Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice, Mc Don­ald Ja­cob yes­ter­day com­mend­ed po­lice of­fi­cers for their ar­du­ous work and ded­i­ca­tion ex­hib­it­ed over a painstak­ing two-year in­ves­ti­ga­tion, that led to child traf­fick­ing charges be­ing laid against a sus­pect­ed Venezue­lan gang leader.

In a state­ment is­sued by the TTPS, Act­ing CoP Ja­cob is quot­ed as say­ing, “I am pleased that we have made an­oth­er sol­id break­through, as these heart­less crim­i­nals can nev­er feel that they have a free pass to op­er­ate in Trinidad and To­ba­go. The TTPS will con­tin­ue to vig­or­ous­ly pur­sue and ar­rest those in­volved in traf­fick­ing in chil­dren, child pros­ti­tu­tion and oth­er heinous crimes that feed on the suf­fer­ing of the in­no­cent and vul­ner­a­ble”.

His com­ments came as a Venezue­lan man was sched­uled to ap­pear in the Ch­agua­nas Mag­is­trate’s Court yes­ter­day af­ter be­ing ar­rest­ed last week.

The TTPS said the ac­cused, Six­to Rafael Mar­cano Car­rion, was one of four Venezue­lans in­ter­cept­ed in the San­ta Flo­ra dis­trict, by of­fi­cers of the South West­ern Di­vi­sion on Fri­day, Sep­tem­ber 30.

Po­lice de­tained two men and two women who al­leged­ly had a firearm, am­mu­ni­tion and con­tra­band in their pos­ses­sion. Fol­low­ing his ar­rest, Mar­cano Car­rion was hand­ed over to the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Task Force (SITF), which con­duct­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to al­leged crimes of hu­man traf­fick­ing.

He was then charged with Traf­fick­ing in Chil­dren, Caus­ing a Child to Be­come a Pros­ti­tute, Trans­port­ing a Per­son for Pros­ti­tu­tion and Be­ing a Gang Leader.

The charges were pre­ferred by both Cpl An­toine and WPC Ed­wards.

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing.