Gang facing charges for human trafficking, sex slavery

The RCMP is searching for Valentin Dumitru, 54, of St. Leonard, who is accused of smuggling people into Canada.

The RCMP says it is breaking up a human trafficking ring that smuggled young women into Canada and used them as sex slaves.

The force has made several arrests, including one Wednesday morning in Montreal, but cautions that at least one of the alleged slave traders is still at large.

Police officers nabbed Marius Trifu Miclescu in St. Leonard and he appeared in court later that day to be charged with human trafficking and living off the avails of prostitution.

His partner, Valentin Dumitru, 54, also of St. Leonard, is on the run.

The force says Miclescu and Dumitru are part of a group that brought Romanian women into Canada and forced them to work in erotic massage parlours.

Police have identified four women who were threatened and coerced into order to work for the criminal gang.

"In some cases they were recruited out of Romania," said Caroline Letang.

"They were recruited, came to work for Mr. Trifu Miclescu in Canada. Some have been here for a few years and they were working in massage parlours in our area."

Police say the gang was bringing not just sex slaves, but whole families into Canada through illicit means.

Since July Canadian police have arrested six other people from Toronto, Cornwall and Montreal for allegedly planning and smuggling Romanian families into Canada through the Akwesasne reserve. A seventh person is detained in the United States.