A 24-year-old Venezue­lan man nick­named “El Tele­tubi” was ar­rest­ed in Tu­cu­pi­ta, the cap­i­tal city of the Venezue­lan state of Delta Amacuro, last week for hu­man and arms traf­fick­ing to T&T.

The ar­rest has been re­gard­ed as a break­through in il­le­gal traf­fick­ing be­tween Venezuela and Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Delta Amacuro is the north­east­ern Venezue­lan state that faces the coast of south Trinidad and is no­to­ri­ous for the traf­fick­ing of mi­grants by boat and the smug­gling of il­le­gal firearms.

This was re­port­ed by the Di­rec­tor of the Sci­en­tif­ic, Pe­nal and Crim­i­nal In­ves­ti­ga­tions Corps (CI­CPC), Dou­glas Ri­co, through his In­sta­gram ac­count, in which he point­ed out that El Tele­tubi was in charge of re­ceiv­ing the vic­tims at a clan­des­tine dock in Venezuela and would lat­er trans­fer them in boats to T&T il­le­gal­ly.

CI­CPC is the Venezue­lan po­lice or­gan­i­sa­tion re­spon­si­ble for crim­i­nal in­ves­ti­ga­tions.

Ri­co wrote on his In­sta­gram ac­count: “Of­fi­cials of the CI­CPC car­ried out an ex­ten­sive and thor­ough field in­ves­ti­ga­tion work, ini­ti­at­ed by the crime of a miss­ing per­son. These in­ves­ti­ga­tions have led to the iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and prompt ap­pre­hen­sion of Tele­tubi, who was in charge of re­ceiv­ing the vic­tims at a clan­des­tine dock and af­ter­wards mov­ing them on il­le­gal boats to T&T.”

The case has been hand­ed over to the Pub­lic Pros­e­cu­tor’s Of­fice in Tu­cu­pi­ta for fur­ther in­ves­ti­ga­tion.

It is not the first time that Venezue­lan crim­i­nals have been ar­rest­ed for traf­fick­ing to T&T. In 2022, the Venezue­lan Pub­lic Min­istry re­port­ed that four peo­ple had been ar­rest­ed for the traf­fick­ing of women to T&T.

The Venezue­lan Pub­lic Min­istry at that time said in­ves­ti­ga­tions be­gan af­ter a boat car­ry­ing 56 Venezue­lans ar­rived at the port of Guiria in Au­gust 2022, from T&T.

In Feb­ru­ary 2022, Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, in the House of Rep­re­sen­ta­tives, quot­ed from a 2021 ar­ti­cle ti­tled—Venezuela’s Oth­er Plight: Sex Traf­fick­ing in T&T, which said the de­mand for sex and pros­ti­tu­tion in T&T was be­ing dri­ven by a high rate of lo­cal con­sump­tion.

Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds, in the post-Bud­get de­bate last Oc­to­ber, ac­knowl­edged the neg­a­tive ef­fects of hu­man traf­fick­ing and the en­try of il­le­gal arms in­to this coun­try.

Giv­en last week’s ar­rests in Venezuela, Guardian Me­dia reached out by phone and What­sApp to the Com­mu­ni­ca­tion Man­ag­er of the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) Joanne Archie and the Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Fitzger­ald Hinds but they did not re­spond up to late yes­ter­day evening.