Law en­force­ment of­fi­cials say they dis­rupt­ed two sus­pect­ed hu­man traf­fick­ing op­er­a­tions yes­ter­day, de­tain­ing 45 peo­ple across Trinidad in one of the coun­try’s largest co­or­di­nat­ed crack­downs to date.

In the ear­ly hours, the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty’s Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU), sup­port­ed by mul­ti­ple law en­force­ment branch­es, ex­e­cut­ed Op­er­a­tion G-Ride at a res­i­dence on St Vin­cent Street, Tu­na­puna.

Of­fi­cers found 17 in­di­vid­u­als—12 women aged 18 to 26, two men, one 16-year-old girl and two ba­bies. All were Venezue­lan na­tion­als ex­cept for one ba­by, who is Trinida­di­an.

Of­fi­cials said rapid screen­ings iden­ti­fied three women as vic­tims of traf­fick­ing. One Venezue­lan na­tion­al was ar­rest­ed. Of­fi­cers al­so seized an il­le­gal firearm and $150,000 in sus­pect­ed traf­fick­ing pro­ceeds.

Hours lat­er, of­fi­cers from the Na­tion­al Spe­cial Op­er­a­tions Unit raid­ed a sports bar in St Ann’s Vil­lage, Ma­yaro, and de­tained 28 un­doc­u­ment­ed Venezue­lan women be­tween 1.50 and 3.30 am. The bar own­er was al­so tak­en in­to cus­tody to as­sist with en­quiries.

Crime scene in­ves­ti­ga­tors processed the site, and med­ical checks were con­duct­ed on the women.

The Im­mi­gra­tion En­force­ment Sec­tion and CTU have since been alert­ed.

“These op­er­a­tions mark a de­ci­sive dis­rup­tion of ac­tive traf­fick­ing rings,” the CTU said, warn­ing that more raids are planned through­out the year.

Any­one with in­for­ma­tion on hu­man traf­fick­ing is urged to call the CTU hot­line at 800-4CTU (4288).