The first court appearances were held this morning for four individuals from British Columbia who were arrested near Swift Current on human trafficking charges.

Shermineh Sheri Ziaee and Shawn Alexander Kelly are from Victoria B.C.  Seyed Kourosh Miralinaghi, and Seyed Kamran Miralinaghi are from of Nanaimo, B.C.

Ziaee was also charged with possession of a weapon for a dangerous purpose.

All four had their matter attended to this morning in Swift Current Provincial Court.  Each of the accused spoke with Legal Aid before appearing in court.

Ziaee was remanded into custody and she was scheduled to appear by video link in Swift Current Provincial court at 9:30 a.m. on February 5.

The three men were also remanded into custody and were scheduled to appear by video on February 5, at 10:30 a.m.

The men requested that they wanted to make their bail hearings through Legal Aid and will use a separate lawyer for other court proceedings.

Here is how the story unfolded. 

In the afternoon of January 28, an off duty police officer spotted three vehicles driving at a high rate of speed east on Highway One toward Swift Current.  The vehicles appeared to be traveling together.

Swift Current RCMP was able to intercept them and all three vehicles were pulled over for driving at 153km/h as a group.

While speaking to the drivers and passengers of the vehicles, police became suspicious of the relationships between them and investigated further.

Two young female passengers with no identification were located in separate vehicles, each with tinted windows, and there were some indicators of human trafficking-related activity.