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More Jamaican children said trafficked to US
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator [email protected]
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
THE number of Jamaican children allegedly trafficked to the United States by 53-year-old Hyacinth Ford-Drysden has increased from the 17 earlier identified by investigators.
News of the increase in the number of young victims was yesterday delivered in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court where Ford-Drysden appeared in relation to the allegations against her.
However, the court was not told how many more victims were discovered by investigators who have been working with United States officials since early last month on the case.
Also, yesterday the court was told that investigators were in possession of statements from parents who said they were not aware of their children being adopted and sent abroad.
These developments, coupled with the fact that the police are still conducting investigations, resulted in the accused woman's attorney, Everton Dewar, postponing an expected bail application. However, Dewar asserted that his client should not be allowed to languish behind bars while the police build a case against her.
Ford-Drysden, who is of a Bog Walk, St Catherine, was yesterday remanded in custody until January 26.
She is currently charged with forgery, possession of forged documents, and uttering forged documents. However, the court was told that the human-trafficking charges were pending.
The alleged scheme was uncovered on December 8 after Ford-Drysden was arrested by the Flying Squad at the United States Embassy in Kingston, where she had presented forged documents in an effort to secure a US visa for a 16-year-old girl whom she had tried passing off as her child.
A senior police source told the Observer that the woman had promised the 16-year-old that she would send her to the United States to work. The teen has since been taken into State care.
Ford-Drysden is suspected to have been operating the scheme for about two years before she was arrested, and that she had also sent other children abroad, claiming they were her own offspring when she secured visas for them at the United States Embassy in Kingston.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The children are between the ages five and 16 years old.</span>
According to a police source, the accused, when cautioned, <span style="font-weight: bold">told the police that she was being paid $60,000 for each child she sent to the United States</span>.
The police are trying to determine if the children who were sent abroad were taken from families or removed from any of the State-owned places of safety. Detectives are also trying to determine whether any of the children are among the hundreds who have been reported missing.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/More...1#ixzz1iWq59YGo
BY PAUL HENRY Crime/Court Desk co-ordinator [email protected]
Wednesday, January 04, 2012
THE number of Jamaican children allegedly trafficked to the United States by 53-year-old Hyacinth Ford-Drysden has increased from the 17 earlier identified by investigators.
News of the increase in the number of young victims was yesterday delivered in the Corporate Area Resident Magistrate's Court where Ford-Drysden appeared in relation to the allegations against her.
However, the court was not told how many more victims were discovered by investigators who have been working with United States officials since early last month on the case.
Also, yesterday the court was told that investigators were in possession of statements from parents who said they were not aware of their children being adopted and sent abroad.
These developments, coupled with the fact that the police are still conducting investigations, resulted in the accused woman's attorney, Everton Dewar, postponing an expected bail application. However, Dewar asserted that his client should not be allowed to languish behind bars while the police build a case against her.
Ford-Drysden, who is of a Bog Walk, St Catherine, was yesterday remanded in custody until January 26.
She is currently charged with forgery, possession of forged documents, and uttering forged documents. However, the court was told that the human-trafficking charges were pending.
The alleged scheme was uncovered on December 8 after Ford-Drysden was arrested by the Flying Squad at the United States Embassy in Kingston, where she had presented forged documents in an effort to secure a US visa for a 16-year-old girl whom she had tried passing off as her child.
A senior police source told the Observer that the woman had promised the 16-year-old that she would send her to the United States to work. The teen has since been taken into State care.
Ford-Drysden is suspected to have been operating the scheme for about two years before she was arrested, and that she had also sent other children abroad, claiming they were her own offspring when she secured visas for them at the United States Embassy in Kingston.
<span style="font-weight: bold">The children are between the ages five and 16 years old.</span>
According to a police source, the accused, when cautioned, <span style="font-weight: bold">told the police that she was being paid $60,000 for each child she sent to the United States</span>.
The police are trying to determine if the children who were sent abroad were taken from families or removed from any of the State-owned places of safety. Detectives are also trying to determine whether any of the children are among the hundreds who have been reported missing.
Read more: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/More...1#ixzz1iWq59YGo
Were any of these children reported missing?
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