Cops bust cyber human trafficking ring in Taguig

By: Marlene Alcaide, News5, Mar 22, 2017

At least three persons were rounded up when law enforcement elements swooped in on a suspected human trafficking ring operation in Taguig City Wednesday.

The three, two women and a man, were arrested for pimping minors to foreign clients by way of cyber human trafficking arrangements.

The arrests were made by personnel of the National Bureau of Investigation Anti-Human Trafficking Division at a hotel in Taguig.

One of the women picked up in the entrapment operation was suspected of pimping her own daughter.

Two of the children used by the pimping ring were aged seven and 15. They were being offered for sexual exploitation and pornography purposes in exchange for money.

The arrests were made possible through close cooperation with the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which had been monitoring the cyber activity going on between the local perpetrators and their clients in the US.

According to DHS sources, the Philippines accounts for a very high incidence of cyber human trafficking and child exploitation incidents. Notorious are such places as Taguig, Cavite, Pampanga, Cebu and a few areas in Mindanao.

The suspects face charges of qualified human trafficking in relation to the Cyber Crime Prevention Law and the statute against child abuse.