Two arrested in child trafficking probe

A 43-year-old Venezue­lan woman and a 32-year-old Trinida­di­an man have been ar­rest­ed as in­ves­ti­ga­tions con­tin­ue in­to the al­leged traf­fick­ing and sex­u­al ex­ploita­tion of a 15-year-old Venezue­lan girl.

The Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU), work­ing with sev­er­al part­ner agen­cies, ar­rest­ed the two dur­ing an op­er­a­tion in Point Fortin in the ear­ly hours of Wednes­day.

Three oth­er Venezue­lan women, aged 19, 28 and 38, were al­so found at the premis­es and screened by CTU of­fi­cers. The Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty said none was iden­ti­fied as a vic­tim of traf­fick­ing. They were hand­ed over to Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment for fur­ther pro­cess­ing.

The op­er­a­tion, called KEY-UN-LUX, forms part of an in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to an al­leged child traf­fick­ing ring op­er­at­ing across South and Cen­tral Trinidad.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­gan af­ter Keon James, 34, of St He­le­na, was charged on Oc­to­ber 2 with sex­u­al in­ter­course with a fe­male with­out her con­sent and har­bour­ing for the pur­pose of sex­u­al ex­ploita­tion.

The charges were laid un­der the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act and the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act.

Min­is­ter of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty Roger Alexan­der warned that those in­volved in traf­fick­ing would face a de­ter­mined law en­force­ment re­sponse.

The op­er­a­tion in­volved the Trinidad and To­ba­go De­fence Force, the Po­lice Ser­vice's Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit and Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Branch, the Chil­dren's Au­thor­i­ty and Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion En­force­ment.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.