Five men in Durham, Ontario have been arrested following a mass predator sting conducted by local police. The men had been seeking to pay for sex with minors advertised in a fake listing for child prostitutes.
According to a November 23 press release from the Durham Regional Police (DRPS), the five men believed that they were speaking to children, but were in fact messaging undercover officers with the DRPS Human Trafficking Unit. The unit posted a fake ad offering sex with under-18s as part of “Project Firebird,” an anti-trafficking initiative.
In their press release, the DRPS provided the names of the men arrested and charged: 37-year-old Krish Subiah; 30-year-old Rajwant Singh; 48-year-old Mahbubar Rahman; 28-year-old Sarangan Kirupamoorthy; and 38-year-old Rajasekaran Natarajan. All are facing three separate charges related to child sexual abuse.
The DRPS press release also revealed that their fake child prostitution advertisement racked up “over 6600 views” and received responses from 600 different phone numbers over the course of four days. Only the five arrests were made, but investigations into other suspects may be ongoing.
The Durham region has a Human Trafficking Coalition that educates the public on signs of trafficking and provides support for survivors.
“Being forced, tricked or pressured into the sex trade isn’t your fault. Human trafficking is a slow process of manipulation, deception and coercion,” reads the site.
According to Statistics Canada, human trafficking, often labeled a “modern-day form of slavery,” is not uncommon.
In the decade between 2011 and 2021, 3541 incidents of human trafficking were reported to police services across the country, and nearly a quarter of those victims were minors. Another Canadian group, the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking, reports that they’ve received 1500 cases in the last four years alone.
