Sex Trafficking2003
United States US
7 men were convicted for harboring aliens in a safe house apartment in the Houston area. The safe house was a destination for undocumented aliens smuggled into the country and transported to Houston from the Rio Grande Valley. Soto admitted that the aliens were housed in the apartment prior to traveling to their final destinations. The men trafficked four women from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, who had agreed to pay $5000 to be smuggled into the United States. Once they arrived here, however, the women were confined in “safe houses,” where they were forced to cook, clean, and do housework without pay. In addition, they were repeatedly raped by the defendants, who were charged and convicted on federal civil rights violations, extortion, hostage-taking, immigration offenses, involuntary servitude, and human trafficking. Juan Carlos Soto, Armando Soto-Huarto, Jose Corona-Soto, Martin Cortez-Gutierrez, Javier Olvera-Hernandez, Jose-Luis Villa-Zavalla, and Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez were sentencedon various trafficking and forced servitude-related charges. Juan Carlos Soto, the ringleader, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison without parole– the longest sentence ever handed out under TVPA as of that date. In January 2004, U.S. District Court Judge Randy Crane sentenced Armando Soto-Huarto was sentenced to ten years in prison; and Martin Cortez-Gutierrez to 14 years. Other low-level members of the conspiracy received prison sentences ranging from four to 27 months in prison.
Sex Trafficking2003
Australia AU
Australian Police Department of Immigration and Citizenship The case was tried by the Supreme Court of Queensland in 2007. Appealed in 2008. Retried in February 2010 in the Cairns Supreme Court. Ms. Melita Kovacs (now divorced from Zoltan Kovacs) was found guilty of intentionally possessing a slave and intentionally exercising ownership over / using a slave. Mr. Zoltan Kovacs pleaded guilty to the same charges.
Sex Trafficking2003
United States US
On December 12 2003, Moss was arrested after being pulled over driving his Cadillac with three prostitutes, a loaded pistol, and paperwork linking his sex trade to towns throughout the Western states. On June 21 2006, Moss was found guilty on charges that he allegedly controlled at least six, up to seven, prostitutes ranging in age from 16 to 21. He was found guilty of twelve criminal counts relating to sex trafficking of children and various firearms offenses. On February 9 2007, Will J. Moss, Jr. was sentenced by Senior US District Judge Edward J. Garcia to 40 years in federal prison. Moss has to serve at least 85 percent of the sentence; He won't be eligible for release from prison until he is 65 years old. Upon his release, he will register for life as a sex offender and serve 10 years under supervision. At least two of the victims witnessed against Moss, 17 yr old “Sinamon” and 20 yr old “Tachi”
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 30 year old woman was liberated who had been held within the shrine for five years, from the ages of 7 to 12 years of age. She was a replacement for her sister who had also been sent to serve as a shrine slave at a very young age but did not long survive the harsh conditions of life there. In the Dzoli shrine girls were usually taken in when the priest claimed through divination that a crime had been committed in their family. In this case the grandfather was accused of having sex with another of the priest’s slaves. In the shrine, the slave rose at 4 a.m. and spent her days cracking palm nuts from which the older slaves extracted palm oil. This the priest sold for money without ever sharing any of the proceeds with his slaves. After a time the shrine learned that a man wanted to marry her. She was so happy that she danced about, but this arrangement did not end her slavery. The shrine still controlled who she married and where she lived and travelled, and she was required to attend the annual festival every year and to bring sacrifices so expensive that getting them together still dominated her life all year long. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Bekli shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 30 year old woman was liberated who had been held within the shrine for 6 years, from the time she was an early teenager till about 20 years of age. She was later allowed to live outside the shrine under the condition that her life and movements be strictly controlled by the shrine and that she bring expensive offerings to the annual festival. This usually took most of her wages. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Dzoli shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 40 year old woman was liberated who had been held as a shrine slave all her life. Her mother had been a slave, and a customary practice called replacement dictates that if a slave dies or runs away, another girl from her family must replace her. This woman was born as a result of rape within the shrine, raised in the shrine, and replaced her mother as a full trokosi upon her death. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 40 year old woman was liberated who had been held within the shrine for 8 years, from the ages of 5-13 years of age. During that time she was raped and gave birth to the priest's child without medical care or any care for the child. She was later allowed to live outside the shrine under the condition that her life and movements be strictly controlled by the shrine and that she bring expensive offerings to the annual festival. This usually took most of her wages. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
