Four facing human trafficking charges after arrests near Swift Current

Four people from B.C. are facing charges relating to human trafficking after three vehicles were pulled over on the Trans-Canada Highway near Swift Current.

In a media release Thursday, the RCMP said an off-duty officer spotted three vehicles speeding eastbound on the highway on Tuesday afternoon. The Mounties said the vehicles appeared to be travelling together, since they were driving close to each other and going the same speed.

Swift Current RCMP officers subsequently pulled over the vehicles, all of which were clocked at 153 kilometres per hour.

“While speaking to the drivers and the passengers of the vehicles, officers became suspicious of the relationships between them and investigated further,” the media release said. “Two young female passengers were located in separate vehicles, each with tinted windows, sitting in the back seat with no ID.”

Further investigation led to the arrests of three men and one woman for human trafficking-related offences.

The teenagers, who are from B.C., aren’t related to any of the four adults who were arrested.

The accused — two 19-year-old men from Nanaimo, a 23-year-old man from Victoria and a 36-year-old woman from Victoria — are to appear in Swift Current Provincial Court on Friday.