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.
CSEC2001
United States US
Angelique Danisse Epps and Antione D. Ford met two runaway sisters (14 and 15 years old) in Omaha, Nebraska and transported them to Grand Rapids, MI. Epps had a record of prostitution offenses, and planned to teach the girls how to be child prostitutes according to the GR Press. Ford is a gang member, and both Epps and Ford may have been attached to a murder as well immediately before they left Omaha.
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
Jermaine Carlos Diaz, 23, trafficked young girls from his hometown of Fort Smith,AR to Houston, TX for the purpose of prostitution.
Domestic Servitude2001
United States US
On April 16, 2001 Alamin was sentenced to 11 years in prison and three years probation for holding the victim against her will and five years of forced labor. Akhter was sentenced in May of the same year to one year in prison and three years supervised release. The couple was also ordered to pay $126,000 in restitution to the victim.
Sex Trafficking2001
United States US
In 2002, the United States District Court in the District of New Jersey indicted traffickers with: - 1 count Conspiracy - 5 counts of Forced Labor - 5 counts of Trafficking with Respect to Forced Labor - 1 count of Conspiracy to Commit Extortion The following law enforcement agencies were involved in the investigation and prosecution of this incident: - Special Agents of the FBI, under the direction of Special Agency in Charge Leslie Wiser, Jr. - Investigators with the State Division of Criminal Justice, under the direction of New Jersey Attorney General Peter Harvey - Special Agents of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Kyle Hutchins - U.S. Attorney’s Office in the Southern District of New York, under the direction of U.S. Attorney Michael J. Garcia - Assistant U.S. Attorney Leslie F. Schwartz, of the Criminal Division’s Strike Force Unit in Newark - Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Jampol, of the Violent Crimes Unit in Newark
CSEC2000
United States US
Joseph Djoumessi, 49, was found guilty of conspiracy, involuntary servitude and harboring for financial gain. He was sentenced to 17 years in prison, to run concurrent with a 9-to-15-year sentence he is currently serving for a Michigan state conviction related to the same crime. A jury also convicted Djoumessi’s wife, Evelyn Djoumessi, 42, of conspiracy and involuntary servitude. She was sentenced to five years in prison. The couple was also ordered to pay $100,000 in restitution to the victim. The couple (and the victim) were immigrants from Cameroon.
Forced Labor2000
United States US
There was an enforcement in July, 2002. The case was settled by Victoria Island Farm, LLP and JB Farm Labor Contractor. Victoria Island Farm, LLP paid $546,969 and JB Labor Contractor paid $100,000. This settlement amount included money for restitution, interest, attorney's fees and costs and penalties. The suit charged JB and Victoria Island with numerous labor law violations. According to the suit, workers were not told the terms of their employment and are intimidated by armed guards on the property. Most of the 500 workers in the camps were unauthorized migrants from Mexico who harvest asparagus from mid-February to late May. One worker reported earning $120 weekly, and having $55 weekly deducted for living in the camp and $10 daily for meals. Victoria Island Farm also agreed to spend another 260,000 to clean up the camps and make conditions more livable.
Sex Trafficking2000
United States US
Federal investigators looked into a smuggling ring that brought Eastern European immigrants to KY and other states to work at hotels using fake documents. Hotels in Lexington, Fort Mitchell, and Louisville were targeted. Many workers disappeared after the raids by immigration agents. At four hotels workers had not been paid for at least a month by the contracting agency. Additional information about the intervention has not been released.
Domestic Servitude1999
United States US
On November 29, 1999 Satia and Nanji were arrested. Their arrest led to the arrest of Satia's sister, Vivian Satia, and her husband, Etiondem Daniel Achamorfaw. Vivian and her husband admitted to not only helping to lure R.O. into the United States, but bringing another Cameroonian girl, Christina Elangwe into the U.S. as their own domestic servant. In December 2001, Louisa Satia and Kevin Nanji were convicted of holding the victim in involuntary servitude, conspiracy to bring an illegal immigrant into the United States, and haboring the victim for their personal finanical gain. Satia was also convicted of passport and marriage fraud after documents revealed her involvement with arranging marriages for American men and Cameroonian women and producing fraudulent passports. Both Satia and Nanji were sentenced nine years in prison and ordered to pay their victim $105,306, an approximated sum of what the couple owed the victim if she had been paid about $12 an hour. The case was investigated by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service and the U.S. Department of State. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mythili Raman and Civil Rights Division Trial Attorney Seth Rosenthal.
Forced Labor1999
United States US
From the Palm Beach Post: "Jose Antonio Martinez and Francisco Martinez got sick of working 10 hours to make $15 after being promised $150 per day. Almost all their money in early 1999 went to their labor contractors for rent, food and their $750 smuggling fees. After picking tomatoes all day, they weren't allowed to leave the roach-infested trailer they shared with 22 other workers west of Immokalee. "You were locked up... you couldn't stick your head out," Francisco said. The floor had holes through which they saw snakes, and their mattresses were on the floor. The cousins escaped and eventually reported the contractors to the Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW), which contacted the U.S. Department of Justice."
