The data
Every case on SlaveryMap, drawn from public sources and shown with its location deliberately generalized to protect survivors.
631 of 1,631 cite a source · Updated
Showing 1,609–1,631 of 1,631
United States US
Jose Tecum was found guilty of kidnapping, sale into involuntary servitude, bringing in and harboring aliens and fraud and misuse of visas and permits. Status: Locked up until October 2007
United States US
At first they were not helpful in the process of freeing Little Hope and pressing charges agianst the traffickers. Later one they becam very involved and particapated in the arrests and convictions of the traffickers.
United States US
In one particular case, intervention occurred by the way of a rescuer taking the initiative to look into a suspicious working situation in a local family's home.
United States US
Two of the three girls are sisters, and said they were homeless because their father was dead and their mother was a drug abuser. According to McPeters, two of the girls first approached him on Santa Rosa Avenue when he was using the telephone and asked him for a ride. He said he began hanging out with the girls because they had methamphetamine. He got them rooms at different Santa Rosa motels and arranged for them to have sex with men he brought to their rooms. One girl said McPeters often would wait outside the motel room or apartment bedrooms and knock when time was up. The defendant provided the girls with pocket knives for protection, food, rides to school and condoms, according to the police investigation cited in a pre-sentencing report prepared by the probation department. Police discovered three girls engaging in prostitution after they arrested a convicted rapist who was not supposed to be in the company of minors as part of the conditions of his parole, but was seen in the company of one of them the day after his release from prison. Further investigation led to the arrest of McPeters on suspicion of pimping and pandering.
United States US
Junk Won Hwang, age 29, has been smuggling roughly 20 illegal immigrants a month to the US through Canada. He entered the country illegally in 1990 and was deported in 1999. He has since been cooperating with authorities to crack down on human trafficking between the US, Canada, and Korea.
South Sudan SS
Mary was a mother of three married to Michael Nyong Akal in Aweil town. The family fled to Marin after a series of attacks. When the train came to Wedweil, soldiers disembarked and took Mary and threw her to the ground and beat her. She nearly had a miscarriage but managed to retain the baby. She was forcemarched to Matarik where she was given to a man named Mahmoud Abdullah. Abdullah's two wives, Kadija and Asha. Mary was forced to do housework. If she refused or did not like her job, Abdullah beat her. That above information comes from the book ("To Plead Our Own Cause) by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. The book is available from Cornell University Press.
United States US
1. Alex Mishulovich, male, approx. 40 years old at time of investigation, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Russia. Trafficked at least five Latvian women into the U.S. to dance as strippers in nightclubs he owned in Chicago. Also held the women in isolation in an apartment, continually harassed them for sex, and used physical violence and threats of selling them as prostitutes to force the women to strip. 2. Rudite Pede, female, Mishulovich's wife - Entered U.S. from Latvia by fraud. Assisted Mishulovich in obtaining false visas for the trafficked women and recruiting the women in Latvia. 3. Vadim Gorr - male, 35. Drove the women between their apartment and the clubs and assisted Mishulovich in holding them against their will. 4. Dace Mediniece - female, 26. Friend of Rudite. Assisted Rudite in entering U.S. illegally and entered illegally herself. 5. Sergei Tcharouchine - male, 42. Allegedly planned the ring with Mishulovich. Remains at large.
United States US
A Little Havana business owner, Manuel “Melo” Sanchez Reyes, was charged with 42 counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. Police believed he preyed on young girls for years.
United States US
Alex Mishulovich Male Age – 50 Charged with visa fraud, peonage - keeping someone in servitude- and conspiracy to commit peonage Served 9 years and was released on 11/30/2006 Vadim Gorr Drove the women to their jobs and held them against their wills. Charged with Visa Fraud and has since been released on Parole Rudite Pede Female Age- 34 Mishulovich's wife and helped recruit some of the women in Latvia, assuring them the way only a woman could that they'd be safe and the work was respectable. Released from prison 6/11/1999 The girls were given movies to watch -- "Showgirls'' and "Striptease'' -- to learn how to dance exotically. Associates exerted control over the women by demeaning them, telling them they'd committed a crime coming into the country, that his U.S. citizenship gave him more credibility with police. He exerted control over the women by beating them and bragging about supposed connections to the Chechen mafia. Mishulovich promised each of the women more than $60,000 a year. All they had to do was dance in "upscale" nightclubs completely clothed, lie at the embassy about their purpose for traveling to the United States, and hand over half of their earnings until they paid off their transportation debts. When they arrived in Chicago in November 1997, they were told they would be dancing topless. Their identification papers were taken and they were required to give all but $20 of the $200 to $600 they made nightly to Mishulovich. "He inflated the costs and kept building their debt," explains FBI Special Agent Michael E. Brown. "He told them he needed the money to pay living expenses and bribes to police and politicians." Chicago, IL – Chicago Nightclubs - Admiral, Heavenly Bodies, Thee Dollhouse, Skybox and Crazy Horse 2 Alexander Mishulovich and his associates approached five young women on the streets of Riga, Latvia with flattery and an offer of employment in the United States The women were not allowed to leave the one-bedroom apartment Mishulovich had rented in suburban Mt. Prospect, Illinois, except to work at various strip clubs in Chicago and Harvey, Illinois.
