Type of modern slavery
Sex Trafficking
Coercing or deceiving a person into commercial sexual exploitation. Consent is legally irrelevant when a minor is involved.
SlaveryMap documents 536 cases of sex trafficking.
Ottumwa, Iowa, United States
A Micronesian couple recruited two young men from Micronesia with promises of legal US work, then withheld their passports to coerce their labor at a meat processing plant. Accused: Micronesian couple (Federated States of Micronesia citizens) operating in Ottumwa, Iowa.
Boston, Massachusetts, United States
Family smuggled Brazilian migrants into the US for $18,000-22,000 fees, then forced them to work off the debt at two Woburn restaurants under threats of violence and deportation. Accused: Jesse James Moraes, Hugo Giovanni Moraes, and Chelbe Willams Moraes.
Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Online sex trafficking operation advertised victims on commercial sex websites. Victims moved between cities Accused: Multi-person trafficking organization.
Benin City, Edo, Nigeria
Recruitment hub for European trafficking route. Young women deceived with promises of hairdressing jobs subjected to debt bondage of 35000-70000 euros Accused: Nigerian Madams operating from Italy with local recruiters.
Houston, Texas, United States
Three individuals held immigrant women against their will at a Houston residence, forcing labor while also running a pirated CD/DVD distribution operation from the same property. Accused: Estela Aguilar-Lopez, Blanca Estela Lopez-Aguilar, and Francisco Ivan Rodriguez-Garcia.
Southlake, Texas, United States
Couple brought a Guinean girl to their Texas home at age of a minor child and forced her to labor unpaid in their household for over 16 years until neighbors helped her escape. Accused: Mohamed Toure and Denise Cros-Toure.
San Francisco, California, United States
Federal agents broke up cyber-enabled trafficking using social media recruitment encrypted messaging and cryptocurrency Accused: Multi-state digital network.
Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
Women and girls from Nepal and Bangladesh trafficked into brothels. Debt bondage and document confiscation used for control Accused: Cross-border trafficking network with brothel operators.
Highlands Ranch, Colorado, United States
A Denver-area man brought foreign nurses to the US under false pretenses via visa fraud, then collected much of their pay while threatening deportation if they complained. Accused: Kizzy Kalu of Highlands Ranch, Colorado.
Mexico City, Mexico
Trafficking ring recruited women from rural Tlaxcala with false romantic promises. Forced into commercial sexual exploitation in the capital Accused: Multi-generational trafficking family network.
Beaverton, Oregon, United States
A married couple ran a scheme bringing Thai nationals to work at their Portland-area restaurants under fraudulent visas, then compelled their labor under the resulting debt. Accused: Tanya Jumroon and Paul Jumroon of Beaverton, Oregon.
Benin City, Nigeria
Young women and girls from Edo State are systematically recruited with false job promises and trafficked through Libya to Europe for sexual exploitation, controlled through debt bondage and traditional oath-taking rituals. Accused: Trafficking networks operating recruitment pipelines from Edo State through Libya.
Fall River, Massachusetts, United States
Sex trafficking ring used beatings threats starvation and manufactured debts to coerce adult and minor victims into commercial sex Accused: Ringleader and five accomplices.
Mt. Prospect, Illinois, USA, United States
On January 30, 2012 a federal jury convicted Alex Campbell, a suburban massage parlor owner of various federal crimes including sex-trafficking, forced labor, harboring illegal aliens, confiscating passports to further forced labor, and extortion involving four foreign women whom he mentally and physically abused while forcing them to work for him between July 2008 and January 2010. Campbell was found guilty of three counts each of forced labor, harboring illegal aliens for financial gain, and confiscating passports and other immigration documents to force the victims to work, and one count each of sex trafficking by force, and extortion. The jury deliberated approximately two to three hours following a three-week trial in U.S. District Court. The trial showed that Campbell, who formerly operated the Day and Night Spa on Northwest Highway in Mt. Prospect, Illinois used violence and threats of violence to force three women from the Ukraine and one from Belarus to work for him without pay and, at times, little to no subsistence. The testimony and evidence showed that Campbell recruited and groomed foreign women without legal status in the United States to become part of his “Family,” which he claimed was an international organization that would provide them with support. He offered them jobs in his massage parlor, a place to live, assistance with immigration, and lured each of them to enter into a romantic relationship with him. After gaining their trust, he forced the victims to get tattooed with his moniker, which he said made them his property and allowed him to stop paying them. At the same time, he acquired the women’s passports and visas. The women were forced to work long hours every day and do as Campbell instructed them, and they were beaten and punished if they disobeyed him. Trial testimony established that Campbell confiscated passports and identity documents from three of the victims, as well as harbored and transported them to ensure their continued labor. Campbell forced one victim to engage in commercial sex acts with customers at various other massage parlors, but not at the Day and Night Spa, which testimony showed he operated “cleanly” to avoid problems with law enforcement. All four victims testified as government witnesses at trial, as well as co-defendant, Danielle John, 25, who pleaded guilty before trial to two counts of harboring illegal aliens for financial gain and is also awaiting sentencing. Campbell extorted another victim to pay him more than $25,000 to leave the “Family” by threatening to send a sexually-explicit video recording to her parents in Belarus.
