Forced Criminality2010
United States US
Harris County SO received information about illegal aliens being held against their will. Deputies found 2 females. One had been smuggled into the US for $2500. Defendants were recruiting illegals from Mexico, paying their smuggling fee, and forcing the aliens to work off the debt by selling pirated CDs and DVDs. The victims lived with the defendants and were assaulted, threatened, and intimidated with threatening phone calls to their families in Mexico.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
Victor Campuzano, age 23, of Houston, Texas rented three pick up trucks from National and Hertz rental companies at Bush Intercontinental Airport. National has been fully cooperative, providing all records of the transaction. Campuzano is also forfeiting his personal vehicle to law enforcement. He has been arraigned and will go to trial some time between Oct 2009 and June of 2010. Campuzano posted the $10,000 bond in cash. McAllen detectives expect him to plea bargain out.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
43-year-old Ismael Alvarez and several other men held the three victims in an apartment on East Riverside Drive after the victims had crossed illegally into the country in September, according to the affidavit. Ismael Alvarez was arrested.
Forced Criminality2009
Ghana GH
A resident of Brepro Nkwanta near Bawdie in the Wassa Amenfi East District of the Western Region admitted to attempting to sell a man, a carpenter of the same village for traditional ritual purposes. The Inspector said on June 19, 2007, the complainant received a call from Tekpey who informed him (the complainant) that he lied when he said he wanted him to assist him secure a kiosk, rather he wanted him (the complainant) to assist him sell the man in the Sewfi area where a human head could be exchanged for a KIA vehicle.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
Manatee Sheriffs office, I.C.E., and F.B.I. were all involved in the investagation which lead to the arrest of both traffickers.
Forced Criminality2009
Thailand TH
The Mirror Foundation was given information about the child. They rescued him, and are now helping him get an education at the local school for disabled.
Forced Criminality2009
Thailand TH
Noi Noi comes from a very poor family in the northeastern part of Thailand. She is the oldest of 4 children. Her father is an alcoholic and is very aggressive when drunk. He would consistently beat the whole family. After several years her mother could not handle the situation any longer and invited Noi to take poison so that they would die together. Noi was afraid. Not long after that her mother committed suicide. Noi was 9 years old. From then on Noi became her father’s “wife”. Many times a week her father abused her and he also invited his friends over to do the same. From the age of 9 till 12 her life was all misery. With no mother, no protection; she had to take care of her younger siblings.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
http://www.krdo.com/Global/story.asp?S=10584240 15 people have been arrested for charges of child pornography. It is possible that 10 more people could be arrested.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
“In the early hours of April 15, officers from Immigration and Customs Enforcement knocked on the door of 1809 Cortez Ave. Inside the single-family home, they say they found eight illegal immigrants imprisoned in a back bedroom. The room's doors had been wired shut and its windows had been boarded up. The men had recently been smuggled across the Mexican border, officials say. Testimony from a woman operating the safe house would later reveal that 31 men had been held in the home three days before. Agents had been led to the house by a scrap of paper. The previous evening, about 35 miles south of Escondido in San Diego's Barrio Logan, two men had arrived at a house on Franklin Street, according to police reports. Police allege the men brought with them Martin Guadarama, an illegal immigrant from Mexico whom they had smuggled into the country a few days before. The men, Luis Camacho Ventura and Mateo Alvarado, were there to pick up a ransom payment. Police officers said they had called Guadarama's wife demanding $1,300 and threatening to kill their hostage. "They told her they would dismember her husband and spread him all over the city if she didn't pay," said Lt. John Leas of the San Diego Police Department's robbery division. Guadarama's wife called the SDPD and, when the smugglers arrived to collect the money, they were apprehended by police officers. The officers searched the men, finding a letter addressed to Ventura at the Escondido address. Alvarado also had a handcuff key and a large amount of money, police say. Guadarama told the detectives that other immigrants were being held at the house against their will (Carless).”
Forced Criminality2009
South Africa ZA
A 38-year-old man and a 32-year-old woman were arrested at a house in Rail street, Florida on Johannesburg's West Rand. It is alleged that the couple abducted a 19-year-old female who was brought into South Africa from Zimbabwe about a week ago under the pretext that she was going to be employed. The couple then demanded R1800 ransom money from the woman's brother.
