Two Venezue­lans have been charged fol­low­ing an in­ten­sive in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the Spe­cial In­ves­ti­ga­tions Unit (Spe­cial Task Force) with the as­sis­tance of the Counter-Traf­fick­ing Unit and In­ter­pol. Pe­dro David Her­nan­dez Patete, 29, has been charged with trans­port­ing a per­son with­in Trinidad for the pur­pose of ex­ploit­ing that per­son for pros­ti­tu­tion, and Procu­ra­tion for Pros­ti­tu­tion.

No­he­my Del Rosario Valasquez, 22, was charged with procu­ra­tion for pros­ti­tu­tion. The two ac­cused ap­peared at a vir­tu­al hear­ing be­fore a Port of Spain Mag­is­trates’ Court to­day, June 9th, 2021 and bail was de­nied. The mat­ter was ad­journed to Ju­ly 7th, 2021.

Ac­cord­ing to po­lice re­ports, on June 2, 2021, based on in­tel­li­gence, and fol­low­ing painstak­ing en­quiries and sur­veil­lance, of­fi­cers with the as­sis­tance of the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force, in­ter­cept­ed two ve­hi­cles at Bam­boo Set­tle­ment No. 2, Val­sayn, trans­port­ing nine Latin Amer­i­can na­tion­als in­clu­sive of a mi­nor. Two Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als were al­so ar­rest­ed.

En­quiries and in­ter­views were con­duct­ed which led to the ex­e­cu­tion of a search war­rant at Cen­tral Park, Bal­main, Cou­va, where three per­sons were ar­rest­ed and de­tained. Al­so as­sist­ing in the ex­e­cu­tion of the search war­rant were mem­bers of MOPS and the Crime Scene Unit. State­ments were record­ed and screen­ings were con­duct­ed with the nine Latin Amer­i­can na­tion­als. Two sus­pects were for­mal­ly charged by Sergeant (Ag) Ram­saran.

The two Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als were re­leased pend­ing fur­ther en­quiries. The in­ves­ti­ga­tions were co­or­di­nat­ed by Se­nior Su­per­in­ten­dent Christo­pher Pa­ponette and spear­head­ed by Su­per­in­ten­dent Michael Veronique, in con­junc­tion with Alana Wheel­er of the Counter-Traf­fick­ing Unit, and ad­vice from S.I.U. Le­gal Of­fi­cer, Za­heer Ali. In­ves­ti­ga­tions are con­tin­u­ing in­to this mat­ter.