Country · US
SlaveryMap documents 906 cases of modern slavery in the United States from 1981 to 2025. The most documented type is sex trafficking (38% of cases), followed by CSEC (35%). Overview and map →
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Atzlan Jaimes-Santana and Rolando Hernandez-Hernandez were among the eight people charged in the Fall of 2007 as part of a prostitution ring that prosecutors say stretched across the Southeast and involved more than 100 women from Latin America.
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The case was investigated by the Oregon Human Trafficking Taskforce, FBI, Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office and the Portland Police Bureau. Scurry initially was charged with a seven count indictment alleging multiple counts of sex trafficking of a child and interstate prostitution. He plead guilty to one count of sex trafficking of a minor and recieved 84 months in prison and 5 years of supervised release. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin.
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On June 14, 2007 Dennis Paris was found guilty for operating a sex trafficking ring. He was found guilty of four counts of sex trafficking, one count of conspiracy, money laundering, and 13 counts of using interstate facilities to promote and conduct a prostitution business. Nine other defendants in the case have pleaded guilty to charges of sex trafficking of minors and sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion. One of these co-defendants, Shanaya Hicks, was sentenced to 46 months in prison. Brian Forbes, another defendant in the case, was sentenced to 156 months in prison, three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $16,339 in restitution to the victims.
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Kil Soo Lee, former owner of a Daewoosa American Somoa factory, forced over 200 Vietnamese and Chinese people to work in his garment factory. The victims were recruited from China and state-owned labor companies in Vietnam. Each worker paid fees ranging from $5,000 to $8,000 to be brought the U.S. and for their job in the factory. Lee and his co-workers threatened the victims with deportation if they spoke against their poor working conditions and minimal pay. In March of 1999, workers complained about their situation to local residents in an attempt to get more food. Lee responded by arresting and deporting some of the victims, depriving the rest of food, and physically beating the workers so they continued working. A woman lost an eye due to one of these beatings. The victims continued to work in the factory until November 2000. When the victims were recruited to come work in the factory they were promised $408 per month in wages, as well as free food and housing. They were not given any of these things, and Lee took their travel documents. The clothes made in the factory were commonly sold in Sears and JcPenny stores.
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Trafficker Aaron Pierre Brown Aka Mac Prozac, aka Prozac, aka Pro, aka Pierre, aka Daddy, aka Jamar P. Adanadus, aka Jamar Adanandus, aka Jamar Pierre Adanandus. Age 28, lived in Hayward, CA Indicted for pimping out three underage girls in both California and Arizona. Brown bought lingerie for the girls, took pictures of them, and then advertised them on Craigslist. Brown spent time with the girls in his apartment on Civic Center Drive and in San Jose Hotels. It was reported by one of the girls that she was frequently beaten and had had her nose broken from one beating. He reportedly used such items such as cords and wire hangers. According to the complaint, Brown encouraged at least one victim to read a book he authored which contained rules the minor had to obey while working as a prostitute. Victims alleged that Brown controlled everything and would force victims to work on “tracks,” in his apartment and in hotels throughout California and in Arizona. Brown also had unprotected sex with at least one of the girls, giving him a son in January
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In 2004, Juan and Ellilian Ramos paid $250 for Guatemalan cousins Maria de Jesus Batres and Floridalma Sales Flores to come to the U.S. work as maids or cooks and send money back to their families. Ramos told the victims that after they had paid off their $250 debt, they would be paid $125 a week. The victims were given insufficient food and water, few breaks from work, and basically no pay. The women worked up to 21-hour days, either in the Ramos' home or an adult daycare center run by Ramos' sister, where they persuaded elderly men to live in the facility. The victims faced sexual harassment, battery, emotional, and physical abuse. They were threatened by the traffickers with threats to report the women to immigration authorities or the police.
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Eduardo Marquez, Teodoro Estrada, and Aquilina Alvarez have been indicted for smuggling undocumented alians to different parts of the US from Mexico. Been known to smuggle children and infants.
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Higa understands the frightful reality better than most, because she herself was trafficked from China under the false pretense that she was going to a women's business school. When she arrived at a hotel to meet an instructor that would accompany her to the U.S., she was brutally beaten, raped and robbed of her belongings and personal documents. "Think about a girl who's been raped so many times she can't even recognize it as rape anymore, it's just part of her life," she said. Higa, like so many other modern-day slaves, was brought to Hawai'i and forced to work in a brothel on Ward Avenue. If she did not make enough money for the pimps and mama-sans, she was not allowed to eat, drink or sleep.
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Bronson Iseri, 21; Iseri was pimping his 17 year old girlfriend on craigslist and pocketing the money she received. He is charged with rape and promoting prostitution but is denying the rape charge.