Forced Criminality2009
Malaysia MY
Malaysian immigration officials discovered a major human trafficking syndicate when authorities detained 116 Indian and Sri Lankan citizens believed to be headed for Indonesia en route to Australia, official news reports said. The men and women, aged between seven months and 50 years old, were staying at an apartment in the southern state of Johor, said state immigration deputy director Muhammad Ali Abdullah. "More than 20 rooms were occupied by the foreigners, believed to be rented by smuggling agents. It is believed that three of the agents were also living at the place but they escaped during the raid," Muhammad Ali was quoted as saying by the Bernama news agency.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
Omar Luna-Valencia, 32-year-old, was stopped on I-65 in an SUV with 11 passengers, four were children. Luna-Valencia admitted he was attempting to smuggle illegal aliens from Phoenix to Chicago.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
Article Text: "Rockingham County, NC -- Investigators arrested a man they say kidnapped a woman and refused to let her leave. Rockingham County Sheriff's Department says 46-year-old Wendy Autwell told them she was held against her will for three months at a home in Stoneville. Autwell says Larry McIntyre threatened her life and the lives of her children and grandchildren. The arrest warrant says Autwell was "held as a hostage, terrorized and held in involuntary servitude." Deputies arrested McIntyre and charged him with First Degree Kidnapping. He was placed on a $500,000 bond and an additional $10,000 for a Probation Violation." Original Article Link: http://www.digtriad.com/news/local/story.aspx?storyid=130675&catid=57
Forced Criminality2009
Uganda UG
The child was used for 18 months in the shrine. Then her eye teeth were cut out of her jaw for use in ritual "magic", she was stuffed into a bag and discarded in the next province, the Masaka District. A woman saw the bag and detected movement. She found the child in terrible condition, covered in her own excrement. The child's neck showed signs of having been tied tightly with a rope over a long period of time. The woman cleaned the child up, took her to a hospital for treatment, and contacted the police.
Forced Criminality2009
Russia RU
“In December 2005, 25 Ukrainian victims were found on a Russian fishing boat in the Sea of Japan. Recruiters lured men, ages 18 to 50, from poor fishing communities on the Black Sea with promises of good pay for work aboard industrial fishing vessels. Once at sea, however, the men were forced at gunpoint to work extremely long days without pay. They were deprived of sleep and physically and psychologically abused. They were deprived of food and water if they refused to work and sometimes consumed crab bait, consisting of raw fish, sea water, and melted ice water to survive. Although the vessel served as a perfect prison, their passports were confiscated. The victims were found and rescued when a Russian Coast Guard crew boarded the vessel to search for illegal poached crabs. They found the victims exhausted and half-starved, locked in the ship’s hold along with three tons of illegally poached crab.”
Forced Criminality2009
Sweden SE
A 28 years old man from Ukraine who due to an accident lost both arms, he was offered a job in an office in Moscow. However, he was trafficked and ended up begging--first in Estonia, then in Holland and Spain, then he ended up in the Stockholm subway, and outside a large church in Uppsala (Livets Ord. He wore a sign saying ”Please help me to get an operation”. He may have earned up to Skr 1 milj (about US $150 000)for the traffickers from his begging. The victim finally succeeded to escape by jumping off a train just as it left Stockholm and contacted the police.
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
ROGERS was then arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and formally charged Tuesday with attempting to travel to Mexico to engage in illicit sexual behavior with a minor
Forced Criminality2009
United States US
The two were threatened with exposure to immigration officials, according to the federal charges. here is a link to an article http://wbal.com/apps/news/templates/story.aspx?articleid=37187&zoneid=3
Forced Criminality2008
Germany DE
A gang of 30 Vietnamese, two Germans and Czech citizen were using several places in Berlin and in the States of Brandenburg and Saxony for trafficking at least 130 Vietnamese people via Russia and the Czech Republic. While their hideouts in Germany were used as a stop, the "shipment" was destined for France or the UK. According to the police the Dong Xuan Center, a large Asian market in Berlin, was playing a key role in the business.