The operation was run by Antonio Molina and approximately 5 others. They trafficked approximately 70 women into the US from Honduras and other Latin American countries. They were promised jobs as hostesses and maids, instead they were forced to work as prostitutes in bars and night clubs. They were housed in apartments with guards and were under constant surveillance.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 26 year old woman was liberated who had been sent to be a shrine slave at the age of seven. Supposedly her grandfather had captured and eaten a neighbor’s fowl. This resulted in the neighbor visiting the shrine to place a curse on the offending family. (The curse is never placed on the offender himself, only on the family. Likewise, it is never the offender who pays for the crime, but rather an innocent virgin girl from his family. The offender is virtually always male, the one who pays for the offense virtually always female, or more specifically, a young virgin). When the seven-year old victim arrived at the shrine, she was forced to go through an initiation ceremony in which she was stripped and paraded naked around the town. The victim says she hated life in the shrine, with its long, hard hours of work on behalf of the priest, harsh punishment, constant humiliation, endless taboos and restrictions, and forced worship of the shrine god (in spite of the fact that Ghana officially gives everyone freedom of religion).
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 25 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved by the shrine for 20 years, since she was five years old. She was not even aware of the exact offense committed or the family member who was charged, but a series of deaths in the family was attibuted to a curse of the gods because of the alleged crime and the victim was forced to try to atone for the crime by a life of slavery. As Monica grew and learned more about her situation, most traumatic to her was the fact that out of fear, her parents did not even protest. Her story came out during the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
The Aklidokpo traditional shrine near Adidome, N. Tongu District, Volta Region of Ghana practiced a form of slavery popularly called trokosi, but called ritual or customary servitude by the government of Ghana. In this system, shrine priests take in young virgins as a sort of “living sacrifices” in an attempt to make atonement for a crime allegedly committed by a male member of the family. The priest of the Aklidokpo shrine died, and rather than enstooling a new priest, the shrine owners and elders of the community agreed to liberate their slaves and end the practice in that place. In this case an 18 year old woman was freed from shrine slavery. Taken into slavery at an early age, she was denied education and is unable to read. She had received partial release and married at an early age, but this arrangement did not end her slavery. The shrine still controlled who she married and where she lived and travelled, and she was fined for the least mistake and required to attend the annual festival every year and to bring sacrifices so expensive that getting them together still dominated her life all year long. The marriage did not last long. The husband abandoned her while she was pregnant because someone told him he should not have married a trokosi. Then she lost the child as well. At the beginning of counseling, the victim was extremely bitter. After liberation she decided to become a Christian, which caused her family, which follows African traditional religion, to turn against her. The victim feels very lonely.
Sex Trafficking2002
Ghana GH
Two NGO’s, Every Child Ministries and Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement, cooperated to negotiate the liberation of all the Aklidokpo shrine slaves. This was facilitated by the fact that the shrine priest had died, so the shrine owners and elders agreed to liberate rather than enstooling a new priest. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine owners signed an agreement that slavery was ended in that place, all their slaves were freed, and they would never again take in slaves to the shrine. In this case a 69 year old woman was freed who had spent most of her life in shrine slavery. She suffered greatly while in servitude and feared that she would never get out alive. After the liberation, when ECM counselors first visited her, she was very sick, but she recovered and is now in good health.
Sex Trafficking2002
Norway NO
Georgian male known as "Ludvig" took a Russian woman he met in Lithuania to a summer house outside of Vilnius, where another russian woman was being held against her will. They were then transported to Stockholm, before arriving in Oslo in Dec.2001.Then taken to a flat in a fashionable area where they were guarded, raped repeatedly, abused (including burned with cigarettes)prostituted out, drugged with heroine and never paid for their "services rendered". Ludvig was already serving time in Sweden when prosecutors began the case.
