A Venezue­lan na­tion­al, who is be­lieved to be a gang leader, is sched­uled to ap­pear at the Ch­agua­nas Mag­is­trates’ Court to­day, Mon­day 3 Oc­to­ber 2022, to face charges of hu­man traf­fick­ing.

An of­fi­cial state­ment from the Po­lice Ser­vice re­ports the ac­cused was one of four Venezue­lans in­ter­cept­ed in the San­ta Flo­ra dis­trict, by of­fi­cers of the South-West­ern Di­vi­sion, on Fri­day 30 Sep­tem­ber 2022. Po­lice de­tained two men and two women who al­leged­ly had a firearm, am­mu­ni­tion and con­tra­band in their pos­ses­sion at the time of ar­rest.

Fol­low­ing his ar­rest, one of the sus­pects, SIX­TO RAFAEL MAR­CANO CAR­RION, was hand­ed over to the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Task Force (SITF), which con­duct­ed in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to al­leged crimes of hu­man traf­fick­ing.

The man 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.

Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice (Ag), Mc Don­ald Ja­cob, com­mend­ed 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.”

“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,” Act­ing Com­mis­sion­er Ja­cob said in a TTPS re­lease.

He added: “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.”

In­ves­ti­ga­tions are on­go­ing.