Forced Criminality2008
South Africa ZA
http://www.ldh.org.mz/index.php/en/projects-and-research/trafficking-body-parts This interview was conducted in Bloemspruit with a woman who confirmed she was instructed by a “Sangoma” (Traditional Healer) to use children’s fingers and penises, which she wore as a belt under her clothes to solve a problem she had with a pregnancy. Previous to the visit to the Sangoma, she appeared to be pregnant and then suffered a miscarriage. However, she seemed not prepared to accept this and despite visits to hospitals and clinics who confirmed she was not actually pregnant, she instead visited a Sangoma who made a belt for her. From the belt hung two fingers and three penises from children. She was also instructed to drink a concoction she believed contained human blood and fat and she was given a piece of flesh which she believed to be a human organ, perhaps a heart. She sliced small pieces from the flesh each night and fried them on a stove. She followed these instructions for about one month and became ill, burnt the items prescribed by the Sangoma and went to hospital. Interviewer: Have you ever used the Traditional Healers? Informant: Yes Interviewer: Do you mind telling us about your visit to the Traditional Healer? Informant: I went to that Sangoma and he gave me Muti to drink, a mixture of herbs. And another Muti that I had to burn at night. Interviewer: Can you say what kind of Muti did you have to burn at night? Informant: That Muti looked like a person’s heart. You could see that it was like a heart from a person. Interviewer: So it was something for you to drink and then it was something for you to burn at night? Informant: That Muti to drink, it was three bottles. Those bottles when I was drinking that Muti, it looked like blood. I don’t know what to say, because when I was drinking I wanted to vomit. I wanted to vomit that Muti. I was starting to be scared. I thought I cannot drink this. Interviewer: And were you drinking it from a cup or out from the bottle. Informant: From a cup. Then the Traditional Healer, he gave me a belt with fingers and penises of children. It looked like a necklace with penises and fingers hanging. Interviewer: So, it was a finger and a penis, a finger and a penis and they were they all sewed to the belt? Informant: Yes. Interviewer: Were they dry or wet? Informant: Dry. Interviewer: Are you able to tell me how many fingers and how many penises were hanging from the belt? Informant: Two fingers and three penises. Interviewer: How could you say these fingers and penises were from children? Informant: They were very small, very small. Interviewer: Couldn’t it be from animals? Informant: No, they were human. I know human penises. Interviewer: Do you feel that everything that the Traditional Healer gave you has helped? Informant: No. Interviewer: Can you tell me if the Traditional Healer charged you any price? Informant: R4000 in cash (approximately US$ 400, ed.). Interviewer: Going back to the belt, can you describe it a bit more? Informant: It was a brown belt. On the front it had the penises and fingers hanged and on the back it had a pillow with needles. Interviewer: Did you ever take it out or were you wearing all the time? Informant: All the time. Always. Interviewer: How long were you using the belt and using this Muti? Informant: I used it only for one month. Interviewer: That time that the Traditional Healer gave you that Muti did you ask what was it? What was inside? Informant: No, I was so desperate. Interviewer: Can that be because you didn’t want to know? Informant: I was so sick, so sick…that if someone told me to go to the toilet and eat I would do it. Interviewer: Where do you think those fingers and penises came from? Informant: They kill the babies.
Forced Criminality2008
United States US
Authorities were contacted multiple times before the workers were finally emancipated. Some of the first to report their suspicions were neighbors of the crime family. They noticed and reported domestic violence they saw suspected from the house. The neighbors also realized that an unsually large amount of people lived in one house. All 62 victims lived in one house, including 12 children, and three pregnant women. At first, neighbors were too scared to call police because they thought that the Mexicans were illegal aliens. When police began to make searches of the house, they came during working hours, while no one was home. As of 2006, 27 of the victims still inhabited the US. Two of the ringleaders in the crime, a decade after the fact, were given 13 year sentences, although there likely sentences will be five years. However, the Paoletti-Lemus ramily was court ordered to give out $1.4 million in restitution.
Forced Criminality2008
Romania RO
In July 2008 Detectives from the Garda National Immigration Bureau were backed up by officers from the Wexford division in the investigation. The Romanian Police were also a part of the investigation. The immigration bureau investigated several crime gangs last year that were suspected of using human trafficking and then discovered the violence used by the Romanian gypsies. When the initial raid happened in July, there were numerous arms confiscated from the Romanians.
Forced Criminality2008
Malaysia MY
Hytex Factory is one of the largest t-shirt companies in Malaysia, along with other parts of the world. They had contracts with Nike, Disney, Gap, ELLE, Asics, Levi's, Warner Brothers, Ellers and others. Workers came from Burma, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Sri Linka. Once there, their passports were confiscated, they were in debt bondage from recruitment fees, forced to live in small, dirty quarters (about 25 to a room and 350 people to one bathroom) and forced to sign a three-year contract in a language they did not understand, trapping them their for several years, unable to pay off their debts with the minute wages they were given.
Forced Criminality2008
Mozambique MZ
Interview with the Police Officer in Xinavane District, Maputo Province LDH: We would like to talk about the child’s case. Police: [...] they had found a body of a child in the Tsatsimbe River. [...] It was late afternoon. We had some difficulties like transportation, [...] we went there and […] we saw that it was a body of a child. The body was taken from the water […]. Then we tried to follow the story and we found out that it was a boy that was going to a house to watch a movie. When he went back home and entered his house, someone, who was already following him, grabbed him and pulled him out of the house. He killed him and threw his body into the water. [...] LDH: Was that when you arrived there to see the body? Police: Yes. […] We saw that the body had been opened, didn’t have the heart and didn’t have almost all the organs. [...] Then the Police worked and managed to arrest a suspect. LDH2: Regarding the child’s case, do you know the destiny of the organs? The reason why they extracted the organs? Police: No. We didn’t find the organs. They were already gone.