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
The FBI led an investigation and used the Patriot Act to obtain confidential information, which resulted in the rescue of the victim. The trafficker was identified after bragging in an Internet chat room under the name of “master for teen slave girls” and sending photographs of the victim whom he identified as his “sex slave.” The victim was found restrained to a bed post with a dog collar and a chain at the offender’s house.
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
Sonoma County Sheriff's Sgt. Greg Contos said it appears the men, who knew the teens in Sacramento, somehow enticed or forced the girls to go with them to Alameda County and then Sonoma County to act as prostitutes. The teens were apparently at a different hotel in Alameda County on Monday. At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, the 18-year-old dialed 911 and gave dispatchers a description of her alleged kidnappers and their car.
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
For many years, 5 Seattle men, 1 man from Portland, and a man and a woman from LA lured young women from Asia with the promise of a better life in the US, only to make them sex slaves in 3 brothels in Seattle and 1 in Portland. The women were brought from all over Asia - China, Vietnam, Korea, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand - and had no idea they would be forced into prostitution. The 5 men from Seattle are: Jonny Cong Wu Phui Dang Shek Yu Ng De Qin Zhang He Qingping The woman from LA, Yuen Lam, is accused of supplying women to brothels nationwide, as well as the three discovered in Seattle and one in Portland. The prostitution ring would move the women between cities about every other week; the women were never allowed to leave the brothel, except when changing locations. The brothel at this location (Vantage Park Apartments) was run by Wu, and security camera tapes that show about 20 customers per day; the going rate was about $120 per visit at all three brothels. Ng ran another brothel on 31st Ave South, near SeaTac Airport. Zhang and Qingping ran another brothel in the Jeffrey Apartments, 167 11th Ave - about a block from the Vantage Park apartments.
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
David Lee Miller Jr., former Sunnyvale police officer; Sue Yun Song and Roger K. Li, owners and operators of the Crystal Palace; Sang Ye Han and Robert Kwong Wong, owners of Ok Yeo Bong From an Asian Week article: http://asianweek.com/2002_08_09/bay_sextrafficking.html "In this particular raid, FBI officials say that the owners of Crystal Palace Nightclub and Ok Yeo Bong bar in Sunnyvale, Calif., were involved in a sex trafficking ring where immigrant women were forced to have “dates” and sex with customers in exchange for rent, utilities and cost incurred to transport them into the U.S." From an article in the SJ Mercury News: http://wc1.worldcrossing.com/WebX/.ef3dd6b "The bars -- Crystal Palace Nightclub and Ok Yeo Bong -- recruited women from Korea for at least two years, authorities say, paying traveling expenses and getting visas, but then forced the women to repay their debts through prostitution. Patrolman David Lee Miller Jr., who has spent 15 years on the force, allegedly helped the bar owners build their enterprises by warning them of police inspections. Federal court documents say the 38-year-old Morgan Hill resident also helped track down women who skipped out on the clubs without paying back the expenses of bringing them into the country."
Sex Trafficking2002
United States US
Carlos Curtis and an accomplice convinced a 12-year old runaway to become a prostitute by offering her food, clothing, and shelter. Curtis also had another victim, a 17-year old runaway from Maryland. Curtis traveled with the two from Brooklyn, NY to Washington DC, where he sold the children from sex. Curtis also had another victim, a 26-year old woman from Queens, NY.
Sex Trafficking2001
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 42 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved for 32 years, since she was ten years old. She did not know the reason at the time, but her mother later told her that her grandfather was burning some rubbish, the wind shifted, and the neighbor’s thatch roof hut caught on fire. The neighbor went to the shrine and invoked the intervention of the Dzoli god, which is reported to have caused several deaths in the family. The family believed that the only way to stop the deaths was to atone for the accident by sending a young virgin girl to become a slave of the Dzoli god. The victim reports that there were eight other young slave girls in the shrine. She was made to work the priest’s farm with a short-handled hoe, gather firewood, carry water from the river, and carry big pots on her head. Two children were born to her as a result of being raped regularly by the priest. Her story came out in the liberation process.
