The Tribune

By AVA TURNQUEST

Tribune Chief Reporter

aturnquest@tribunemedia.net

POLICE say they will bring charges against two Bahamians in separate matters of human trafficking this week.

The arrests of a 36-year-old Bahamian woman and a 37-year-old Bahamian man were a day apart, according to police reports.

In the first incident, the 36-year-old woman was taken into custody on Friday by officers of the Flying Squad.

On Saturday, the 37-year-old man was arrested at the Lynden Pindling International Airport by officers from the Missing and Exploited Persons Section of the Central Detective Unit.

The woman is a resident of Sunset Meadows, off Cowpen Road, and the man is from Poets Drive, Sea Beach Estates.

Their arrests come as the first convicted human trafficker in the country, Chevanese Hall, prepares to file amended grounds of appeal for a substantive hearing next month.

Hall was found guilty in the Supreme Court a year ago on four counts of trafficking in persons and two counts of withholding identification papers, and received a 15-year sentence.

The country’s second convicted human trafficker, Apolonia McLean-Smith, was sentenced last year to three years and eight months in prison in Magistrate’s Court.

McLean-Smith received three years and eight months in prison on the charge of trafficking in persons and three years each for unlawful withholding of identification papers and transporting a person for the purpose of exploiting such person for prostitution. The sentences are to run concurrently.