Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
The Nashville Police Department originally prosecuted the case under the first use of the state's anti-trafficking law. The district attorney, seemingly less interested in prosecuting the case, played softball with the accused traffickers and what should have been an 8-year sentence for trafficking sex victims across Florida, Georgia and Tennessee state lines. The traffickers ended up with 6 months and are likely to be deported by ICE.
Bonded Labor2008
United States US
Antonio (Tony) DiBenedetto, the owner of Rocco's Bakery, his wife, Anna and their two sons, Ferdinando and Giovanni are being sued for allegedly trafficking a family from Ecuador to work in their bakery. The family says Tony DiBenedetto beckoned them to the U.S. with the promise of labor, then kept them under a form of modern slavery, forcing them to work long hours below minimum wage and demanding sexual favors from the women in exchange for rent money.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
In response to the Devastation brought on by Hurricane Katrina Signal International contracted with a recruiting firm run by Sachin Dewan. Dewan to bring 500 Indian construction workers on H2-B ten month visa. Signal and Dewan required the men to pay up to $20,000 to secure a position and visa. The skilled welders and construction workers were brought to the US under false pretense believing they were receiving permanent residency for their work. Many of the men were forced to live in cramped quarters with 20 other men and required to pay 1,050 for food and shelter.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Million Express Manpower Inc. recruited 22 Thai workers from Bangkok to work in the agriculture industry in the United States promising them H2A Visas, three years worth of work, and travel/living expenses. The recruiters required each worker to pay up to $11,000 in fees and confiscated their passports and tickets as collateral for payment. Upon arriving in the United State they were forced to work on Howell Farms in North Carolina until they were relocated to New Orleans. In New Orleans they worked on renovating hotels destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. The trafficking victims were forced to live in the dilapidated hotels while they were renovating them.
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Husband and wife, Mary Yue Chueng and Hong Wei Yang, were owners of the Kimtex Factory which employed approximately 20 Chinese immigrants. In January of 2000, Cheung and Yang started to skim from their workers' ages. They stopped paying their employees altogether in May of 2000 and eventually closed and abandoned the factory in July. They were able to get away with this at the time by showing inspectors fake time records, hiding unpaid wages.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
Five men - four of them related: Amador Cortes-Meza, 34; Juan Cortes-Meza, 31; Francisco Cortes-Meza, 25; Raul Cortes-Meza, 21; and Edison Wagner Rosa Tort, 69. The Cortes-Meza family members, all Mexican nationals, were arrested June 5 in Norcross where they were living. Authorities took Tort, a legal permanent resident originally from Uruguay, into custody June 24 in Cartersville. They were charged with bringing at least 10 young Mexican women into the U.S. illegally and forcing them to work as prostitutes in metro Atlanta. The defendants allegedly used threats, coercion, and physical violence to force the girls to cooperate. The women were delivered to clients' apartments or homes and were required to have sex with up to 30 men per day (according to legal authorities). Prosecutors accuse the men of conspiring to seduce, entice, and recruit the women, ages 14-28, to travel to metro Atlanta from Mexico, with promises of legitimate jobs. Four women survivors involved were under 18 years old.
CSEC2008
United States US
The FBI established the Innocence Lost Initiative in 2003 to fight child sex trafficking. To date, the work of the Innocence Lost Initiative has resulted in: 265 indictments; 365 convictions on a combination of state and federal charges; 46 criminal enterprises disrupted and 36 successfully dismantled; and Substantial sentences of convicted pimps, including two life sentences and several sentences ranging in length from 30 to 40 years. Efforts have led to the recovery of 577 child victims. The most recent sting, in Northern Virginia, resulted in the rescue of 47 children, many of whom had been reported missing.
CSEC2008
United States US
Both Sacco and O'Connor where arrested, tried, and convicted. Sacco was convicted for sex trafficking, producing child pornography, and transporting a minor over state lines for sexual acts. He was sentenced to Life in prison. O'Connor was convicted for sex trafficking and producing child pornography. She was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison.
CSEC2008
United States US
Victim was on probation and under the care of a temporary guardian after a history of sexual exploitation. Minor was on probation for charges and arrests associated with prostitution. Her guardian requested her release to service provider.
