A Japanese national has been charged with human trafficking for allegedly paying underage girls for sex and posting their sex videos online for foreign pedophiles.
Noriaki Nakano, 37, was arrested along with his two alleged Filipino accomplices on Tuesday afternoon in an entrapment operation at a hotel on UN Avenue, Manila.
The Women and Children Protection Center of the Philippine National Police named the two other suspects as Eduardo Denosta, 47, and his 19-year-old live-in partner, Angie Pancho, both residents of Cavite province.
The three suspects underwent inquest proceedings in the Department of Justice for violating Republic Act No. 9208 or the Anti Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003.
Posing as a professional photographer, Nakano “has been doing this for over a year based on the videos we recovered from him. He would take videos of the minors and have sex with them, and the videos are uploaded on the Internet,” WCPC head Chief Supt. Rosario Acio said in a press briefing in Camp Crame on Thursday.
The girls, who included five-year-olds, were paid P2,500 to P3,000 each, Acio said. They were brought to Nakano by a pimp, known only as “Eddie,” who remained at large and was apparently just one of the suspect’s many contacts for his cybersex operation in the country. Eddie and Eduardo Denosta are two different persons, the police official said.
Eddie brought five girls to Nakano at his hotel room on Monday, according to the tip that alerted the PNP to the suspect’s activities. Around 3 p.m. the following day, the pimp was seen bringing four more girls to the Japanese.
The arresting team moved in later that afternoon and caught Nakano in the room with the girls and the couple Denosta and Pancho. Recovered from the Japanese were a camera and some sex toys.
Nakano’s last travel records showed that he arrived in Manila on Monday and was supposed to leave on Wednesday. “We are now checking his entry and exit records into the Philippines as well as his network of contacts,” Acio said.
The WCPC has investigated 12 cases of human trafficking this year, when it started focusing on international syndicates. The center has been credited with the arrest of 25 suspects—with Nakano the second foreigner to be captured—and the rescue of 43 victims.