CSEC1999
United States US
Jose Tecum was found guilty of kidnapping, sale into involuntary servitude, bringing in and harboring aliens and fraud and misuse of visas and permits. Status: Locked up until October 2007
Domestic Servitude1999
United States US
At first they were not helpful in the process of freeing Little Hope and pressing charges agianst the traffickers. Later one they becam very involved and particapated in the arrests and convictions of the traffickers.
Domestic Servitude1999
United States US
In one particular case, intervention occurred by the way of a rescuer taking the initiative to look into a suspicious working situation in a local family's home.
CSEC1999
United States US
Two of the three girls are sisters, and said they were homeless because their father was dead and their mother was a drug abuser. According to McPeters, two of the girls first approached him on Santa Rosa Avenue when he was using the telephone and asked him for a ride. He said he began hanging out with the girls because they had methamphetamine. He got them rooms at different Santa Rosa motels and arranged for them to have sex with men he brought to their rooms. One girl said McPeters often would wait outside the motel room or apartment bedrooms and knock when time was up. The defendant provided the girls with pocket knives for protection, food, rides to school and condoms, according to the police investigation cited in a pre-sentencing report prepared by the probation department. Police discovered three girls engaging in prostitution after they arrested a convicted rapist who was not supposed to be in the company of minors as part of the conditions of his parole, but was seen in the company of one of them the day after his release from prison. Further investigation led to the arrest of McPeters on suspicion of pimping and pandering.
Sex Trafficking1999
United States US
Junk Won Hwang, age 29, has been smuggling roughly 20 illegal immigrants a month to the US through Canada. He entered the country illegally in 1990 and was deported in 1999. He has since been cooperating with authorities to crack down on human trafficking between the US, Canada, and Korea.
Sex Trafficking1998
United States US
1. Alex Mishulovich, male, approx. 40 years old at time of investigation, a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Russia. Trafficked at least five Latvian women into the U.S. to dance as strippers in nightclubs he owned in Chicago. Also held the women in isolation in an apartment, continually harassed them for sex, and used physical violence and threats of selling them as prostitutes to force the women to strip. 2. Rudite Pede, female, Mishulovich's wife - Entered U.S. from Latvia by fraud. Assisted Mishulovich in obtaining false visas for the trafficked women and recruiting the women in Latvia. 3. Vadim Gorr - male, 35. Drove the women between their apartment and the clubs and assisted Mishulovich in holding them against their will. 4. Dace Mediniece - female, 26. Friend of Rudite. Assisted Rudite in entering U.S. illegally and entered illegally herself. 5. Sergei Tcharouchine - male, 42. Allegedly planned the ring with Mishulovich. Remains at large.
CSEC1998
United States US
A Little Havana business owner, Manuel “Melo” Sanchez Reyes, was charged with 42 counts of lewd and lascivious acts on a child. Police believed he preyed on young girls for years.
Sex Trafficking1998
United States US
Alex Mishulovich Male Age – 50 Charged with visa fraud, peonage - keeping someone in servitude- and conspiracy to commit peonage Served 9 years and was released on 11/30/2006 Vadim Gorr Drove the women to their jobs and held them against their wills. Charged with Visa Fraud and has since been released on Parole Rudite Pede Female Age- 34 Mishulovich's wife and helped recruit some of the women in Latvia, assuring them the way only a woman could that they'd be safe and the work was respectable. Released from prison 6/11/1999 The girls were given movies to watch -- "Showgirls'' and "Striptease'' -- to learn how to dance exotically. Associates exerted control over the women by demeaning them, telling them they'd committed a crime coming into the country, that his U.S. citizenship gave him more credibility with police. He exerted control over the women by beating them and bragging about supposed connections to the Chechen mafia. Mishulovich promised each of the women more than $60,000 a year. All they had to do was dance in "upscale" nightclubs completely clothed, lie at the embassy about their purpose for traveling to the United States, and hand over half of their earnings until they paid off their transportation debts. When they arrived in Chicago in November 1997, they were told they would be dancing topless. Their identification papers were taken and they were required to give all but $20 of the $200 to $600 they made nightly to Mishulovich. "He inflated the costs and kept building their debt," explains FBI Special Agent Michael E. Brown. "He told them he needed the money to pay living expenses and bribes to police and politicians." Chicago, IL – Chicago Nightclubs - Admiral, Heavenly Bodies, Thee Dollhouse, Skybox and Crazy Horse 2 Alexander Mishulovich and his associates approached five young women on the streets of Riga, Latvia with flattery and an offer of employment in the United States The women were not allowed to leave the one-bedroom apartment Mishulovich had rented in suburban Mt. Prospect, Illinois, except to work at various strip clubs in Chicago and Harvey, Illinois.
