![\"stop](\"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/06\/stop-human-trafficking-250x142.jpg\" "\\"stop-human-trafficking\\"")
In another affront to justice, a Bahamian human trafficker, who tried to smuggle five adult Haitians and three children to the United States, was sentenced to only one year in prison last week.\u00a0\u00a0 A slap on the wrist for such a serious crime.<\/p>\n
This is another case that shows the injustice, incompetence and corruption found in the courts of The Bahamas.<\/p>\n
Stanley Pinder, 39, of Ponce de Leon Drive, appeared in the Court Three before Deputy Chief Magistrate Helen Jones.<\/p>\n
Pinder pleaded guilty to several counts of assisting illegal passengers by boat.<\/p>\n
Also appearing were the five adult Haitian passengers, who also pleaded guilty to related charges.\u00a0 It is understood that the Haitians received a stiffer penalty than the man who was smuggling them.<\/p>\n
Pinder and the eight Haitians were stranded out to sea for almost two days before being rescued by the US Coast Guard on Monday.<\/p>\n
A 26-foot centre console vessel with six adults and three children – ages, three, 10, and 12 – were spotted near West Palm Beach just after 6:00am by a USCG rescue helicopter.<\/p>\n
According to reports, BASRA officials in Grand Bahama were contacted by a concerned resident in Nassau who reported that six persons were stranded off West End and that the cell phone onboard the boat had gone dead.<\/p>\n
Two Coast Guard vessels and the helicopter were dispatched to search for the vessel.<\/p>\n
Everyone aboard was found to be in good health despite being without food or water for almost two days. They were all returned to Freeport.<\/p>\n
Human trafficking is a huge problem in The Bahamas where it has become sort of a “cottage industry” with many Bahamians , some in government and law enforcement, are involved.\u00a0 The problem continues to grow as\u00a0 most Bahamians caught in the act receive very little punishment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In another affront to justice, a Bahamian human trafficker, who tried to smuggle five adult Haitians and three children to the United States, was sentenced to only one year in prison last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_10223285771444175_51037792744":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[93,32,31,286,142],"class_list":["post-17655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-headlines","tag-corruption","tag-courts","tag-crime","tag-human-trafficking","tag-incompetence"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17655\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bahamasb2b.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}