Kevon Felmine

The Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Min­istry's Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit is in­ves­ti­gat­ing two night­club work­ers for their pos­si­ble in­volve­ment in a hu­man traf­fick­ing ring.On Sat­ur­day, Pe­nal po­lice ar­rest­ed the men, ages 27 and 31, dur­ing a raid at Club J's Bar and Lounge at Batchiya Vil­lage, Pe­nal.Po­lice al­so ar­rest­ed 17 Do­mini­can Re­pub­li­can women be­tween the ages of 17 to 44, who were found hid­ing in the club's ceil­ing when it be­gan falling.

Po­lice said the men, who were de­tained in Pe­nal over the week­end, were hand­ed over the CTU as part of an on­go­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion. The women were trans­ferred to the Im­mi­gra­tion Di­vi­sion, where of­fi­cials were check­ing to see whether they had the nec­es­sary trav­el doc­u­ments.

Of­fi­cers said it was pos­si­ble that the women would not be charged, but sent back to their coun­try. Po­lice said the club has been un­der sur­veil­lance for some time. They said it has an elab­o­rate se­cu­ri­ty sys­tem, which in­clud­ed elec­tron­i­cal­ly locked gates and re­mote mon­i­tor­ing CCTV cam­eras.

In Feb­ru­ary, 33-year-old San­ta Flo­ra pipe fit­ter Garvin Alex­is was stabbed to death by two men, af­ter talk­ing with a fe­male bar pa­tron. In June 2011, 11 women and five men were ar­rest­ed dur­ing an­oth­er raid at the club af­ter po­lice found the women al­leged­ly danc­ing in a lewd and sug­ges­tive man­ner.