Canada CA
Isra, originally from Thailand, was a victim of sex trafficking and debt peonage, having been sold to a Toronto massage parlor owner for between $16,000 and $25,000 Canadian. Before any of the girls could start making a wage, they had to repay what amounted to nearly double their purchase fee - the reality of which is that most victims would have to service more than 500 men to just pay off their debts to the slave owners. Isra had a considerable debt to repay and was sold and bought multiple times by brothel owners in Toronto proper, Sheppard and Mississauga. She was forced to work a great deal but did not feel she had a way out because she owed her owners so much money. She was forced to take on many customers each day. Note: All of the above information is a synopsis of the passages related to this slave in the book "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Book published 2008 by Cornell University Press.
United States US
Juan Luis Cadena-Sosa, 43 from Mexico. Also being convicted is Procopio Lopez-Contreras, 47. Also said to be aided by other members of the Cadena-Sosa family. Juan Luis has been convicted of invonluntary servitude and conspiracy to recruit, harbor, and transport known illegal aliens for prostitution. He is being sentenced in August, 2008 with a max of 15 years possible.
United States US
Michael Allen Lee, an African-American labor contractor, was the leader of the "Lee Operation." Lee and his conspirators, William Oscar Smith, and Billy C. Rankin recruited homeless and drug dependent African-American men from around Fort Pierce, Florida, as agricultural farm workers. In exchange for picking oranges, the workers were given loans extended by Lee, for rent, food, cigarettes, and crack cocaine. The workers were paid only about thirty-five to fifty dollars a week, thirty of which went to Lee for their rented space on his floor. After incurring debts that they were unable to repay, the workers became indebted to Lee. Along with their indebtedness, Lee used force and the threat of force to keep the men working for him against their will.
China CN
Of sorts. The victim, Shenqi, was incarcerated first at the Shanghai Municipal Prison for political crimes in 1983. By 1994, he was working at the 2nd Company, 3rd Battalion Shanghai Reeducation-through-Labor (Laojiao) Camp in Dafeng County, Jiangsu Province. In cooperation with a state-run knitting mill, he was forced along with other inmates to manufacture clothing for as long as 20 hours per day. Eventually, Shengqi moved to a different labor camp in which he made Christmas lights for export from the Haiman Lamp Company. Direct quote from Shenqi's personal testimony: "On laojiao farms, inmates were often beaten and cursed. The government cadres cuffed and kicked them at will. Those laojiao inmates trusted to supervise other inmates beat and cursed them even more." All of the above information is from "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Dr. Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd - Cornell University Press - 2008.
United States US
Yes - This raid happened in 1996, long before the law enforcement knew what human trafficking was. The women who were being prostituted from this house ranged from ages 19-25. They were from Thailand, Taiwan and Laos. Four of the women were in the US illegally. Police also said the women worked as prostitutes as part of a ring that operated in Sacramento, LA, and Oklahoma.
United States US
As a part of an effort to decrease human trafficking in San Mateo the San Mateo police force shut down three "massage parlors" that were acting as fronts for illegal brothels. The buildings were owned by Michael and Ty Thi D'Agostino and the D'Agostino Family Trust. Over the past several years, police said they made 12 arrests for prostitution at Kahala, eight at Asian Gardens and 14 at Bay Relaxation. At a raid of the businesses in January, police said they found stacks of condoms, sent customers and employees scurrying for clothing and broke up a sex act.
United States US
Julio, Tomas and Luciano Salazar. From Mexico. Ran the largest prostitution ring in the county using underage girls smuggled from Mexico. They were forced to service migrant workers in agriculture camps, among other things. Stopwatches were uses to time their "Clients". Girls with children had their children taken and used as hostages. They were told their child would be killed if they tried to escape.