Miami, Florida, USA, United States
Lavont Flanders, Jr.. a former Miami police officer, and Emerson Callum were found guilty December 7, 2011 by a federal jury of luring women to Florida, raping them, and filming it for profit. Sentencing for both defendants is scheduled for February 16, 2011 before the U.S. District Judge K. Michael Moore. The jury found defendant Lavont Flanders, Jr., 40,of Miami Gardens, guilty of all eighteen counts in the indictment, including enticing and conspiring to entice women to South Florida, knowing that fraud would be used to cause the women to engage in commercial sex acts. Flanders was also convicted of five counts of distributing benzodiazepines, a date rape drug, to the women. The jury also convicted defendant Emerson Callum, 45, of Miami, of the fourteen counts in which he was charged, which included enticing and conspiring to entice the women to South Florida, knowing that fraud would be used to cause the women to engage in commercial sex acts. Callum was not charged with distributing the benzodiazepines. At the trial, seven different women victims, all aspiring models from around the country, testified that they had been contacted online by a female model. In fact, however, the purported female model was actually defendant Flanders pretending to be a woman. In this way, Flanders contacted the victims about purported modeling auditions in Miami. After the victims provided their phone numbers, they would receive a call from a purported modeling scout - again, defendant Flanders - who claimed to represent large, multi-national companies, like Bacardi, Sony, or Paramount Pictures. Flanders told the victims that he liked their "look" and offered them a supposed role in an audition in Miami. According to the trial evidence, when the victims flew to Miami, Flanders instructed them to do an audition for a commercial. During this purported audition, the victims were asked to promote and drink different brands of alcohol while he filmed. Unbeknownst to the victims, the alcoholic beverages Flanders provided them was laced with benzodiazepines, a common date rape drug. Once the drugs had taken effect, Flanders drove the victims to Callum, who had sex with the victims while Flanders filmed them. Flanders and Callum then edited, produced, and sold the footage of the sex acts over the Internet and to pornography stores and businesses across the country.
Denver, Colorado, USA, United States
Patrick Lloyd McGowan, 22; Chad Armand Gow, 20; Roy Manuel Ibarra-Gonzales, 20; and Bryan Steven Burns, 20, allegedly oversaw a human trafficking ring that involved the prostitution of children as well as the sale of methamphetamine and cocaine, according to a 70-count indictment. The indictment names 14 individuals suspected of running and patronizing a human-trafficking ring that used children for sex at locations ranging from Denver to Grand Junction, Colorado. McGowan, Gow, Ibarra-Gonzales and Burns are suspected of arranging "out calls" for the child victims through the Internet and coercing their victims through the use of drugs and threats of violence, Colorado Attorney General John Suthers said. The three are suspected of transporting children to locations in Denver, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Lakewood for sex, he said. The indictments also accuse McGowan of selling methamphetamine to an undercover officer at Casa Bonita in Lakewood on Dec. 21, 2011. Nearly 2 grams of meth was recovered from McGowan, according to the indictment. In addition, another 15 grams of meth was recovered when McGowan was booked into the Jefferson County Jail, the indictment stated. On one occasion, one girl was held down on a hotel bed in Boulder and "subjected ... to sexual contact without her consent," the indictment alleged. The ring advertised the girls as prostitutes on the Internet, according to the indictment.
Auckland, New Zealand, New Zealand
A bankrupt motel operator has become the first person in New Zealand to be sent to jail for organising a child sex tour to Thailand. The 48-year-old has been given a three year sentence. An anti-exploitation group say despite it being a landmark case, child prostitution here and overseas is a growing problem. The destination was Pattaya, Thailand, an area known for its thriving sex industry. The plan was to have sex with young boys.The man believed he could run a business based on child sex tours and organised one. Justice Edwin Wylie at the Auckland High Court says the man was motivated primarily by his desire to make money. “Organising sex tours where the intent is that the traveller has sex with underage children is despicable,” he said.Stop Demand founder Denise Ritchie says the fact we have had our citizens go over and exploit the vulnerability and poverty of children in many of those countries is “heinous”, adding “it’s a shocking crime”.
New York City, New York, USA, United States
Federal officials charged 20 people November 30, 2011in a scheme to recruit illegal immigrants from Russia and Eastern European countries to work as exotic dancers in New York strip clubs, according to Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. Charges against the 20 individuals include racketeering, extortion, visa and marriage fraud, and transporting and harboring illegal immigrants. The accused are alleged to be members of the Gambino and Bonanno organized crime families, according to federal authorities. "The defendants themselves had one thing in common -- the desire to turn the women they allegedly helped enter this country illegally into their personal profit centers,"Bharara said. "Today's arrests have brought an end to their illicit activities." Several of the accused are alleged to have run the "Strip Club Enterprise," which controlled a series of strip clubs throughout Queens and Long Island. Through these clubs, the accused are alleged to have recruited Eastern European women to enter the United States on student J1 visas to perform as strippers in their enterprises. Prosecutors also charge the defendants threatened physical violence and economic harm if the owners and operators of New York strip clubs as part of a broad extortion scheme. "The defendants controlled their business and protected their turf through intimidation and threats of physical and economic harm," said James T. Hayes, Jr., special agent in charge with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Some of the exotic dancers brought illegally into the United States were also matched with U.S. citizens in fraudulent marriages to resolve their immigrations status, prosecutors said in the indictment.
