Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Jesus Perez-Laguna was sentenced in Federal Court to 14 years and forced to pay the victim $52,000. Upon serving his sentence Perez-Laguna will be deported back to Mexico and not granted reentry into the United States. Ciro Bustos-Rosales was sentenced to 70 months in prison, ordered to pay restitution, and ordered to comply with similar terms and conditions of release as those included in Perez-Laguna’s sentence.
Bonded Labor2007
United States US
Yes, federal state and local authorities conducted an investigation into possible labor and trafficking charges at a Chinese restaurant. As a result following the raid the restaurant was closed and authorities have declined to release any other information.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Police are aware of 8 massage parlors in and around the Denver Metro area. This particular store was closed and the couple are awaiting charges.
Forced Criminality2007
United States US
Michail Aronov, 34, a Lithuanian national, was sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison for his role as a ringleader in an involuntary servitude and money laundering conspiracy. He was the last of nine convicted defendants to be sentenced for crimes associated with this conspiracy. He was convicted for conspiring to violate the civil rights of Eastern European women by forcing them to work as exotic dancers in Detroit-area strip clubs, as well as immigration and money laundering conspiracies. Aronov was also ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution to the victims. The court had previously ordered Aronov’s henchman, Aleksandr Maksimenko, to reimburse the dancers a total of $1,570,450. The court also ordered that $537,043 in cash seized from Maksimenko’s home and safety deposit boxes, as well as about $30,000 worth of jewelry, be used to satisfy a portion of the restitution award. Maksimenko received a 14-year prison sentence. His father, Venyamin Gonikman, remains a fugitive. Three other individuals were also previously sentenced as a part of this conspiracy.
Bonded Labor2007
United States US
Lassissi Afolabi, 45, Akouavi Kpade 40, and Dereck Hounakey, 31, are Tongolese Nationals who are being charged with trafficking approximately girls and women from Togo to work in their hair salon in New Jersey. The girls posed as relatives of visa lottery winners in Togo. The traffickers made their victims work six to seven day a week, up to 14 hours a day, braiding hair. The girls were beaten repeatedly and if they complained, the traffickers threatened to send them back to Togo. The traffickers lured the young women with the promise of well paying jobs in America.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
This case is the result of an investigation by ICE, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the St. Paul Police Department, with the assistance of the police departments from Minneapolis, Richfield, Austin and West St. Paul. The investigation was also aided by the Gerald D. Vick Human Trafficking Task Force. Hisep-Roman was sentenced to 28 months in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Seven women were arrested for prostitution in an undercover operation in Snohomish County. None of the pimps were arrested. Police noted that three of the girls arrested were from out of state and the others live in Seattle and Tacoma. Although no mention was made of any male arrests, the article said that earlier that month police had arrested several men in a "john" sting, targeting customers. In both cases no traffickers were found/arrested.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
The man's arrest was part of an ongoing effort of Everett police to combat prostitution. One officer was quoted, "We're attacking it from all angles - from the johns to the prostitutes to the pimps." Undercover officers had set up several sting operations to arrest people selling and buying sex. They've also used Craigslist to nab customers and prostitutes. The man arrested came to the detectives attention in March after a woman reported seeing her daughter's picture in Craigslist and an advertisement that indicated that she was selling sex. The mother said her daughter was being "pimped out and tht the man assaulted her daughter and refused to let her visit with her family according to the search warrant. In July the police heard from another concerned mother who told them that her daughter was being held against her will in a south Everett apartment. Detectives found the woman, who told them the Everett man bought her for $250 and she worked for him as a prostitute at a Lynwood motel. She told them she gave the man all the money she made. Both women told police they were afraid of the man, who carried a pistol and beat and assaulted them. Everett police last month searched two apartments and seized computers, drug paraphenalia and about $2,000 in cash. They continue to investigate.
CSEC2007
United States
20-year-old coerced 14-year-old into running away introduced her to drugs and forced her into prostitution Accused: Sandra Panecka age 20.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Lloyd Mack Royal III, also known as “Blyss”, “B”, and “Furious” is a 29 year old male who, "preyed upon vulnerable minors and prostituted them by a variety of deplorable means for his own benefit” (Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force). He was convicted on March 24, 2010 of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; conspiracy to distribute drugs; and distribution of drugs to persons under 21, related to a scheme to prostitute three minor females.
CSEC2007
United States US
Using drugs and fake friendships, seven Varrio Central gang members, ages 15-19, lured runaways and other underage girls with troubled families into a prostitution ring, which operated out of a Glen Garden Drive apartment complex. The victims, some as young as 12 years old, were forced to perform sexual services for $50. If a girl declined, she was beat, raped, and her family threatened. A fifteen year-old girl also allegedly recruited the victims by going to their homes, posing as their friend, and pretending to pick them up to go to the movies or shopping.
CSEC2007
United States US
Paul Raymond Green, a/k/a “PJ,” age 23, of Washington, D.C., arranged on two separate occasions to provide minor victims to an acquaintance of Green’s who was paying to have sex with the victims. On both occasions “dippers” or “wets” (cigarettes dipped in phencyclidine liquid known as PCP), were available in the hotel room where the girls were brought to have sex. Green also sold cocaine to that same individual.
Forced Criminality2007
United States US
The FBI obtained 2 search warrants in November 2007 and February 2008 and searched Hoffman's residence and found the images on his computer and charged him with child exploitation and trafficking sexually explicit photos via the internet. He had 70 sex related charges filed against him. His wife was also arrested for tampering with the evidence. She had known since 2005 and had concealed the evidence and let him continue to care for the kids. She was released on probation but had her custody removed and Mark Hoffman was sentenced to 50 years in prison in 2009.