CSEC2008
United States US
The case was investigated under the Innocence Lost National Initiative, the Department of Justice's Child Exploitation-Obscenity Section, by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and the FBI. The US attorney's office "aggresively prosecuted" the case. The federal government was able to apply jusrisdiction to the case because the camera used to take exploitative pictures of the child had been manufactured in Korea. Federal powers also applied because of interstate commerce that took place in the motel and because of the use of the Internet.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Sanford C. Coats. Woods was sentenced on March 6, 2008 to serve 135 months in federal prison for sex trafficking of a minor by transporting a child under 18 years old from Oklahoma City to Amarillo, Texas, with the intent to engage in prostitution. Woods was ordered to serve 5 years of supervised release following his release from prison.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
Xu and Tang would have some of the female Asian nationals apply for massage therapist licenses in Overland Park, the indictment says, and sign their names on the application as the manager of the massage parlors. Xu allegedly signed the massage license applications for at least 12 female Asian nationals to obtain massage licenses in Overland Park, and Tang allegedly signed the massage license applications for at least seven female Asian nationals to obtain massage licenses in Overland Park. However, the indictment says, Xu and Tang would also employ some of the female Asian nationals without having them obtain licenses. Xu, Liu, and Tang operated the businesses which allegedly offered and provided the prostitution and allowed illegal sexual services. Xu, Liu, and Tang instructed, provided, allowed or promoted for the female Asian nationals they employed to offer and provide sexual services to male patrons, the indictment says. This allegedly included offers of sexual services to identified male patrons and undercover law enforcement officers.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
Annette Marie Simon 50, Heather Michelle Heald 34, forced two women from Texas to sell their bodies at settle Inn hotel at the I-435 corridor. The victims had gone into a trucking company applying for work, they found out it was a prostitution ring, and told that their families would get hurt if they did NOT "get involved".
Forced Labor2008
United States US
Close to 500 guestworkers from India were trafficked to the US through the H-2B program to work in Signal International's shipyards after Hurricane Katrina, lured by false promises of lawful permanent residency. Recruiters held their passports and visas, coerced them into paying extraordinary fees and threatened them with serious harm; in the US they were required to live in Signal's guarded, overcrowded labor camps.
CSEC2008
United States US
Adam Jermaine Ingram, 20, and Kevin Roy Woods, 18, forced two Canadian girls, ages 13 and 14, to have sex with them and others as they trafficked the girls between Vancouver, Seattle and Portland. The girls were in foster homes when they were abducted by Woods and Ingram. The 13-year-old told authorities that two Americans bought her from a Vancouver man for $3,000 on Dec. 12. The FBI said the men intended to take both girls to San Diego and make them work in an escort agency. Along the way, they stopped in Bellingham and Seattle and forced the girls to have sex with them and with other men.
Bonded Labor2008
United States US
Filed Oct. 8, Sarinya Reabroy’s lawsuit alleges that after persuading her in 2003 to sign a contract and move to Portland to be a line cook, Typhoon Inc., forced her to work 55 to 70 hours per week under unfair and unsafe conditions while facing “intimidation, coercion and harassment” – including the threat that she would be sent back to Thailand if she complained. In the lawsuit, Reabroy includes a contract she signed. It shows that if employees quit or are fired, they are required to reimburse the company for its recruiting and travel expenses. However, the lawsuit claims that the restaurant often used the contract to threaten and intimidate Thai kitchen workers with deportation and jail, leading them to accept improper conditions including working six days a week without legally required breaks, and verbal abuse by managers as well as groping and fondling by co-workers. The claims included that Typhoon managers confiscated workers’ passports for extended periods of time, and encouraged employees to spy on each other. Under her original contract, Reabroy was to be paid $1,500 a month, or $18,000 a year.
CSEC2008
United States US
Jorge Carrasco Sanchez trafficked a woman to the US on April 29, 2002. Sanchez met the 16-year old victim in Ojinaga, Mexico, and brought her to the US. She was sexually assaulted by Sanchez, and he also threatened to kill her.
