OPP find 10 alleged victims in ongoing human trafficking investigation

She explained that alleged victims, who are overwhelmingly female and frequently underage, often come from small towns and are taken to bigger cities where they are forced to have sex for money, which is then kept by the alleged traffickers.

In the investigation detailed Tuesday, OPP said they had charged Isaac “Ike” Crooks with 21 offences earlier this month, including seven sexual assault charges and two human trafficking charges. In the two weeks since announcing those charges, police said they discovered two additional victims and are worried there may be more.

They said Crooks, who now faces a total of 26 charges, remains in custody pending an upcoming bail hearing.

Det. Staff Sgt. Scott Moore didn’t go into further details, including whether the victims were women and girls, citing a publication ban in the case.

On a broader scale, however, the provincial force is hoping to use traffic stops as a way to enhance their human trafficking enforcement efforts.

Chalk said she is developing training for highway traffic officers to recognize the signs of human trafficking, including whether passengers, often women or girls, are disengaged and avoiding eye contact, and if their identification is being held by the driver.

“We find it important that our highway traffic officers are live to this when they are making their stops,” she said, noting that the force recently caught an alleged trafficker and alleged victim during such a stop.

“Is there human trafficking? That’s important because it’s happening on our roads.”

Liam Casey, The Canadian Press

Note to readers: This is a corrected story. An earlier version carried an incorrect day for the police news conference.

by Canadian Press

OPP find 10 alleged victims in ongoing human trafficking investigation

Our Community