INTERPOL rescues more than 2,700 human trafficking victims in coordinated operation

INTERPOL recently released the results of a months-long operation targeting human trafficking in South and Central America that resulted in the rescue of more than 2,700 victims, 134 arrests and the destruction of at least seven organized criminal networks.

Operation Intercops – Spartacus III, coordinated by INTERPOL’s Regional Bureau for South America, was primarily conducted in two parts. The initial part of the operation concentrated on three of South America’s busiest international airports suspected of being hubs for human trafficking networks — Ministro Pistarini in Buenos Aires, Guarulhos in São Paulo and El Dorado in Bogotá. Agents made their arrests based on checking names and documents gathered from INTERPOL’s global databases to help identify traffickers and their potential victims.

Among the victims rescued in the initial part of the operation were 27 teenage girls that were being sent into different countries for cheap labor and sexual exploitation. Other key results of the operation include closures of certain Brazilian adoption agencies suspected of trafficking children, the dismantling of a Colombian-based trafficking network suspected of exploiting hundreds of women and the arrest of red notice subject Johnny Eliexer Cordero Belisario.

The latter part of the operation targeted migrant smuggling networks in Colombia. In total, 32 suspects were arrested, which led to the dismantling of a criminal network believed to have smuggled hundreds of victims from Ecuador to Panama via Colombia and Venezuela.

The remaining rescues and arrests were made during a long series of smaller operations, all part of Operation Intercops – Spartacus III.

INTERPOL published its results ahead of the World Day Against Trafficking Persons on July 30.