Seattle, Washington, USA, United States
A federal grand jury has indicted the owner and seven other individuals linked to a local Korean nightclub for allegedly operating an interstate prostitution scheme involving Asian women, many recruited overseas, who worked as "hostesses" at the club to repay their travel and living expenses, announced U. S Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. According to court documents filed in the case, the defendants sought Korean females to work as "bar girls" at The Blue Moon, a Korean "room salon" in Federal Way, Wash., where the women were expected to entertain male clients and set up subsequent meetings for paid sex. The 12-count indictment charges the defendants with a variety of violations, including conspiracy to commit money laundering, visa fraud, harboring illegal aliens, bribery and transportation in furtherance of prostitution. The charges are the result of a two-year multi-agency probe spearheaded by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). "The organizers of this criminal scheme exploited vulnerable young women to satisfy their greed," said U.S. Attorney Jenny A. Durkan. "They also sought to protect their business by offering bribes to law enforcement." Six of the individuals charged in the investigation were taken into custody Thursday morning by ICE HSI agents in the Seattle area. They made their initial appearances in federal court Thursday afternoon. They are: • Chang Young Kim, 58, of Milton, Wash., the owner of The Blue Moon; • Yeun Jeong Mun, 35, of Milton, Wash., Kim's wife, who allegedly served as a former madam at The Blue Moon; • Miyoung Roberts, 40, of Federal Way, Wash., allegedly serves as the current madam at The Blue Moon; • Jung San So, 55, of Seattle, current manager of The Blue Moon; • Raymond Jung, 51, of Federal Way, Wash., leased apartments where hostesses were allegedly housed; and • Kwang Frank Lee, 57, of Federal Way, Wash., allegedly provided money to finance a fraudulent marriage tied to the scheme. In addition to the other charges, defendant Kim is also facing five criminal counts involving $15,000 in bribes he allegedly paid an undercover officer in the case. In exchange, The Blue Moon's owner allegedly wanted advance notice of law enforcement inspections at the nightclub and cooperation from immigration authorities to allow the undocumented Korean women to enter the country.
Peace Bridge Plaza, Buffalo, New York, USA, United States
Johnny Ray Davis, most recently a resident of Ohio, pleaded guilty on January 4, 2012 before U.S. District Judge Richard J. Arcara to making a false statement to officers of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison, a fine of $250,000 or both. In September 2011 David attempted to enter Canada at the Peace Bridge port of entry with two female passengers. Canadian officials refused him entry because he was the subject of outstanding arrest warrants in the U.S. Davis and his two passengers were escorted back to the U.S. and turned over to U.S. ICE officers. During questioning, Davis lied about his whereabouts before the attempted border crossing. Subsequent investigation determined Davis was seeking to transport one of the women for the purpose of prostituting her.
Camden, New Jersey, USA, United States
Three of six members of an international scheme responsible for allegedly smuggling into the United States hundreds of illegal aliens from Brazil, India, and elsewhere pleaded guilty to conspiracy on December 21, 2011, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced. Nacip Teotonio Pires, a/k/a “Ze Maria,” a/k/a “Baraso,” 47, of Newark, N.J.,; Rubens Da Silva, a/k/a “Diogo Oliveira,” 39, of Haverhill, Mass.; and Claudinei Pereira Mota, 34, of Newark, each pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joseph H. Rodriguez in Camden federal court to Informations charging one count of participating in a conspiracy to bring aliens into the United States illegally. A fourth member of the smuggling ring, Francismar Da Conceicao, a/k/a “Alex,” 36, of Hillside, N.J., also pleaded guilty to a similar charge before Judge Rodriguez in Camden federal court. A sixth defendant, Priscilla (last name unknown), a/k/a “Clema Aparacida Lopes,” of Long Branch, N.J., remains at large. According to the documents filed in this case and statements made in court: From January 2008 through June 2011, Pires, Da Silva, and Mota conspired with others to bring aliens into the United States illegally from Brazil, India, and elsewhere as part of an elaborate, for-profit alien smuggling scheme that involved co-conspirators in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, and elsewhere. They arranged, facilitated, and monitored the travel of customers along two primary smuggling routes, the first of which included travel through Central America and across the international border between Mexico and the United States. The second route included travel to St. Maarten, the Virgin Islands, Puerto Rico, and to destinations in the United States. Pires, Da Silva, and Mota charged customers of the alien smuggling scheme from $13,000 to more than $25,000, depending on the route the customer used and whether the customer paid in advance or paid in installments after arriving in the United States. Many of the customers of the scheme were young women from Brazil, most of whom agreed to repay their smuggling debt after arriving in the United States by working as dancers in strip clubs in Newark and elsewhere. In certain instances, women who fell behind on their debt repayment were urged to consider engaging in prostitution to earn extra money. The defendants induced customers to pay their smuggling debts by threatening to harm family members in their home countries and by obtaining title to property the customers owned in their home countries. Pires, Da Silva, and Mota also instructed customers who were caught crossing the border illegally to concoct false asylum claims and falsely report that they would be abused or face other danger if immediately deported. They then paid attorneys to assert those false asylum claims, which often resulted in the rapid release of their customers.
