Chester Sam­bra­no

A Chi­nese na­tion­al is set to ap­pear in court af­ter be­ing charged with mon­ey laun­der­ing. 

In a me­dia re­lease, the TTPS said on Mon­day 28th Oc­to­ber 2024, Hongfei Wu, was ar­rest­ed by of­fi­cers of the Fi­nan­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Branch (FIB) and for­mal­ly charged with mon­ey laun­der­ing. 

It said this charge fol­lowed an ex­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tion stem­ming from an Au­gust 10, 2023, search of an apart­ment lo­cat­ed at The Res­i­dences, South Park, Tarou­ba, where of­fi­cers of a spe­cial­ized unit al­leged­ly un­cov­ered a sus­pect­ed metham­phet­a­mine lab­o­ra­to­ry.

Dur­ing the search, of­fi­cers al­leged­ly seized quan­ti­ties of metham­phet­a­mine, pre­cur­sor chem­i­cals, spe­cial­ized lab equip­ment, and a to­tal of $30,064TTD, $170USD, and $715SRD in cash, which were seized un­der Sec­tion 38 of the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act.

W/Cpl Es­lam of the FIB was as­signed to in­ves­ti­gate the le­git­i­ma­cy of the seized funds. Based on the ev­i­dence ob­tained from the con­duct of the fi­nan­cial in­ves­ti­ga­tion, W/Cpl Es­lam re­ceived ad­vice to charge Hongfei Wu for the of­fense of mon­ey laun­der­ing. 

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice said it re­mains com­mit­ted to com­bat­ing the il­le­gal drug trade and fi­nan­cial crimes that threat­en pub­lic safe­ty and the econ­o­my.