­ing three adults and one mi­nor, and one count of traf­fick­ing in per­sons by trans­port­ing a mi­nor.

Op­er­a­tion Pur­ple Ryain be­gan on 7 March, fol­low­ing in­tel­li­gence re­ceived through IN­TER­POL and weeks of sur­veil­lance by CTU of­fi­cers.

The op­er­a­tion re­sult­ed in the res­cue of four vic­tims of traf­fick­ing, in­clud­ing two mi­nors. Sub­se­quent in­ves­ti­ga­tions led to ad­di­tion­al ar­rests and charges.

The CTU said the op­er­a­tion re­mains ac­tive as of­fi­cers con­tin­ue to in­ves­ti­gate al­le­ga­tions of ex­ploita­tion and pur­sue leads.

Mem­bers of the pub­lic with in­for­ma­tion on sus­pect­ed hu­man traf­fick­ing can con­tact the CTU at 800-4CTU (4288) or via What­sApp at +1 (868) 702-0467.