Bellaire police interrupt human-trafficking operation
by Scott Gordon, published March 14, 2011 11:18 am

An observant Bellaire Police Department officer made a traffic stop early Friday that has instigated a federal human-trafficking investigation.

At about 4:26 a.m. Friday, the officer saw a suspicious white Chevy pickup in the parking lot of a closed Texaco station, 6512 S. Rice Ave. He stopped the vehicle.

"Through his investigation, he finds out the guy's actually going to meet a human traffickers in Houston, to give them money to get his wife," says Bellaire Police Department spokesperson Officer Tim Quimby. According to a police blotter report, the man was going to give a "coyote" $1,000 for the release of his wife.

Officers found the suspected human trafficker's vehicle outside a Home Depot at 5445 West Loop S., where they detained six individuals.

At this point, police contacted the Department of Homeland Security, who sent out two agents. They detained six people.

"It's up to Homeland Security if they charge him or just deport him," Quimby says of the main suspect. "Everybody investigated in the incident was released to Homeland Security."

Quimby says the Bellaire officer who began the investigation has a brother who is a border-patrol officer. "Probably from talking to his brother, he knew what to ask," Quimby adds. "He's a real good officer and he didn't just let it go, he followed through with it."

Quimby says that though the people taken into custody will be deported to their South American home countries, "[the officer] probably got these people out of whatever conditions they were going to be in. Sometimes these coyotes will keep people and keep people until they get more money," leading to malnutrition and worse, Quimby adds.

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