United States US
From the Los Angeles Times: "Most of them said they came from impoverished farming families and had headed to the metropolis of Bangkok to find sewing jobs. There, they met labor contractors who promised them good jobs in America and monthly pay of $1,000 – nearly 10 times what some were earning in Thailand. They were told they would work 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with weekends off to see the glamorous sights of Los Angeles. But the reality was vastly different. Buppha Chaemchoi, 37, said she was shocked to arrive in El Monte and realize that she would sleep crammed in one bedroom on the floor with nine others. The windows had been boarded up, she said, allowing virtually no sunlight. Her captors told her that if she tried to escape, brutal U.S. police would shave her head and stamp her scalp with marks of disgrace, she said. “It made me worry and want to stay inside and just wait for my three-year contract to end,” Chaemchoi said. Chuai Ngan, 47, who came to the U.S. in 1993, said she also was intimidated with threats that her family would be harmed and their home in Thailand burned down if she attempted to leave. Not all captives were willing to accept their fate, however. Win Chuai Ngan, the 51-year-old husband of Sukanya, was the first to escape from El Monte. As one of the few male laborers, he said, he was allowed to go outside to take out the trash and help move sewing machines and other heavy supplies into the complex. One day, he said, he saw a Thai newspaper in the trash, surreptitiously tore out the phone number for a Thai temple and kept it hidden in his pocket. In November 1992, he made his move – jumping over the fence in the middle of the night. He ran to a taxi stand and asked to be taken to the temple. “I was so scared the owner would see me and kill me,” Win Chuai Ngan said. He said he told his story to Thai authorities and newspapers in Los Angeles, and gave them an address label for the El Monte complex that he had torn from the newspaper. But he said he did not report it to U.S. law enforcement officials because he was scared they would deport him. A few others also escaped, and community advocates eventually helped get the information to authorities. On Aug. 2, a multiagency task force led by the California Department of Industrial Relations raided the complex. Some of the women were cowed by their captors’ earlier descriptions of U.S. police and refused to open the door, which authorities hacked open with an ax. Others said they were overjoyed at their liberation. “I was so happy,” said Clinton, who had been held captive since April 1994. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going home!’ ” In the end, most of the workers decided to stay after Su and others successfully fought to win legal status for them. The workers annually celebrate Aug. 13 as their first full day of freedom, since that’s when all of them were allowed to leave immigration detention facilities. Clinton and the Chuai Ngans said that whatever travails they endured here, their American journeys have been well worth taking."
United States US
Talal and Abair Alzanki (30 and 21 at time of incident). Talal Alzanki was a student at Boston University from Kuwait and came to the US with his wife Abair and their child. They employed a domestic servant, Ms. G. from August to December 1992. Ms. G., who was from Sri Lanka, had been working for the Alzanki family in Kuwait where her passport had been taken from her and she was threatened that she would be subject to arrest should she leave the residence. She was informed that she would work for Talal and Abair Alzanki in America. Ms. G. was promised a salary of $250 per month which was reduced to $120 before she departed Kuwait. Upon arrival in Quincy, MA her passport was taken from her again. During the four month working for the Alzankis in Quincy she was repeatedly threatened that she would be deported if she left the house and that American police and citizens would shoot undocumented aliens who ventured out alone. She was not permitted to use the telephone or mail and to speak to anyone but the Alzankis. Ms. G. was made to clean the house with caustic and noxious fumes, deliberately risking her health. The Alzankis refused to get her medical treatment for serious health problems. Ms. G. was also physically assaulted on two occasions. The Alzankis denied adequate food and Ms. G. became severely malnourished. Ms. G. was also threatened on almost a daily basis with deportation, death, or serious harm, should she disobey the Alzanki's orders.
United States US
Mauro Casares Edwin M. Ives, Dolly Ives, Griffith-Ives Co., former ranch employees Parmjit Singh, Rony havive, Alvaro Ruiz, Najuum Issac, Pedro and David Pinzon "The violations Ed has admitted making . . . were commonplace in agriculture during the 1980s," the report says. "His sins were the sins of an entire industry." He recruited Zapotec and Mixtec laborers from the rural mountaintops of southern Mexico, smuggling them into the country and allegedly imprisoning them behind locked gates and high fences at his 50-acre Somis compound and forced the to work for 1$ an hour Prosecutors charge that Ives enslaved hundreds of workers at his compound between 1984 and 1990, first by forbidding them to leave until smuggling fees were paid and then by threatening to turn them in to immigration agents if they fled. More than 100 workers have testified or declared in statements that they lived in slave-like conditions at Ives' Somis ranch. Though slavery charges were dropped in a plea bargain last year, prosecutors have continued to argue that Ives virtually imprisoned laborers recruited from rural Mexican villages during the 1980s, forcing them to work for sub-minimum wages and to buy the necessities of life at inflated prices from a company store. charged with enslaving more than 100 undocumented workers from Mexico and forcing them to work long hours at menial wages. Lured by promises of good pay, the Mexicans were smuggled into the United States, then were kept at a 50-acre ranch until they could pay off a $435 smuggling fee, according to a federal grand jury indictment issued Tuesday they worked from 3:30AM to 8:00 PM
Serbia RS
The traffickers involved in the following case are a part of a ring of trafficking in the "Balkan Trail." These smugglers are Albanian Mafiosi who use the Adriatic Sea to transport drugs, weapons, and human cargo illegally across borders. Nadia was initially recruited to work in a restaurant in Italy to make some extra money to send back to her family for the education of her son. She was identified as a worthy candidate for enforced prostitution and was forced to perform in various countries for various pimps. She and the fellow victims were raped repeatedly, in some cases even by local law enforcement. As a fluke event, while she was being transported to a new owner traveling to Italy, her boat capsized and she was able to get away from her captors.
