Sex Trafficking2012
United States US
Three of six members of an international scheme responsible for allegedly smuggling into the United States hundreds of illegal aliens from Brazil, India, and elsewhere pleaded guilty to conspiracy on December 21, 2011, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Nacip Teotonio Pires, a/k/a “Ze Maria,” a/k/a “Baraso,” 47, of Newark, N.J.,; Rubens Da Silva, a/k/a “Diogo Oliveira,” 39, of Haverhill, Mass.; and Claudinei Pereira Mota, 34, of Newark, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez in Camden federal court to Informations charging one count of participating in a conspiracy to bring aliens into the United States illegally. A fourth member of the smuggling ring, Francismar Da Conceicao, a/k/a “Alex,” 36, of Hillside, N.J., also pleaded guilty to a similar charge before Judge Rodriguez in Camden federal court. A sixth defendant, Priscilla (last name unknown), a/k/a “Clema Aparacida Lopes,” of Long Branch, N.J., remains at large. According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court: From January 2008 through June 2011, Pires, Da Silva, and Mota conspired with others to bring aliens into the United States illegally from Brazil, India, and elsewhere as part of an elaborate, for-profit alien smuggling scheme that involved co-conspirators in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, and elsewhere. They arranged, facilitated, and monitored the travel of customers along two primary smuggling routes, the first of which included travel through Central America and across the international border between Mexico and the United States. The second route included travel to St. Maarten, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and to destinations in the United States. Pires, Da Silva, and Mota charged customers of the alien smuggling scheme from $13,000 to more than $25,000, depending on the route the customer used and whether the customer paid in advance or paid in installments after arriving in the United States. Many of the customers of the scheme were young women from Brazil, most of whom agreed to repay their smuggling debt after arriving in the United States by working as dancers in strip clubs in Newark and elsewhere. In certain instances, women who fell behind on their debt repayment were urged to consider engaging in prostitution to earn extra money. The defendants induced customers to pay their smuggling debts by threatening to harm family members in their home countries and by obtaining title to property the customers owned in their home countries. Pires, Da Silva, and Mota also instructed customers who were caught crossing the border illegally to concoct false asylum claims and falsely report that they would be abused or face other danger if immediately deported. They then paid attorneys to assert those false asylum claims, which often resulted in the rapid release of their customers.
Sex Trafficking2006
United States US
A syndicate held girls as sex slaves by forcing them to work off tens of thousands of dollars of debt they had accrued for phony documents and transportation to the U.S., the feds said. Investigators said recruiters in Korea sought out women who wanted to make money to support their families. The recruiters took care of everything, supplying fake immigration documents, passports and visas, and transporting the women to the U.S. A network of transporters drove them to brothels along the East Coast. They were stripped of their identification and phony passports, thus cutting off any chance that they could flee the country. Besides, if they thought about running, the women were warned that they could be handed over to the police - or, worse yet, that their fhttp://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16694466_ITMamilies in Korea could be killed.