A Chi­nese na­tion­al de­scribed by po­lice as one of the mas­ter­minds be­hind a ma­jor sex and drug ring op­er­at­ing in West­ern Trinidad that was smashed more than two weeks ago was cap­tured on Tues­day.

In­tel­li­gence sources told Guardian Me­dia the man had been on the run ever since po­lice raid­ed a West­moor­ings home at West­ern Cir­cle on Feb­ru­ary 6, where sev­er­al young girls be­tween the ages of 15 and 19 years were res­cued.

Dur­ing that op­er­a­tion, head­ed by the Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Re­sponse Team (SORT), Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU), Fi­nan­cial In­tel­li­gence Branch (FIB) and Child Pro­tec­tion Unit (CPU), at least 18 sus­pects in West and East Trinidad were ar­rest­ed and 19 South Amer­i­can fe­males. Young women were al­so res­cued from an­oth­er house along Morne Co­co Road in Diego Mar­tin and the Stir Fry King Restau­rant along Ari­api­ta Av­enue, Wood­brook.

Sources told Guardian Me­dia the po­lice got in­for­ma­tion about the man’s where­abouts and were able to catch him in­side a house in West­moor­ings. Sources said the man had been try­ing to make plans to leave the coun­try since the raid.

In­tel­li­gence sources say the sus­pect had leased the house on West­ern Dri­ve, West­moor­ings that po­lice raid­ed. He had en­tered this coun­try with a Guyanese pass­port and was al­so in pos­ses­sion of a Ja­maica li­cense which Guardian Me­dia has seen. A source fa­mil­iar with the on­go­ing case ex­plained that over the last few weeks they have been able to un­earth de­tailed in­for­ma­tion about how the sex ring is be­ing op­er­at­ed with the clout of the Asian mafia. Based on fur­ther in­for­ma­tion po­lice be­lieve the young women are smug­gled in by boat af­ter they are hand-picked by agents in Venezuela.

“This smug­gling op­er­a­tion takes place most­ly on the south­ern penin­su­la of Trinidad,” the source said.

The source re­vealed that most of these young women smug­gled in­to this coun­try have no doc­u­ments and are usu­al­ly lured un­der false pre­tences.

“What we have found out is that these young women are sold for US$1,500 to US$3,500 when they get here, de­pend­ing on the area from where they come from in Venezuela,” the source said.

“If the young girls have a fair­er com­plex­ion with green eyes, or blue eyes, or blonde hair they tend to fetch more mon­ey.”

When the girls are sold to what the in­tel­li­gence source termed the un­der­ground Asian net­work, they are drugged and made to work as sex slaves. High-end Asian clien­tele pay up to TT$10,000 a night for these young girls, an­oth­er in­tel­li­gence source re­vealed in an in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia weeks ago. In­tel­li­gence sources say they have al­so ze­roed in on a par­tic­u­lar casi­no in South Trinidad which has been in­stru­men­tal in fa­cil­i­tat­ing this il­le­gal un­der­ground trade.

“From what we un­der­stand this is the first place that the girls are car­ried to be­fore they are put up for sale,” said the in­tel­li­gence source.

Sources said this in­ves­ti­ga­tion re­mains a very com­plex one and is far-reach­ing in na­ture since they un­der­stand that the Asian mafia con­nec­tion is fu­elling the mul­ti-mil­li­on dol­lar world of sex slaves in Trinidad and To­ba­go.