A for­mer po­lice of­fi­cer has been sen­tenced to 16 years, 5 months, and 15 days in prison for traf­fick­ing three Colom­bian women more than a decade ago.

Valen­tine East­man, who was serv­ing in the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice at the time of the crime, was con­vict­ed on Jan­u­ary 31, 2025, fol­low­ing a 2013 in­ves­ti­ga­tion by the Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU).

In sen­tenc­ing East­man on Ju­ly 28, Jus­tice George Bus­by cit­ed the plan­ning, de­cep­tion, in­tim­i­da­tion, and psy­cho­log­i­cal harm in­volved. He said the crime was dri­ven by prof­it and rep­re­sent­ed a cal­cu­lat­ed abuse of pow­er and trust.