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By Albert Ciego - Staff Reporter
A police detachment from Belize on special assignment to San Pedro has arrested a 24-year-old Guatemalan woman and charged her with human trafficking.
Four other Guatemalan women, ranging in age from 19 to 23, have been arrested from three nightspots in San Pedro and charged with overstaying their allotted time in Belize.
Martha Julia Jimenez Estrada, 24, of Guatemala, was charged with human trafficking for having an under-age girl in her establishment and remanded to jail in Hattieville, along with her four girls.
Jimenez Estrada was granted bail by order of the Supreme Court, when her trial began in San Pedro this week. She is due back in court on October 19.
The other four Guatemalans: Wendy Martinez, 22, Kimberley Moraquin, 20, Nellie Gonzalez, 19, and Erlinda Moralez, 23, have been charged with over-staying their time in Belize. Immigration records show they all entered Belize through Benque Viejo del Carmen on a 3-day pass on July 10.
A police team from Belize City, commanded by Assistant Police Commissioner Miguel Segura, raided three nightclubs: Los Compadres Bar, the Thirsty Tiger and the Black & White Bar in San Pedro.
They detained also two Belizean girls, one 17, the other only 14 years old, and two other 17-year-olds, one of whom was Honduran.
Some 24 women and girls were detained in the initial raid. All except five have been released without charges.
The San Pedro police had no knowledge of the raid and were not invited to participate, to avoid the targeted establishments receiving an advance warning of the raid.