Richmond Hill, Ontario, Canada
January 9, 2012, Mr. REID pleaded guilty to Human Trafficking, Possession of a Loaded Firearm and Possession of Firearm While Prohibited. January 13, 2012, Jason REID, appeared before The Honourable Justice Richard Blouin at the Ontario Court of Justice in Newmarket and was sentenced to four years in prison, in addition to the 107 days of pre-trial custody he has already served. He has also been issued a lifetime weapons prohibition and been ordered to provide a mandatory DNA sample.
Orlando, Florida, USA, United States
On December 6 , 2011, a federal jury found six members of an Eastern European prostitution ring guilty of various federal crimes, including conspiracy, traveling in interstate and foreign commerce to promote a prostitution business, and using facilities of interstate commerce to promote a prostitution business. In total, the jury convicted these individuals on eighteen of nineteen charges against them. Those convicted were Tatiana Belinschi (26, Moldova), Alexandr Postica (25, Moldova), Saida Babaeva (29, Russia), Aleksandra Liubina (24, Russia), Natalia Fedorova (24, Russia), and Alina Priadko (25, Ukraine). According to the indictment and evidence presented at trial, a number of aliens worked together in a commercial sex business that sought to make money by providing sexual services and other services for money in Florida, Georgia, Ohio, Michigan, and Massachusetts. The above-named individuals were in the country illegally and were not authorized to work during the time periods alleged in the indictment. The sole remaining fugitive on the indictment, Roman Caraiman (24, Moldova), has fled the country and is being sought through an international arrest warrant. Any information about his whereabouts should be communicated to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Houston, Texas, USA, United States
Maria Rojas aka “Nancy” and Jose Luis Rojas entered their pleas to both conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens as well as the sex trafficking conspiracy before U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes on November 28, 2011. The two were charged with a conspiracy involving the recruitment of Mexican women and girls to travel to the United States with the false expectation of legitimate jobs in bars and restaurants. The indictment, returned Feb. 15, 2011, alleged that the conspirators further relied on the services of pimps to supply the women for use as prostitutes to maintain control of the women. Maria Rojas, 46, was the owner of La Costenita, formerly Playa Sola, as well as El Club Restaurante, formerly La Cueva Restaurante Bar, both located on Clinton Drive in Houston. Jose Luis Rojas, 38, operated La Costenita. Eight others were also charged in the indictment with conspiracy to harbor illegal aliens. Javier Guevara Belmontes, 46, also owned, controlled and operated La Costenita and El Club Restaurante. Maday Martinez, 34, and Evelin Carolina Aguera, 37, worked as managers, while Claudia Perez Ramirez, Silvano Santos aka “Chivas,” Francisco Maradiaga Jimenez aka “Pancho,” and Olvan Ramirez Caceres worked at La Costenita as lookouts alerting police presence. The final defendant, Aleyda Juarez, passed out condoms and charged the females $15 for the condom as well as use of the rooms. Aguera, Santos, Perez Ramirez, Maradiaga Jimenez, Ramirez Caceres and Juarez have pleaded guilty and have been sentenced. Their sentences for their roles in conspiracy to harboring illegal aliens has ranged from eight to 11 months and all will be deported upon completion of their sentences. Martinez has also pleaded guilty and is awaiting sentencing. The remaining defendant, Belmontes, is scheduled for trial Feb. 27, 2012..
Houston, Texas, USA, United States
30-year-old Jerald Bland, aka “Moe Betta,” was charged by a federal grand jury with sex trafficking of two minors and one adult, as well as transporting one adult and one minor for the purposes of prostitution, United States Attorney Kenneth Magidson announced on October 2, 2011 The five-count indictment returned by the grand jury today, alleges that beginning in March 2010 through June 2010, Bland used force, fraud, or coercion to cause two minors and one adult female to engage in commercial sex acts. Bland is also accused of transporting one minor and one adult female from Texas to Louisiana to engage in prostitution in violation of federal statutes.
Columbia, Tennessee, USA, United States
Nathaniel Roberts, 35, known as Nay Nay, was sentenced to 70 months in prison while Tavoris Roberts, 27, known as Sug, and Shermaine Aiden, 31, known as Tink, were each sentenced to 41 months, according to the release issued Monday. The men were sentenced December 2, 2011. Each of the men were indicted on Nov. 17, on one count of conspiracy to commit human trafficking involving force or coercion, and all pleaded guilty to the charge, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Patrick Bullock, 34, also of Columbia, was previously sentenced in September to 63 months in prison for the same offense. Johnny Turrentine, aka T-Tine, 37, also of Columbia, will be sentenced on Jan. 23, 2012 for his role in the conspiracy, according to the release. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said that Nathaniel Roberts was the self-proclaimed “mastermind” of the prostitution operation, and that the group was known as the Wolf Pack. Nathaniel Roberts called regular meetings of the organization, during which he discussed police activity, gave recommendations on avoiding law enforcement, and discussed money. Between Sept. 2008 and Oct. 2010, several female victims of the organization’s human trafficking enterprise suffered violent assaults by the men for, among other reasons, keeping extra money charged to clients and not reporting it to Roberts. One victim was kicked in the torso, causing her lung to collapse, and during another assault, Roberts choked her to the point of unconsciousness, according to the press release. Another victim was hospitalized in June, 2010, after Roberts assaulted her and fractured bones in her face, according to the release.
