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Friday, July 18, 2025

Cops finally nab sex ring mastermind

by

Mark Bassant
2338 days ago
20190221
The house which police raided in Westmoorings which was allegedly used to house sex slaves who were rescued earlier this month.

The house which police raided in Westmoorings which was allegedly used to house sex slaves who were rescued earlier this month.

NICOLE DRAYTON

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.


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