14th March, 2013
A Nigerian has been jailed for 14 years in UK for human trafficking after a four-week long trial, DailyMail of London reports.
Odosa Usiobaifo, 35, who resided in Enfield, north London, was arraigned in Isleworth Crown Court in the UK, for ‘significant’ organised crime gang trafficking of young women for the purposes of sexual exploitation.
The gang was notorious for trafficking young girls via London to work as prostitutes in mainland Europe.
According to DailyMail, Usiobaifo was arrested after two Nigerian girls missing from local authority care in London were given false passports and tickets and placed on a flight to Spain.
He was accused of collecting the girls from a pre-arranged meeting point before they were given the false documents and put on the flight.
The court heard that the girls, aged 14 and 15 at the time, had previously been stopped by Border Force officers at Heathrow Airport separately on 17 September and 23 November 2011 for using false passports which indicated they were adults.
They had arrived on flights from Lagos, Nigeria, and were attempting to travel to Paris.
The police later knew that the girls were being trafficked to mainland Europe for prostitution after they were interviewed by the Serious Organised Crime Agency’s Vulnerable Persons Team.
Usiobaifo was, thereafter , arrested at his flat on 3 September, 2012 alongside his partner Katie Igha, 25, following a joint investigation by Sussex Police, the UK Border Agency, Border Force and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, .
The jury found Usiobaifo guilty of all charges but acquitted Igha of trafficking. They failed to reach a verdict on a charge of conspiring to facilitate against Igha.
Meanwhile, the girls were placed in local authority care but on 6 April, 2012 were reported missing to Sussex Police by their respective foster homes.
One of the girls was refused entry to Spain and returned to the UK, where she remains in the care of the UK authorities while the other girl passed through Spanish border controls and was still missing.