Botswana police bust human trafficking ring
Police in the southern African nation of Botswana have smashed a human trafficking ring that sent 1000 victims as far away as Canada. Foreign business consultancies were used as fronts for smuggling slaves across international boundaries.
Fourteen people have so far been taken into custody for questioning in Gaborone, Botswana police chief, Assistant Superintendent, Selebatso Mokgosi told Press TV Sunday.
“Eight business consultants and six other suspects believed to be part of the trafficking of 1,000 Botswana nationals are already in police custody and will appear in court this week,” said Mokgosi, who has been working with the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) on the case.
The Botswana police chief said that foreign traffickers targeted vulnerable young women and girls, who could be susceptible to force and deception, using business consultancy offices as a front for their operations.
“Police have discovered that a number of illegally and legal registered business consultancies run by foreigners … that are a front for international human traffickers who often lure victims into phony moneymaking opportunities, then hold them in slavery-like conditions in Canada,” Mokgosi asserted.
Canadian police recently arrested a woman from Botswana trafficked to Canada to work in a brothel.