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The FBI and local law enforcement agents orchestrated a nationwide sting. Undercover cops posed as Jons and arrested prostitutes soliciting sex at bars/nightclubs, casinos, truck stops, and Internet sites such as Craig’s list. The sting operations were used to determine whether or not the girls were less than 18 years of age. If so, they were taken into custody and treated as a trafficking victim
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The operation involved local law enforcement in 29 cities across the country working with the FBI, the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Houston police Officers Emma Rodriguez and Catherine Clogher, of Juvenile Division's sex crimes unit, helped arrest the two local men accused of being pimps to three teenage girls.
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Javier RamierezAccording to his plea agreement, Ramirez took the girl to Maryland and Virginia, where she had sex with clients from August 2005 to June 2006. The girl met with at least 25 clients per day, and gave most of the money she earned to Ramirez. She told the clients that she was 20 years old.
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A false promise of a $500-a-week baby-sitting job lured illegal immigrant Marlene Harpi from New York City to Indianapolis in 2001. But when she arrived here, the job turned out to be quite different. Police say Harpi was held in a Westside Indianapolis brothel and forced to have sex with at least 15 to 20 men a day. Two Hispanic teenage girls, who like Harpi had been recruited from New York, were also prisoners of the prostitution ring. Her captors warned her that she would "disappear" if she tried to flee. After three days at the West 16th Street house, Harpi was taken to a duplex on Sherman Drive just north of East Washington Street. There, her sex slavery continued for another three days.
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Abdel Nasser Youssef Ibrahim and his ex-wife, Amal Ahmed Ewis-abd El Motelib were charged with forcing a 10-year-old girl to work as a domestic servant in their house in Irvine. The victim first began to work for the couple in 1999, while they still lived in Egypt. Following their move to the US in 2000, the couple arranged with her parents for the girl to be brought as well to work as a nanny and housekeeper. She was forced to work 16 hours a day as a domestic servant, helping the couple`s children get ready for school, preparing and serving food, cleaning, and doing laundry and yard work. Her passport was taken, and she was not paid for the 20 months she worked for the family. The victim was physically and verbally abused, and told she would be arrested if the police caught her outside the family's home.
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Specifically, the indictment alleges these defendants were involved in the recruitment of Mexican women and girls to travel to the United States with the false expectation of legitimate jobs in bars and restaurants beginning in 1999 and using force, fraud, and coercion to compel their service as prostitutes in their bar and restaurant. The indictment further alleges that in 2003 through 2011, the conspirators changed their tactics and relied upon on the services of pimps to supply minor females and young women for use as prostitutes and to maintain control and prevent escape of the minor females and young women. The Rojas allegedly derived their substantial profits initially by doubling the amount of the smuggling fee charged by smugglers ($2,000 fee became $4,000) which was taken from the earnings of the women. A 3-year investigation into the trafficking of young and minor female Mexican nationals for the purpose of prostitution out of Houston area bars and restaurants through force, fraud, and coercion has lead to the indictment of 10 individuals, including the owner/operators of the La Costeñita Bar and El Club Restaurante, U.S. Attorney José Angel Moreno announced earlier this week. The 3-count indictment was returned by a Houston grand jury under seal on Tuesday, February 15, 2011. All 10 defendants charged were taken into custody by teams of investigating agents.
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Jacobo Dominguez Vazquez, Jose Luis Chavez, and Braulio Anceto Velez trafficked a 13-year old Mexican girl to the United States specifically for prostitution. She was brought to Jackson, Wyoming in March 2004 with the promise of a better life in the United States. After her arrival, the traffickers told her she would be forced to have sex for money, in order to pay her smuggling fee. The men then solicited business for the girl, keeping all the profits and operating out of local motels in March and April, 2004. The men charged $80 to $100 for each sex act. On April 18, 2004, a customer complained about the price, and called the police. The three men, along with a fourth suspect, Armando Salas, left Jackson with the victim for Phoenix, AZ. Eight months later they returned to Jackson.
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Woodly Gaston. 22 year old Ozone Park, NY manBrown also alleges that Gaston advertised the victim on Craig’s List. The victim, it is alleged, was expected to have sex with approximately 10 men a day and to give Gaston all the money she earned prostituting herself. It is also alleged that during this time, the teenage victim stayed at Gaston’s house, where he had sexual intercourse with her and repeatedly threatened to kill her if she left him or went with another pimp.
