Contractor, eight alleged undocumented Chinese construction workers charged

A Jamaican contractor and eight Chinese nationals have been charged after the foreigners reportedly overstayed their time in Jamaica and worked in the country without a permit.

They were charged on Friday by detectives from the Transnational Crime Investigation Division (TCID) following a coordinated operation in Mineral Heights, Clarendon.

The men have been charged with breaches of the Aliens Act and the Foreign Nationals and Commonwealth Citizens Act.

Thirty-nine-year-old Lei Gao, who is a naturalised Jamaican contractor residing at Heifer Run, Toll Gate, Clarendon, faces eight counts of aiding and abetting the employment of persons without work permits.

The eight Chinese nationals have each been charged with overstaying and working without a work permit.

They are 39-year-old Tangming Gao, 46-year-old Jiquan Wu, 51-year-old Dingshun Wu, 39-year-old Xiaohua Yuan, 39-year-old Binbin Li, 50-year-old Jiancun Liu, 57-year-old Dehuli Gao, and 40-year-old Jinbo Zhang.

Between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m., TCID, a division within the Specialized Investigation Branch, reportedly conducted an intelligence-led operation to identify potential victims of human trafficking.

A search warrant was executed at a construction site on Mineral Heights main road in Clarendon, during which the team found eight men from Guangdong Province, China, working at the site.

The Passport, Immigration, and Citizenship Agency (PICA) later confirmed that all eight men had exceeded their permitted stay on the island.

Further interviews, conducted with an interpreter, revealed the men had been recruited in China to work for Lei Gao.

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