The Counter Traf­fick­ing Unit (CTU) of the Min­istry of Home­land Se­cu­ri­ty has filed 29 crim­i­nal charges against two Trinidad and To­ba­go na­tion­als fol­low­ing “Op­er­a­tion Pur­ple Rain”—a sweep­ing in­ves­ti­ga­tion in­to hu­man traf­fick­ing in Rio Claro.

Charged on May 26 were Ryan An­tho­ny Mark, 46, who faces 18 counts, and Sher­wyn Mar­lon Gue­var­ro, 44, who faces 11. The charges in­clude of­fences un­der the Traf­fick­ing in Per­sons Act, the Chil­dren Act, and the Sex­u­al Of­fences Act. Al­le­ga­tions range from har­bour­ing vic­tims for ex­ploita­tion to sex­u­al pen­e­tra­tion of mi­nors, as­sault, ad­min­is­ter­ing dan­ger­ous drugs to a child, and mon­ey laun­der­ing un­der the Pro­ceeds of Crime Act.

The in­ves­ti­ga­tion be­gan af­ter in­tel­li­gence from IN­TER­POL point­ed to a sus­pect­ed traf­fick­ing net­work in Rio Claro.