Oakland, California, USA, United States
Mahendar "Mike" Singh, 40, and his wife, Helen Jean Singh (née Kearney), 22, are accused in an indictment, filed Dec. 1, 2011 of conspiring to traffic teenage females to provide sex acts to customers in exchange for money and other things of value. Mahendar Singh was arraigned Tuesday and pleaded not guilty before U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler in Oakland. Helen Jean Singh's arraignment is set for Dec. 8., 2011 According to the indictment, the defendants recruited teenagers by promising them money, drugs and a "family-like environment." Instead, the couple allegedly maintained control over the victims by using physical force and threats of physical force, and fostering a climate of fear. According to court documents, the defendants advertised their prostitution enterprise, which operated in Sacramento County and multiple Bay Area counties, over the Internet. An affidavit filed in the case alleges the defendants used an Internet website to advertise their victims and employed cell phones and text-messaging to make arrangements with customers. That affidavit states the defendants were arrested Aug. 20, 2011 after the South San Francisco Police Department responded to a motel near the San Francisco airport and found Mahendar Singh with a 19-year-old and two 16-year-olds.
Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA, United States
Mi Sun Cho was convicted November 8, 2011 for her role in an international sex trafficking conspiracy. After a one-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge Kimba M. Wood, Cho was found guilty of conspiring with others to induce or entice women to travel across state lines for the purpose of engaging in prostitution, and for personally transporting individuals across state lines for the same purpose. Cho is the last of 17 defendants to be convicted as part of this wide-ranging, international conspiracy. Two other defendants charged in the conspiracy remain fugitives. Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said: “The conviction of Mi Sun Cho closes a chapter in the prosecution of those responsible for a vast, international sex trafficking ring that exploited countless women. This guilty verdict also sends a clear message to others engaging in similar conduct that they will be punished.” According to the superseding indictment and the evidence presented at trial: A network of brothels in the Koreatown section of Manhattan masqueraded as massage parlors and used various brokers and taxi drivers to provide a steady supply of women to engage in prostitution. Cho was a broker who supplied prostitutes from New Jersey, Los Angeles, and Korea to these brothels, which were operated by other defendants in the case. Brokers like Cho received anywhere from $200 to $500 each from both the brothel owners and the prostitutes for facilitating connections between them.
San Mateo County, United States
Police entered a hotel room to find a 19-year-old girl in only a bra and underwear. The girl claimed that Armstrong was forcing her to prostitute herself. Armstrong was arrested.
Annapolis, Maryland, USA, United States
Jose Antonio Reyes-Maradiaga, a 28-year-old El Salvadoran national, residing in Annapolis, Maryland, pleaded guilty on November 1, 2011 to transporting individuals to engage in prostitution in Annapolis and Easton, Md. According to Jose Antonio Reyes-Maradiaga's plea agreement, he assisted a codefendant who operated prostitutions near Annapolis and Easton, Md. On numerous occasions between June and November 2010, he was observed operating or riding in vehicles used to transport prostitutes between the brothels. Reyes-Maradiaga used cell phones to support the prostitution business. On June 28, 2010, police stopped the vehicle Reyes-Maradiaga was operating. He was transported to the police station for processing due to driving without a license. Law enforcement searched his property which resulted in the recovery of two picture identification cards – one from El Salvador in the name of Jose Antonio Reyes-Maradiago and a Mexican license in the name of Luis Alberto Reyes – and a store receipt dated that same day for paper towels, condoms and other supplies for the brothel. Law enforcement also recovered $723.76 in cash and two cell phones containing the phone number for the Annapolis brothel.
Denver, CO, United States
The victim had been contacted approximately 3 weeks prior to the date of the investigation by a male known to her as “Big Red,” asking if she wanted to make money as a prostitute. She joined “Big Red” at his houset in Denver, where she was placed under the authority of “Carmell,” held down on a bed, and tattooed with “Carmell” on her chest. While she was at the house, “Carmell” and the suspect used a website and telephone service called “LiveLinks” to arrange sexual dates. “Carmell” also forced the victim to wear lingerie and a wig and pose for pictures, which were posted online. The victim relates that she was expected to earn at least $100 per day. While at the house, the victim had four separate “dates” in which she performed sex acts for money. All sex acts took place in the “sex room,” which was right across from the suspect’s room. The suspect handled all the money, and the victim received no monetary compensation. Until June 14, 2011, the victim was a minor (only 17 years old). Her age was known to the other residents of the house, as they held an 18th birthday party for her. On June 15, 2011, the victim attempted to leave the house after a verbal dispute broke out, in which the victim was accused of not cleaning the house. As she was attempting to leave, was assaulted by the suspects. The victim was able to walk to another house on the street, where she was able to call police.
