A 33-year-old Winnipeg man who was arrested last year after a two-year police investigation into human trafficking has been sentenced to three years in prison, one of the first long sentences for the charge in Manitoba, according to the Winnipeg police.
The investigation began in 2019 on a person the police believed was recruiting young women to provide rental sexual services.
The Winnipeg Police Service’s counter-exploitation unit identified two victims recruited by the trafficker, after the trafficker posted photos of the victims in the online advertising of the massage services.
The trafficker was arrested in April 2021, after a search of three rental properties in Winnipeg.
Ferosh Tailor, 33, was initially charged with procuring a person to provide sexual services, advertise sexual services, sexually assault and receive material benefits from sexual services.
Tailor was convicted of receiving material benefit charges last month, police said Friday.
This is the first time an investigation into human trafficking in Manitoba has produced a substantial ruling, Sgt. Maria Koniuk said at a press conference.
It is often very difficult to get a conviction for these charges, said Koniuck, who was previously in the counter-exploitation unit and was heavily involved in the investigation.
“There is a lot of confidence that the victim has to testify,” he said.
“That’s why, knowing this, we wanted to have all the evidence to be able to try to minimize the trauma to the victims when the court proceedings begin.”
The news comes a day after the Manitoba RCMP announced human trafficking charges against a Quebec man, who was arrested after he was initially stopped for irregular driving in Manitoba.
Police said at the time that it appeared there had been a physical altercation between the man and his passenger.
The woman was later determined to be a victim of human trafficking and was taken from Quebec to British Columbia, the RCMP said in a press release on Thursday.