VIDEO: Trafficking Case in Yerevan - Man and Woman Collected Money from Beggars and Street Vendors

The Main Department for Combating Organized Crime of the Police of the Republic of Armenia has received operational data indicating that a 43-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman residing in Yerevan are organizing money-collection activities from individuals engaged in street vending in the city center. They are allegedly exploiting these individuals by using violence or threats of violence to take a portion of the money earned from their trading activities.

Based on operational data and subsequent investigative measures, it was revealed that the man and woman had been exploiting a group of individuals engaged in begging and street vending from 2016 to 2019, applying non-life-threatening violence or threats thereof to exert control over them. Moreover, one of the individuals was coerced into begging. The man and woman collected all the money earned by these individuals on a daily basis or a portion thereof.

A criminal case has been initiated at the police regarding human trafficking, specifically, involving the recruitment of two or more individuals for exploitation through promises of material benefit, coupled with non-life-threatening violence or threats of such violence, and other forms of coercion.

The circumstances are being clarified through ongoing investigation.