Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
In 2002, the United States District Court in the District of New Jersey indicted traffickers with: - 1 count Conspiracy - 5 counts of Forced Labor - 5 counts of Trafficking with Respect to Forced Labor - 1 count of Conspiracy to Commit Extortion The following law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation and prosecution of this incident: - Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agency in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr. - Investigators with the State Division of Criminal Justice, under the direction of New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey - Special Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Kyle Hutchins - U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia - Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie F. Schwartz, of the Criminal Division’s Strike Force Unit in Newark - Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Jampol, of the Violent Crimes Unit in Newark
Sex Trafficking2004
United States US
Domingo Gonzalez-Garcia, Evodio Gonzalez-Garcia, and Oscar Romero Gonzalez smuggled Domingo’s wife from Mexico to the US in order to force her to engage in prostitution in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Child Labor2009
United States US
Akouavi Kpade Afolabi , a Togolese woman residing legally in the United States was found guilty on October 14 on 22 counts of human trafficking and obtaining US visas by fraud. The husband, Lassissi Afolabi, the son, Dereck Hounakey, and a fourth person, Geoffry Kouevi, have also been charged. To be sentenced in January. The jury that heard the case of Akouavi Kpade Afolabi returned the unanimous verdict of guilty quickly. Afolabi admitted trafficking girls aged 10 to 19 from Ghana and Togo between 2002 and 2007. She was a prominent textile merchant in Lomé, where she gained control of the girls. Afolabi promised to help them escape from poverty by learning a new profession in America. Instead, she forced them into slavery and abused them both physically and psychologically. The girls were forced to work 14 hours a day, 6 days a week braiding hair in salons in New Jersey. Afolabi stole all their wages and even confiscated the smallest tips given by clients. The girls were told that they’d be sent back to Africa if they objected to working without pay. Afolabi and her husband Lassissi Afolabi kept the girls under tight control, confiscating their passports and other personal documents and refusing to allow them to call home or friends. The girls were frequently beaten, especially by the husband, who was also charged. They were beaten if they did not return directly to their apartment after work, if they asked for their salary or any money, or if they disobeyed his orders. One had her head beaten against a table. In addition to these nightmares, both the husband and the son, Dereck Hounakey, have admitted to raping some of the girls. Afolabi hung her head and wept in the courtroom as the husband described his sexual encounters with the girls. The trafficker must have feared the girls would naturally refuse when they learned the real circumstances of their engagement, for she forced them to undergo voodoo or fetish rituals. As is frequently done to the trokosi in Ghana, she tried to frighten them into believing that they would go mad if they did not remain loyal and obedient to her. Afolabi prayed daily and sometimes sacrificed chickens at a voodoo or fetish shrine inside her home. Afolabi brought the girls into the U.S. fraudulently. Authorities say Afolabi smuggled the girls to America by helping them pose as spouses or relatives of people who secured visas through a lottery program. One of the enslaved girls failed several times to trick American embassy officials in Togo. She approached real lottery winners and offered to pay their plane fare if they would smuggle one of her workers into the US by having her pose as his stepdaughter. She even went so far as to arrange a fake wedding for one of the girls to ensure her enslavement. Afolabi’s lawyer tried to defend her on the basis that what she did was consistent with West African cultural practices and that she had saved the girls from poverty because they were provided with clothes. The American jury did not accept the argument, clearly seeing it as a classic case of child trafficking and modern-day slavery. The prosecution is asking for a life sentence in prison. http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/news/national/article_a2d7e2dd-169b-5937-9b8f-d5fe3511a06a.html http://blog.nj.com/ledgerarchives/2008/05/officials_call_it_slavery_but.html http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091014/ap_on_re_us/us_hair_braiders_forced_labor_5 http://english.pravda.ru/news/society/07-09-2007/96879-tololese_slaves-0 http://www.southfloridacriminaldefenselawyerblog.com/2009/03/federal_human_trafficker_plead.html#more http://www.nj.com/mobile/articles/paper1.ssf?/base/news-14/1253151910265840.xml&coll=1