Northern Spotlight

manitoba · October 19, 2016

http://www.winnipegsun.com/2016/10/18/northern-spotlight-nabs-exploiters

Anyone have any more info on this?

It appears to be targeted at pimps and street workers but I never really trust what is in the papers.

fortunateone · October 19, 2016

They fake booked sps in Calgary, for outcall appts. Then they brag about how upset they were when they arrived, or hostile or 'relieved' apparently because they weren't going to get arrested. Or fined, since i think Calgary fines unlicensed, and i bet they contacted all the unlicensed, they certainly didn't only contact those posting younger ages in the ads, because they 'interviewed' as they put it a 49 year old woman.

Barrie also boasting about their success rates, they also apparently do licensing, and i can imagine any sp working without one was freaking out.

But look what Winnipeg did. Client arrests, didn't even appear to have spoken or even looked for any coerced or underage sps, but call these regular guys 'exploiters'. They didn't find any 'traffickers', maybe that is because clients typically are not also traffickers.

Winnipeg police arrested five people as the result of a week-long human trafficking investigation in a phase of the Operation Northern Spotlight that has been sweeping across North America for five years.

The five in Manitoba were among 32 people facing a total of 78 offences. All five were charged with obtaining sexual services for consideration. The Counter Exploitation Unit (CEU) interviewed a total of 22 women aged between 19 and 44 in areas known to be frequented by sex trade workers, such as hotels and massage parlours, in the city during the investigation.

Police did not identify those who were arrested.

"The five arrested here were exploiters more involved in street prostitution, but not the typical human traffickers," Sgt. Darryl Ramkissoon said Tuesday. "But the media attention this has garnered has sent a message to exploiters."

A total of 54 police services in Canada, the RCMP and the FBI in the United States participated in the most recent phase of the operation.

It is an ongoing investigation into human trafficking involving mainly young women who are participating in the sex trade against their will.

"We've definitely connected them with the resources to either stay safe or exit the trade," Ramkissoon said. "We have helped some of them exit the trade in the past."

None of the women involved in the local investigation were underage.

The vast range of charges laid against the 32 people caught included: exercising control, making child pornography, distributing child pornography, forcible confinement, trafficking in persons, material benefit resulting from trafficking in persons, withholding or destroying documents, living off the avails, assault, uttering threats, obstructing police, and failure to comply with court orders and conditions, including breaches of recognizance and probation, police said.