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
The convictions are the result of a coordinated effort of the Trafficking In Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force, an interagency effort that brings together different agencies to combat the problem of trafficking in persons and modern-day slavery in the United States. The case, which was investigated jointly by the INS, FBI, and the Anchorage Police Department, was prosecuted by the Criminal Section of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division and the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Alaska (DOJ). If yes, in what way and with what result? U.S. vs. Virchenko was the first case to be decided under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA). Additionally, the Department of Justice expanded the definition of commercial sexual service of a minor to include not only “a commercial sexual activity,” but also a “sexually explicit performance” (Mattar).
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
Federal agents arrested the dance instructor Monday as he tried to fly back to Russia with three of the women. Agents arrested Kennard, of Chugiak, on Tuesday for his part in the alleged fraud, including a felony count of aiding and abetting preparation of false visa applications. Both were jailed.
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
On November 24, 1999, Reddy and a group of his employees were spotted carrying the unconscious body of a 17-year-old girl into a van, and trying to force an 18-year-old girl in as well. Marcia Poole, a passing motorist, stopped the kidnapping and alerted the police who came to the scene, but Reddy managed to resolve the situation, by claiming that the unconscious girl was the daughter of one of his employees. The 17-year-old and her 15-year-old sister, who had been lying in a nearby stairwell, had suffered carbon monoxide poisoning in a Reddy-owned apartment and were taken to nearby Alta Bates hospital, where the 17-year-old was pronounced dead. The police accepted Reddy's explanation of an accidental death, but the Berkeley High Jacket, the student newspaper of nearby Berkeley High School, found it odd that the girls had not been attending school. Reporters Megan Greenwell and Iliana Montauk dug into the case and broke the story, exposing a web of criminal activity. Reddy had been exploiting the H-1B visa system for years to traffick poor Indian workers into the country as forced laborers. He brought in over 20 immigrants on the H-1B program, claiming that they were computer programmers. In many cases, he had the workers petition to bring in other trafficked workers into the US, claiming that they were family, and backing up the claims with falsified documents. The trafficked workers were generally made to work in Reddy's restaurants and apartment buildings. The two girls, supposed "daughters" of one of Reddy's "programmers," were not only forced to clean Reddy's buildings, but were also his underaged sex slaves. Reddy was sentenced to eight years in prison, required to repay US$2 million dollars, and will be a registered sex offender upon his release. Two of his sons received lesser sentences for conspiracy to defraud the INS as part of plea agreements. Reddy was released April 2, 2008.[1] The Reddy family currently operates numerous apartment complexes in the Berkeley area under the names Reddy Realty and Everest Properties, as well as the Pasand restaurants in Berkeley and Santa Clara.
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
Nantawat Naovasairi was sentenced to 17.5 years in prison for recruiting and transporting Thai females to the US and attempting to murder and FBI agent. Naree Hanlert was sentenced to 12 months in prison and three years supervised release for conspiracy to smuggle undocumented foreign nationals to the country. Ratiporn Tantirojankikan was sentenced to 17 months in prison and two year supervised release. Two other suspects remain fugitives.
Sex Trafficking2001
Ghana GH
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 70 year old woman was sent into shrine slavery when she was too young to remember her age, and spent most of her life in servitude. She was later told that her grandfather had got into a quarrel with someone over a palm plantation, and the other party had cursed their family at the shrine. When family members died, it was believed that they needed to present a young virgin girl to atone for the grandfather’s crime by living a life of slavery. The victim was not the only very young girl at the shrine. Three others of her age range were there at the same time. Her duties included sweeping the compound, gathering firewood from the forest, selling firewood at the market, and working the priest’s farm with a short-handled hoe. The priest received all the money and all the crop. The victim was plagued by hunger, so she sometimes picked unripe mangoes and hid them under leaves in the forest until they ripened. She was very angry at her family for sending her into servitude. After many years of enslavement in the shrine she was given partial release, but this arrangement did not end her slavery. The shrine still controlled who she married and where she lived and travelled, and she was fined for the least mistake and required to attend the annual festival every year and to bring sacrifices so expensive that getting them together still dominated her life all year long. This victim was one of 264 who were liberated that day along with their children (a joint liberation involving three shrines of which Dzoli was one).