CSEC1997
United States US
Juan Luis Cadena-Sosa, 43 from Mexico. Also being convicted is Procopio Lopez-Contreras, 47. Also said to be aided by other members of the Cadena-Sosa family. Juan Luis has been convicted of invonluntary servitude and conspiracy to recruit, harbor, and transport known illegal aliens for prostitution. He is being sentenced in August, 2008 with a max of 15 years possible.
Forced Labor1997
United States US
Michael Allen Lee, an African-American labor contractor, was the leader of the "Lee Operation." Lee and his conspirators, William Oscar Smith, and Billy C. Rankin recruited homeless and drug dependent African-American men from around Fort Pierce, Florida, as agricultural farm workers. In exchange for picking oranges, the workers were given loans extended by Lee, for rent, food, cigarettes, and crack cocaine. The workers were paid only about thirty-five to fifty dollars a week, thirty of which went to Lee for their rented space on his floor. After incurring debts that they were unable to repay, the workers became indebted to Lee. Along with their indebtedness, Lee used force and the threat of force to keep the men working for him against their will.
Sex Trafficking1996
United States US
Yes - This raid happened in 1996, long before the law enforcement knew what human trafficking was. The women who were being prostituted from this house ranged from ages 19-25. They were from Thailand, Taiwan and Laos. Four of the women were in the US illegally. Police also said the women worked as prostitutes as part of a ring that operated in Sacramento, LA, and Oklahoma.
Sex Trafficking1996
United States US
As a part of an effort to decrease human trafficking in San Mateo the San Mateo police force shut down three "massage parlors" that were acting as fronts for illegal brothels. The buildings were owned by Michael and Ty Thi D'Agostino and the D'Agostino Family Trust. Over the past several years, police said they made 12 arrests for prostitution at Kahala, eight at Asian Gardens and 14 at Bay Relaxation. At a raid of the businesses in January, police said they found stacks of condoms, sent customers and employees scurrying for clothing and broke up a sex act.
Sex Trafficking1996
United States US
Julio, Tomas and Luciano Salazar. From Mexico. Ran the largest prostitution ring in the county using underage girls smuggled from Mexico. They were forced to service migrant workers in agriculture camps, among other things. Stopwatches were uses to time their "Clients". Girls with children had their children taken and used as hostages. They were told their child would be killed if they tried to escape.
Forced Labor1995
United States US
From the Los Angeles Times: "Most of them said they came from impoverished farming families and had headed to the metropolis of Bangkok to find sewing jobs. There, they met labor contractors who promised them good jobs in America and monthly pay of $1,000 – nearly 10 times what some were earning in Thailand. They were told they would work 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with weekends off to see the glamorous sights of Los Angeles. But the reality was vastly different. Buppha Chaemchoi, 37, said she was shocked to arrive in El Monte and realize that she would sleep crammed in one bedroom on the floor with nine others. The windows had been boarded up, she said, allowing virtually no sunlight. Her captors told her that if she tried to escape, brutal U.S. police would shave her head and stamp her scalp with marks of disgrace, she said. “It made me worry and want to stay inside and just wait for my three-year contract to end,” Chaemchoi said. Chuai Ngan, 47, who came to the U.S. in 1993, said she also was intimidated with threats that her family would be harmed and their home in Thailand burned down if she attempted to leave. Not all captives were willing to accept their fate, however. Win Chuai Ngan, the 51-year-old husband of Sukanya, was the first to escape from El Monte. As one of the few male laborers, he said, he was allowed to go outside to take out the trash and help move sewing machines and other heavy supplies into the complex. One day, he said, he saw a Thai newspaper in the trash, surreptitiously tore out the phone number for a Thai temple and kept it hidden in his pocket. In November 1992, he made his move – jumping over the fence in the middle of the night. He ran to a taxi stand and asked to be taken to the temple. “I was so scared the owner would see me and kill me,” Win Chuai Ngan said. He said he told his story to Thai authorities and newspapers in Los Angeles, and gave them an address label for the El Monte complex that he had torn from the newspaper. But he said he did not report it to U.S. law enforcement officials because he was scared they would deport him. A few others also escaped, and community advocates eventually helped get the information to authorities. On Aug. 2, a multiagency task force led by the California Department of Industrial Relations raided the complex. Some of the women were cowed by their captors’ earlier descriptions of U.S. police and refused to open the door, which authorities hacked open with an ax. Others said they were overjoyed at their liberation. “I was so happy,” said Clinton, who had been held captive since April 1994. “I thought, ‘Oh my God, I’m going home!’ ” In the end, most of the workers decided to stay after Su and others successfully fought to win legal status for them. The workers annually celebrate Aug. 13 as their first full day of freedom, since that’s when all of them were allowed to leave immigration detention facilities. Clinton and the Chuai Ngans said that whatever travails they endured here, their American journeys have been well worth taking."