South Africa ZA
Julienne’s sister, Antoinette and her sister’s fiancé Joseph Davis.
United States US
The 24-year-old female allegedly needed some more money to pay her rent, so she and the 18 and 15 year old females drove into Santa Cruz to pick up some girls. They found a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old, and lured them into the car with promises of a party. Instead, they took the two girls to seven different farm labor camps in Davenport, where they were sold for sex for $25 to men living in the camps. The girls were forced to have sex with at least 20 men in five hours. Sometime after midnight, the group returned to Santa Cruz and stopped at a liquor store. One of the girls was able to escape and asked a store clerk to call the police. The car drove off without her. The other girl was released a short time later. Another 15-year-old girl had been lured into the car earlier the same night. She managed to escape, and her father phoned the police.
United States US
Yes, due to the murder of Mr. Covarrubias. He was brutally beaten to death with a table leg by Rene (Pedro) Soto, as Felipa Soto and Maria Suarez watched. Suarez eventually called the police after cleaning and hiding the weapon and this instigated the investigation. The general story is quite complicated. Details from numerous Los Angeles Times articles from 1982 (Questions Linger in ‘Voodoo’ Slaying, Voodoo Looms as Murder Trial Issue, Voodoo Power Cited in Murder Case Appeal) do not correspond with information published in the Christian Science Monitor in 2007 (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p13s01-usju.html?page=1) or an AP story written by Amy Taxin on August 12, 2009. This is due, likely, in no small measure to the lack of understanding of trafficking at the time of the investigation in the 80’s. Multiple jurors felt uneasy with the later conviction of Suarez for first-degree murder, and were instructed not to account in their deliberations for the psychological manipulation of Suarez by Covarrubias. Here is the basic narrative. In 1976, Suarez (16 at the time) immigrated legally into the US. Some accounts report she came to the US with her father, others report she came to live with her sister, Rita, who was already a resident of Los Angeles. She knew little to no English and had only completed 6 years of schooling. One day a woman, speaking Spanish, offered Suarez a job cleaning homes and answering phones. This woman persuaded Suarez to leave immediately to visit the house where she would work. The drive was over one hour. Upon arriving, Covarrubia allowed her to call her sister to notify her that she had found work and would come home later. The phone was then locked, she was informed of her purchase for $200 to the man 52 years her senior, shown to a tiny room and raped by him. Covarrubia was known as a witch-doctor (warloc). He practiced voodoo and used this to frighten and intimidate Suarez. He stole a pair of her underwear and after performing some form of spell buried the underwear in the cement in front of the house. This meant she could never leave and would always return to the house. She believed he hexed her father and later, ultimately, caused his death. Once he allowed her, for immigration issues, to return to Mexico but she, at one point, felt pins and needles throughout her body and knew she must return home. Covarrubia would belittle Suarez to his voodoo clients, openly taunting her about his sexual exploitation of her. She reported that he threatened her with guns and a machete if she tried to return home. For a time she worked at an electronics assembly factory, but believed that he watched her through his crystal ball as she worked, taking all her income from the work. In her trial, her defense team tried to bring all this to the jurors, but they were told not to allow psychological coercion or allegations thereof as part of their deliberation. The defense attorney tried to plead that due to the numerous spells on Maria, she could not allow herself to even intend to kill Covarrubia, thus negating to possibility of any first-degree charges. Rene and Felipa Soto were neighbors to Covarrubia. He owned the house the Sotos lived in and reportedly also had them under his control through spells and a voodoo doll. Both reported that he could cause them to argue at will. Like Suarez, they only attended school for 6 years before legally immigrating to the US and feared his witchcraft. They believed they could only emancipate themselves from his control by killing him. The prosecution charged that the three killed Covarrubia for monetary reward. The Soto’s were to profit with free rent, Suarez by the sale of Covarrubia’s home and the emptying of his bank accounts. Covarrubia had, years before, deeded the title of this home over to Suarez as a way to avoid its loss during the divorce from his then wife. He had asked her to deed the house back to himself, but this never occurred. Around the time of Covarrubia’s death and police investigation, Suarez turned the title of the house over to her brother, Epifanio, as well as took up to $54,000 from Covarrubia’s accounts. She claimed this was for her defense. How much the ex-wife or Covarrubia’s two children knew of her servitude is not clear. The children claimed in a civil suit against Suarez that she had manipulated their father and had promised to take care of him for the rest of his life. The jury foreman for her trial for murder stated that he did not believe she killed him for financial gain, but rather to free herself from Covarrubia’s control.