Baltimore, Maryland, United States
"All 10 defendants were arrested by the SWAT team of the Baltimore police on October 12." --The Associated Press http://www.statesman.com/news/texas/el-paso-prostitution-ring-defendant-denied-bail-1946210.html "When Child Protective Services started an investigation into the reported abuse and neglect of at least five children living in the household, the 10 defendants fled altogether taking their victims with them, added the FBI agent. Angell also testified that Reemer drove one of the vehicles in which the victims were taken to Colorado during their flight." --The Baltimore Sun
Orange, California, USA, United States
Samuel Martinez Gonzalez, 26, of Santa Ana, Calif., was charged in a criminal complaint filed August 15, 2011 in U.S. District Court with transporting minors with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. According to the affidavit in support of the criminal complaint, one of the teens told investigators that Martinez invited them to go to California to "go to the beach." After arriving in California, the affidavit describes how the defendant took the girls shopping for “hoochie” dresses and high heels for their "job." The affidavit alleges that, in addition to the three Texas teens, Martinez had a fourth minor in his custody who was already working for him as a prostitute. At the time of his arrest, Martinez was accompanied by three females, including one of the teenage girls from Texas. The affidavit states that approximately one hour later, HSI agents and officers from the Orange Police Department located the two other missing teens in a motel room in Orange, California. According to the court document, the girls - who are 15 and 16 years old - told agents they were relieved they had been rescued and looked forward to being reunited with their families. During the probe, investigators found receipts in Gonzalez’s wallet for condoms and empty boxes of condoms in the motel room. Investigators also picked up a call to his cell phone from someone who wanted to arrange sexual services.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
The trafficker is Sean Patrick, a 37-year-old pimp from Milwaukee. Patrick was charged with child sex trafficking on 10/26/2011 in federal court in Milwaukee. The charges pertain to the trafficking of three girls, whom he forced to work as prostitutes between 2006 and 2010. They were trafficked to Chicago and other locations not specified in the sources. Patrick often transported the girls in a van on which he had painted "Ho Hauler" and forced the girls to pose nude outside the van for his friends. The victims were forced to sell sex 5-7 nights per week and turn the money over to Patrick. The victims were subjected to physical violence if they failed to make enough money. Information regarding how the victims were recruited, their ages, or the length of time each was in bondage is not available from the sources.
El Paso, Texas, USA, United States
Alarcon Allen Wiggins, 43, was arrested on October 12, 2011, along with nine other Baltimore residents, who are charged with one count of transportation for prostitution and one count of coercion and enticement. The indictment, returned by a federal grand jury in El Paso on October 5, 2011 alleges that since December 2009, the defendants, aided and abetted by one another, knowingly transported individuals in interstate commerce, as well as enticed individuals to travel in interstate commerce, to engage in prostitution. Information provided during the detention hearings in federal court in Baltimore revealed that the defendants, as directed by Wiggins, recruited and transported several females to El Paso and other locations in order to engage in prostitution. In addition, the defendants confiscated all of the proceeds from the prostitution activities as well all identification documents and personal communication devices, namely cell phones and laptop computers, in order to keep their victims from fleeing or seeking help. Other defendants arrested include: 20-year-old DeAngelo Perry Smith (aka “D-Lo“); 23-year-old Deyonta Thompson (aka “Wezz Fresh“); 18-year-old Marc Corey Williams (aka “DJ Yung Rock,” and “J-Rock“); 28-year-old Martes Milton Jackson (aka “Tuesday“); 25-year-old Shelby Nicole Smith (aka “Bebe“); 30-year-old Roxanne Michelle Mitchell (aka “Nakira,” “Foxy,” “Roxy,” “Mama,” and “Cherish“); 26-year-old Amanda Gayle Darbonne (aka “Kristale,” and “Kristal“); 24-year-old Holly N. Reemer (aka “Amira“); and, 22-year-old Brandi L. Minnich (aka “Natasha“). Wiggins has an extensive arrest record in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, records show. He's been convicted three times since 1994 of misdemeanor theft and twice of drug possession, including marijuana. His longest stint in jail was 90 days, court records show. As of November 17, 2011, seven of 10 members of the El Paso ring that authorities say forced women into prostitution will be re-arraigned after a grand jury returned a superseding indictment in the case. The accused ringleader, Alarcon Wiggins, 43, and nine others are charged with sex trafficking induced by force, fraud or coercion and conspiracy to transport for prostitution. One of them has already been re-arraigned and two others remain in Baltimore. Authorities say Wiggins, a self-proclaimed recording artist, used his ties to the music industry to entice women to move to El Paso and then forced them into prostitution. The indictment alleges the defendants took the women's earnings, documents and cell phones so they couldn't seek help.
Miami, Florida, USA, United States
ICE special agents in Miami identified Jorge Velasquez and Jaime Velazquez-Zompantzi, 26 as responsible for forcing the two females in Florida into prostitution. ICE special agents also determined that the Velazquez brothers had held the female victim’s children captive in Mexico and prohibited the victims from contacting their children. In May 2010, ICE HSI special agents in Miami requested assistance from the ICE Attaché Mexico City special agents regarding this ongoing human trafficking investigation after the two female human trafficking victims from Mexico were identified in Florida. On May 12, 2010, ICE special agents presented the investigation to Secretary of Public Safety (SSP) Border Enforcement Security Task Force officers in Mexico for enforcement action, and ICE special agents assisted those officers with locating and identifying the organization’s leaders in Mexico. Subsequently, on June 6, 2010, Assistant Attorney General for Special Investigations (SIEDO) and SSP officers executed search warrants on a business and residence belonging to the Zompantzi family, an alleged human trafficking organization operating in Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico. SSP officers arrested Jaime Velazquez-Zompantzi, Jorge Velazquez-Zompantzi, Fausto Velazquez-Zompantzi, and Severina Zompantzi, all Mexican nationals, indicted in Mexico on federal charges to include trafficking of persons and organized crime. During the search of the Mexican business, SSP officers found four minors suspected of being the children of trafficked victims currently in the United States. Two of the minors were identified as the children of the two female human trafficking victims in Florida. In 2011, Mexican authorities successfully prosecuted Jorge Velasquez for his role in this commercial sex trafficking ring. Velasquez was sentenced in Mexico to 18 years and 3 months in prison. Mexico prosecuted Velasquez along with three other Mexican traffickers.