Forced Labor2007
United States US
Cesar Navarrete and Geovanni Navarrete beat, threatened, and restrained Mexican and Guatemalan immigrants, forcing them to work as agricultural laborers. The farms were located in Flordia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. The victims were underpaid, and continually mounted escalating debts, and were physically threatened if they tried to leave before their debt had been paid off. At the time of investigation, the family was holding 15 workers on the property. The Navarretes initially brought the workers to the U.S. to work picking the produce in their fields.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Federal agents and Las Vegas police officers arrested six persons believed to have been illegally operating bordellos in Clark County. Officials seized 3,500 tabs of Ecstasy, $20,000 in cash, and detained 25 mostly non-English speaking Asian females during the raid. Agents and officers are investigating whether any of the female detainees are underage or if they were forced into prostitution.
CSEC2007
United States US
In 2007, a security guard at a Miami middle school, was indicted. The security guard met his 14-year-old victim through one of the students at the school. He began a sexual relationship and eventually forced the victim to sell her body. The victim remained under the security guard’s control until the day prior to his arrest, when the victim's mother located her and the victim returned home.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
From April to December 2007, Craig Kraft and Liqing Liu operated a prostitution business. The location changed constantly which included motels in Bloomington, Golden Valley, Plymouth, and Minneapolis. The office for the business was located in St. Louis Park. Women were rotated to work in the brothel, and Liu arranged for the victims to travel to MN from California, New York, and Texas.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Daniel McNeal, A 36-year-old Minneapolis man, who also goes by the names of “Diamond” and “Daddy,” has a long criminal history, including assault, aggravated robbery and prostitution-related offenses. He is also recognized as a criminal sex offender in connection with a 2001 conviction in Texas for enticement to travel in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. Trafficked individual across several state lines, including Iowa, Texas and South Carolina. McNeal was sentenced to 293 months in federal prison.
Domestic Servitude2007
United States US
Dunkin' Donuts employees in Syosset notified the police of a middle aged women who was present and wearing only pants and a towel and had a beaten in face. Immigration officials searched the house and found another housekeeper hiding in a closet. The two slaves confessed to being tortured, beaten, and starved. They were also beaten with brooms and umbrellas, cut with knives and forced to climb stairs and to take freezing cold showers for misdeeds like oversleeping or stealing food from the trash since they were not fed well.
CSEC2007
United States US
The defendants in this case allegedly courted girls as young as 17 from Mexico, smuggled them into the United States under pretense and eventually conspired to transport them across state lines for the purposes of prostitution. According to federal Criminal Indictment NO. 1:08-CR-317-CC, five women were smuggled into the US, harbored as aliens, and had hidden from them the fact that they would be prostituted to repay the group for smuggling fees and other expenses. The indictment states that the Rugerios and Hernandez "targeted young, vulnerable women and teenagers with limited resources, and used violence, sexual assaults, threats of violence, threats of violence to family members, and threats of deportation and imprisonment, to compel the victims to engage in prostitution."
Bonded Labor2007
United States US
Over the course of five days, the jury heard evidence from four victims and several other former employees who worked at the Farrell's hotel. The witnesses testified that they were brought into the United States from the Philippines to work under an agreement that promised the Farrells would pay them more than minimum wage for 40 hours of work per week. The victims hoped to earn money to send to their families in the Philippines. According to trial testimony, once the victims arrived in South Dakota, the Farrells confiscated their visas and passports, made them sign inflated and ever-increasing debt contracts, and held them to work around the clock. Witnesses described working from early morning until midnight, then being forced to attend meetings at the hotel during which the Farrells threatened the victims with violence and berated them about their debts and the quality of their work. These late night meetings sometimes lasted as long as six hours. One worker testified that she went without sleep for three days in a row. A U.S. Department of Labor investigator told the jury that he discovered records that indicated one Filipino worker worked as many as 160 hours in a week at the hotel. When not at the hotel, as many as nine Filipino workers were housed in a nearby two-bedroom apartment rented by the Farrells. According to testimony, the Farrells paid the victims almost nothing. To make payroll records look legitimate, the Farrells handed workers paychecks for them to endorse but immediately took the checks back and deposited them into their own hotel bank account.
CSEC2007
United States US
Oakland Police department arrested the victim. Law enforcement from Arizona was also involved. They sent the victim back to California after a stay in the hospital.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
In the plea agreement, pled guilty in United States District Court yesterday to two counts of transporting a minor for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a) and one count of transporting a person for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2421. Mr. Bryant has agreed to serve a prison term of 96 months, with a subsequent term of supervised release of eight years. In addition, Mr. Bryant will be required to register as a sex offender. The prosecution, part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood, is the result of the combined efforts of the Union City Police Department, the Mesa, Arizona Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office - Fremont Branch, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Project Safe Childhood is a national initiative launched last year by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combining federal, state and local law enforcement resources in order to bring more Internet-related child exploitation prosecutions, and to educate the public about the dangers that the Internet poses to children. Michelle Morgan-Kelly, the District’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of legal assistant Cynthia Daniel.
Sex Trafficking2007
United States US
Law Enforcement from around Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Alameda county, FBI, and the DOJ consulted and constructed the operation Strikeout. Undercover work took place and 131 arrests were made.