AS the Yuletide season approaches and the demand for goods and services increases, the police will be ramping up its activities to combat the burgeoning associated illicit trade.

Head of the Counter-Terrorism and Organized Crime Investigation Branch (C-TOC) Assistant Commissioner of Police Fitz Bailey told the Jamaica Observer yesterday that focus will be placed on human trafficking and breaches of intellectual property (IP) rights.

Illicit trade includes illegal gaming and illegal goods such as counterfeit items.

Bailey made the disclosure following his presentation at the Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Intellectual Property (Vice Squad) training seminar at the Police Officers’ Club in St Andrew yesterday.

The two-day seminar, which will conclude today, is geared at educating and equipping police officers from various divisions in Police Area Four, including Mobile Reserve, C-TOC and the Technical Services Division, with the necessary skills to tackle the illicit trade.

“The impact that it is having on society and our responsibilities as law enforcement officers in enforcing the law… intellectual property or counterfeiting of goods and all intellectual property rights issue is a multibillion-dollar industry,” the ACP told the Observer.

Bailey noted that as the illicit trade becomes more prevalent, there are health issues as well as social and cultural issues that must be addressed.

“If we are found to be unconcerned about human trafficking, if we are found to be facilitators, it can have economic implications. It can have trading implications and a number of other implications because we have signed up to a lot of international protocols that deal with the whole issue of human trafficking as well as [intellectual property]. So in fulfilling our international obligation we have a duty as law enforcement officers to ensure that we police both the IP industry and human trafficking,” Bailey reasoned, adding that human trafficking is modern-day slavery.

While acknowledging that both trades are difficult to investigate, ACP Bailey said the police nevertheless have a significant role to play in stemming them.