Reno, Nevada, USA, United States
On November 9, 2011, Kemp Shiffer, 58, of Reno, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Howard D. McKibben to one count of transporting an individual in interstate commerce for purposes of prostitution. The plea agreement filed in the case states that on about July 25, 2011, Shiffer transported an individual identified as “C.M.,” from California to Nevada with the intent that “C.M.” would engage in prostitution when she arrived in Nevada. Shiffer engaged in coercive conduct in order to compel “C.M.” to engage in prostitution, and Shiffer was the organizer, leader, manager, and supervisor of the criminal activity, which included another participant, identified in the plea agreement as “E.H.”, who helped Shiffer recruit and transport “C.M.” from California to Nevada. As the investigation into Shiffer's dealings continued, Reno PD says that Shiffer retired from the United States Internal Revenue Service years ago but believe he may have been using his IRS badge to further his recruitment efforts into prostitution. His recruiting may go back as far as 10 years. Aside from his stint as an IRS agent, Shiffer was also an accounting instructor at the University of Nevada, Reno. According to Lahontan Valley News Shiffer along with David Houston and John Kirsch applied for a brothel license in 2006 but were denied.
Tampa, Florida, USA, United States
Eric Antwan Bell (37,Tampa) was indicted September 29, 2011 by a grand jury. The indictment charges Bell with four counts of conspiracy to entice a minor to engage in a commercial sex act, four counts of enticing a minor to engage in a commercial sex act, three counts of production of child pornography, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the indictment, Bell, along with a co-conspirator, enticed four minor victims to engage in prostitution. Bell and his co-conspirator lived off of the prostitution proceeds. Bell produced child pornography of the four minors and possessed multiple firearms after being convicted of a felony offense. One of his victims, a 15 year old, told Bell, who identified himself as “Santana”, she was 15. Bell raped her as soon as he got her to his home in the Highland Pines neighborhood near U.S. 41 and Interstate 4, court documents say. He also made her undress, took pictures of her and uploaded them onto Internet sites, advertising her as an escort, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa in January. For the next three weeks, "Santana" raped her daily, videotaped her sexual encounters with adult men and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, the girl told detectives. According to the complaint, she charged about $150 per "date," performed 15 to 20 "tricks" a day and estimated that she handed over $40,000 to $50,000 to the man during the time she lived with him. The girl who told investigators that Bell often wore a gun in his waistband. She said Bell sold oxycodone and marijuana from the home. Authorities did not provide details about how the girl eventually got away from Bell. Investigators serving a search warrant at Bell's home found firearms, ammunition, body armor, and cameras and computers containing pornographic images of the victims, the complaint said.
Brgy Palanan, Makati City, Philippines
Entrapment Operation by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT). CIDG posed as clients. There was collaboration among CIDG Women and Children Protection Division, IACAT prosecutors, and Department Social Welfare and Development representatives. 60 women were rescued
Sacramento, CA, United States
22-year-old Tynisha Marie Hornbuckle, 25-year-old Tamrell Rena Hornbuckle, 23-year-old Latrelle Alicia Hornbuckle, 24-year-old Cherrelle Elizabeth Hornbuckle, 43-year-old Tammy Rena Brown, and 24-year-old Jacquelin Lanoise Radisha Wade
Sand Spings, South Carolina, United States
Two Tulsa women say Vincent Broussard, a man from Texas offered them a ride to an east side bar. When they got in the car with him, he did not go to the bar, but instead kept driving, threatening to take the women all the way to Texas. Then he stopped at an RV park and attempted to sell the two women to another man. They were able to flee.
Minnesota, USA, United States
28-year-old Minnesota pimp, Byronte Juwann Reed. Trafficked individual in Minnesota and Chicago. Lived with trafficked person.
Seoul, Korea, Republic of
The trafficker recruited the women from 2008 to 2010 and sent them to New Zealand and Italy because these countries do not prohibit prostitution. He reportedly collected illegal profits of about 130 million won (approximately 130,000 USD) from them. The trafficker forced the women to undergo breast augmentation surgery. The victims were forced to change their name because they would be denied entry into the countries with a record of prostitution.
La Plata, Argentina, Argentina
Police conducted "Operation Sentinel" and raided 5 brothels in La Plata and Florencio Varela. 4 brothel owners were arrested for intent to traffick women across borders. The brothel owners took the women's identification upon arrival to the brothel.
Jaguaruna, Santa Catarina, Brazil, Brazil
Investigations into the nightclub after several complaints that Paraguayan women were prostituting themselves there. “The investigation revealed that the women originally arrived in Brazil on 45 to 90-day visas, and returned to Paraguay briefly after their visas expired. They would then return to Brazil on new visas. The nightclub paid for the women’s travel back and forth, forcing them to recuperate the costs with their work as prostitutes. Five women who testified against the three operators of the ring said that they worked as prostitutes in order to send money to their families back in Paraguay.”