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"Three St. Louis-area residents face federal charges of sex trafficking and slavery after being accused of beating and torturing a mentally disabled teen and forcing her to prostitute herself to pay off a relative's debt. The 18-year-old, identified only as “Jane Doe,” may have been held for up to a month, according to a federal court affidavit by FBI Special Agent Cynthia Dockery that became public Thursday. Waquita “Goddess” Wallace, 33, and Richard Marquis Harper, 20, of the 5200 block of Genevieve Avenue, were arrested by FBI agents Wednesday and charged in federal court in St. Louis with sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and sale into involuntary servitude. A woman identified only as “April” also faces the same charges. Wallace and April could not be reached for comment." (from following link: http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/stlouiscitycounty/story/6C8E07BF00551A458625747B007557F8?OpenDocument)
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Allen Brown, aka "Prince", age 47 funded a lavish lifestyle by running a trafficking ring for almost two decades. He recruited women all over N.J. from Camden and Philadelphia to Atlantic City to Jersey City, where he lived. He enticed women with promises of money and a better life.The women had their cell phones and identification taken and were locked inside houses or apartments and not allowed to leave or contact others on the outside. Brown had anywhere from 2 - 20 women working for him each night since 1990, forcing them to bring in a set amount of cash each day, usually from $500-$1000. If the women didn't meet his demands, they were sometimes beaten or denied the drugs he kept many addicted to. Six others were also indicted for helping run the ring or for laundering money. Some of these were Brown's relatives, including his mother, niece and nephew. Annie Cooper, 41, of Jersey City, pleaed guilty last month to first-degree racketering. Officers say she acted as the women's boss, enforcing Brown's house rules.
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Steven Lorenzo J. Leonard, 23, befriended and coerced a 12-year-old girl into prostitution. The girl told police that a mutual friend introduced her to Leonard on Jan. 9 and he invited her to hang out, then had unprotected sex with her that night and several times in the ensuing days. The two stayed at the homes of several women who described themselves as his fiancees. Leonard also made the girl walk the street in downtown Seattle, performing tricks (sexual acts) for "johns," then made her turn over the money to Leonard, her new pimp. Steven Leonard has an extensive record; he has been convicted of escape, possessing stolen property, theft, obstructing a public officer and animal cruelty.
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From Seattle Times article 10/11/08 by Mike Carter http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2008254413_brothels11m.html: Federal agents have arrested a woman on a charge that she conspired to transport women from Southeast Asia to the Seattle area to work in a string of brothels. Chomphoonut Dongird, also known as "Lisa," was indicted Wednesday by a Seattle federal grand jury on a single count of conspiracy to transport individuals in furtherance of prostitution. The indictment was unsealed following her arrest Thursday. Dongird pleaded not guilty to the charges Friday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Mary Alice Thieler, who ordered her held pending a detention hearing next week. Trial is set for Dec. 15. The indictment says Dongird has operated a trio of brothels disguised as massage parlors in Kirkland, Bellevue and SeaTac for years, and that she has brought women from Thailand and California to work as masseuses. According to the indictment, the women were required to perform sex acts as part of their employment. In one instance, according to the indictment, Dongird brought a woman from Thailand to the U.S. and then told her she owed $25,000 for her immigration paperwork and travel. The woman was required to work off her debt at the brothels, according to the charges. The indictment also says Dongird arranged "sham marriages" in order to bring women into the U.S. to work at the massage parlors. Dongird brought one woman to Seattle in 2002, where she worked as Dongird's housekeeper and as a prostitute until last month, the indictment says.
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The Sex Crimes Unit of the Memphis Police raided the trafficker's apartment and found "cash, receipts, ledgers, gels and body cleaning solutions" as well as condoms.
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Ramon Maldonado (age 49) of Olympia, Washington is the former owner of Ramon's Flooring and Carpet Installation, Inc., of Lacey, Washington. After his arrest, his business changed its name to JC Flooring. In June, 2005, Maldonado offered to employ a man (we'll call him J.G.) in his flooring business. J.G. is a Mexican National who was living in Apatzingan, Michoacan, Mexico. Ramon Maldonado provided money to J.G. to pay his smuggling fees. Once J.G. arrived in the US, Maldonado required him to repay his smuggling fees by working for his flooring company. Maldonado told J.G. that he could be arrested and deported because he was in the country illegally if he tried to leave. J.G. lived in the garage of Maldonado's home while working 14-17 hours a day installing carpet and providing manual labor to the flooring company.
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In the summer of 2005, Mohammad Atahee (then age 33) married a 13 year-old girl in Afghanistan and then brought her back to the US and coerced her into being a slave at homes in Federal Way and Auburn. Atahee is also accused in court documents of beating and sexually assaulting the girl at his Federal Way home. Atahee (now 37) and the Yousuf family (Nasima Yousuf, 70; Mohammad Yousuf, 84; Nahid Yousufi, 29; and Maruf Yousufi, 42) forced the teen to cook, clean and do laundry. For about 18 months beginning in August 2006, Atahee required the girl to "perform all the household chores in his home and restricted activities outside of the home" at 2511 S. 286th Place, Federal Way, WA. During the same period the Yousufis required her to perform all the household chores and care for their children at 28004 33rd Ave. S., Auburn, WA.