CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna: Intensified anti-human trafficking in persons operations of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) resulted in the busting of a cyber sex ring in Calamba, Laguna.

Senior Supt. Bernabe Balba, CIDG chief in Southern Tagalog Region, said that joint operatives from CIDG Region 4A and local police swooped down on the reported cyber sex den at a rented house in Ceris 1, Brgy. Canlubang, Calamba City; arrested three suspects and rescued eight trafficked victims including a minor.

Balba said that the operation stemmed from the series of overseas calls from a certain Rick, an American national who requested for the immediate police action and rescue of trafficked persons who were exploited by the group into pornography and prostitution. There were series of emails from a certain Rick detailing the operation of the cyber sex den that mostly catered foreign clients abroad.

During the raid, the alleged maintainer barred the operatives from entering the den but was subsequently subdued when the team managed to break into the den.

Found inside four bedrooms where eight female trafficked persons caught engaging in pornographic acts by means of a webcam in front of their foreign customers in the Internet. He added that most of the victims were recruited from Sultan Kudarat and Cotabato City in Mindanao.

The CIDG arrested the maintainer, the recruiter and the cook whose names were temporarily withheld. They also confiscated numerous computers and gadgets that the syndicate used in their operations.

Balba said that the arrested suspects together with the rescued trafficked persons along with the seized evidence were brought to the CIDG Regional Office in Camp Vicente Lim for documentation. He added that cases for violation of qualified large-scale trafficking of persons and other related laws are being readied for inquest before the Calamba City prosecutor’s office.

Balba also said that the seized computers and electronics gadgets will be submitted to the CIDG’s Anti-Transnational and Cyber Crime Division in Camp Crame for digital forensic examination.