CSEC2008
United States US
The girl left her home in Brooklyn on Jan. 10 and encountered someone identified only as Drama who offered to find her a job dancing at parties and introduced her to Ms. Brown, the police said. Ms. Brown told the girl that she had been “purchased” for $500 and had to work off her debt as a prostitute. She introduced Detective Taylor as her husband, the police said, although they described the couple as boyfriend and girlfriend. Detective Taylor, a 14-year-member of the Police Department assigned to the Housing Bureau, who was suspended without pay upon his arrest, set prices of $40 for oral sex and $80 for intercourse and instructed the girl to give her age as 19, investigators said. The girl was taken to a party in a barbershop, where she was forced to have sex for money that was then turned over to the suspects, the police said. That routine was repeated in the following days as the couple drove her and other prostitutes to other parties in Queens, Manhattan and Brooklyn, investigators said. At one point, the suspects complained that the girl was not earning enough money, the police said, and Ms. Brown slammed the girl’s head to the floor and other prostitutes hit her. Detective Taylor threatened the girl that if she did not earn more, he would force her into streetwalking, the police said.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
According to the plea agreement, and the Department of Justice, on October 20, 2008, an adult female traveled from New York to Maryland after Escobar Sanchez agreed to provide housing, transportation, and schedule customers in exchange for a share of the victim’s earnings. Juan Carlos Escobar Sanchez pleaded guilty and was sentenced to serve 10 months in prison and consented to voluntary deportation from the United States after he serves his sentence.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
The locations included the Aloha Tanning Resort in Renton, Wash., the Avalon Spa in North Seattle and the Malibu Tanning Spa in Tukwila, Wash. Search warrants were also served at homes in Kent, Wash., and Renton as well as on board the "Island Girl" moored at the Westlake Marina on Lake Union in Seattle. According to court documents, Frey operated his businesses under the name of Crown Venture Capitol, Inc., and Crown Venture Management, Ltd., from his home in California. Every couple of weeks, Frey would fly to Seattle to collect thousands of dollars in cash from Nguyen and others who were managers at his businesses. Frey and Nguyen would regularly make arrangements to transport women to work in tanning salons as prostitutes. The women would stay for several weeks and eventually leave Washington state for another location. While working here at the salons, the women offered to provide sex acts to undercover officers and informants in exchange for cash. ICE was joined in this investigation by the King County Sheriff's Department and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
Owners of two local massage parlors were investigated as part of a suspected international human trafficking ring. Women were promised a better life by the operators if they came to America. When they got here, they were then told that they had a huge debt they would have to work off.
Child Labor2008
United States US
Clerks at a Rio Grande City convenience store helped nab a suspected human trafficker. They called police after spotting a woman and 2-year-old who didn't seem to belong together. The woman claimed she was given the child and a birth certificate in Roma. (The Romani are also known as Gypsies.)
CSEC2008
United States US
Marvin Chapelle Epps, 23, met 16-yr-old victim on MySpace in September 2008 and offered for her to come work for him, and victim responded. He offered to buy her bus/train ticket for her to come from Solano county to Sacramento. He was her pimp for about three weeks in October 2008. He took erotic pictures of her and placed her advertisement on a number of sexual service sites including massage, escorts, etc. She reported all the money was turned over to him. Epps pleaded guilty on April 12 2010 and is scheduled to be sentenced at 10 am July 26, 2010. He faces the likely minimum 10 years in prison, $250,000 fine, a lifetime of supervised release and an order of restitution, though numbers may be higher due to specific variables according to the FBI.
CSEC2008
United States US
Isabel Consuelo Ochoa and her daughters Consuelo Pilar Ochoa and Maria de Jesus Ochoa trafficked young girls from Nuevo Laredo, Mexico to San Antonio, Texas to work as prostitutes. The Ochoas recruited girls, saying they would work as escorts, but would not be required to have sex with the men. The three known victims in the case are 15, 17, and 22 years old. After arrival, the Ochoas told victims they had to work five years as prostitutes to pay back the money spent to come to the U.S. A male associate of the Ochoas threatened the victims with a gun, telling them that should the girls leave he would find their families in Mexico and have them killed.