Couple back in court on sex ring charges

POLICE prosecutors are to consult with the police Financial Investigative Bureau (FIB) to determine if the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) will be prosecuting the preliminary inquiry of a Venezuelan woman and her Chinese boyfriend facing a total of 43 charges stemming from an alleged sex-ring bust in Westmoorings and Woodbrook early last month.

Police prosecutor Insp Rajesh Lal told magistrate Marisa Gomez that because of the level of public interest in the case, it was likely that attorneys from the DPP’s office would be prosecuting the couple.

The couple, Solient Torres, 23, and her boyfriend, Jinfu Zhu, reappeared before Gomez in the Port of Spain Magistrates’ Court yesterday.

Lal said he could not be certain if the DPP’s office would take over the prosecution of the case, but it was likely.

The couple first appeared in court on March 15, charged under the Sexual Offences and Proceeds of Crime Acts. Of the 43 charges against them, 42 of them fall under the Sexual Offences Act.

The two are jointly charged with 23 offences, while Torres faced an additional 20 charges.

It is also alleged that on February 5, the couple had in their possession TT$80,000, US$2,393 $20,000 Bolivars, Jam$20,000, $595 (Surinamese), $100 (Barbadian), EC$40 and one Japanese yen, knowing the money to be proceeds from criminal activities.

The sexual offences are that they operated a brothel at Zhu’s rented Westmoorings home between September 17, 2018 and January 1.

The additional 20 charges against Torres were connected with aiding and abetting prostitution between September 17, 2018 and February 2.

At yesterday’s hearing, Lal also told the magistrate the Interpol tracing of the two was still unavailable since it required extensive checks to determine if either had been convicted of any other crime in other jurisdictions or had cases against them. He asked for an additional three weeks to get the tracing of their criminal records.

Gomez agreed and remanded the two to return to court on April 17.

They have still not been granted bail.

Torres and Zhu were arrested on February 5, along with several other Chinese and Venezuelan nationals, in a police raid during which, officers rescued 19 Spanish-speaking girls between the ages of 15 and 19 from a house at Western Circle, Westmoorings.

Apart from Torres and Zhu, only two others held in the raid were charged and taken to court for assembling to gamble and possession of ammunition.

All the others remain in either police or Immigration custody.

Torres was remanded into custody at the Women’s Prison in Arouca and Zhu is being kept at the Frederick Street, Port of Spain, Prison.