Saco, Maine, USA, United States
Three suspects were arrested and charged with kidnapping. During the investigation, police obtained a search warrant for “the room and a 2001 BMW sport utility vehicle, seizing records, cellular telephones, computers and cash. Police impounded the car.” After the arrest, the suspects were held in York County jail on a bail of $100,000. That bail was later lowered to $2500 for the two women and $1000 for the man. “Police say they are exploring charges of aggravated promotion of prostitution.”
Gershwin Avenue, Oakdale, CA, United States
An Oakdale woman has been charged with soliciting or inducing an individual to practice prostitution and engaging in the sex trafficking of an individual. The trafficker met the victim while substitute teaching at a program for young adults with disabilities and offered the victim the opportunity to earn extra money by giving messages at the traffickers’ home. She made arrangements to pick up the victim in the school’s parking lot and on April 22 drove the victim to her apartment. Once there the victim was told she could make money by giving massages and if she wanted to earn extra money she could provide sexual services. The trafficker then asked the victim to pose for photos which the trafficker later posted on a website along with the victim’s website. The trafficker would take the call and make the appointments. When a customer came to the apartment the trafficker took him the bedroom to give him a massage. The victim felt uncomfortable but could not leave as she didn’t have a ride from the apartment. She didn’t engage in any messages or sexual activity with the customer, however, she continued to receive phone calls from men wanting to receive messages and/or sexual services after she left the apartment. When interviewed by the police, the trafficker denied taking any photos of the victim, however, she later confessed to taking photos of the victim in lingerie and posting on the website. The police were able to retrieve seven images from the phone which she used to take the photos with. For the charges set against her the trafficker could face a maximum of 15 years in prison and $40,000 in fines for each count.
Belfast, United Kingdom
Eye-witnesses described how a number of police Land Rovers and unmarked police cars swept into King Street in Belfast city centre yesterday around 10am. In dramatic scenes they raided a large apartment block adjacent to the Ibis hotel and arrested two men, aged 22 and 29. One witness, who did not wish to be named, said the apartments were known to be a base for prostitutes, with clients visiting at all hours. Two of the women, both in their 20s, were rescued yesterday from the King Street apartment block and a property in nearby College Place North. The other four women were rescued over recent weeks during the three-month long PSNI investigation. A 24-year-old man and a 22-year-old woman were also arrested in Cavendish Street, off the Falls Road in west Belfast. One of the suspects is from Northern Ireland, the other three arrested are eastern European.
South Airport Blvd, San Francisco, CA, United States
The husband and 3 girls were taken into custody by the police. When questioned, all 3 girls reported that they were being forced into prostitution by the husband and wife. The wife was also later found at the hotel and arrested along with her husband – they were booked into San Mateo County Jail for human trafficking under the agoe of 18, pimping, pandering and conspiracy.
Seoul, Korea, Republic of
According to police, from February 2007 through November 2009 Ms. Kim and the others brought 70 North Korean women trafficked from Qingdao, China into the business and accommodations they operated, earning over 30 million won in illegal profits from forcing them into prostitution. Also, they are accused of placing a 400,000 won bounty on Ms. Jo, a North Korean refugee in her mid-30s who escaped the business. Police say that they took 20% of the 100,000 won the victimized women earned per encounter in the bars they were forced to perform prostitution in, and were even beaten if they did not earn enough. Investigators found that they took advantage of the fact that North Korean refugee women in China have no contacts in South Korea and no regular residence, and paid 3.6 million won to Chinese brokers to bring them to Korea. Police believe that there are more perpetrators involved in the crimes including operators of brothels in China.
Zenith Ave, Lubbock, Texas, United States
A two-day trial has resulted in the conviction of a child sex trafficker. A U.S. District Judge convicted the male with sex trafficking of a child under the age of 18. He was arrested March 30th by Lubbock Police for related charges. Evidence presented at the trafficker's trial showed that he knowingly recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, obtained and maintained a minor female with knowledge that she was under the age of 18. Witnesses also testified that the trafficker would use the proceeds of the child prostitution to provide them with food, shelter, transportation and marijuana. The victims were 16 yrs old, and 18 yrs old. His sentencing date has not been set yet, the 25 year old could face life in prison and $250,000 fine.
Homewood, AL, United States
The Homewood Police Department investigated the crime after a referral from DHR. The police found that the child in question had been forced by the two traffickers to engage in sexual activities with a 36 year old man. The mother and grandmother arranged for the man to meet the child in a motel room. The US Marshall Service Fugitive Task Force arrested the man charged with the molestation of the child in question. The two traffickers were also arrested by the Homewood Police Department. All three perpetrators were charged with human trafficking, sodomy, and sexual abuse of a child under 12. Sources: http://birmingham.myfoxal.com/news/crime/two-women-wanted-sodomy-prostitution-child/72404 http://www.myfoxal.com/story/14368591/another-suspect-arrested-in-homewood-human-trafficking-case?redirected=true
Quincy, Massachusetts, United States
Hong Wei, a.k.a. Ms. Chen, 38, from Flushing, NY; Jing Liang, a.k.a. Mike Chen, 31, from Quincy MA; Xiang Hua, a.k.a. Darren Zhang, 27, from Flushing NY; Yu En, a.k.a. Eric Jin, 26, from Quincy, MA; Dong Kai Chem, 41, from Quincy, MA. All were arrested March, 31st, 2010 after a police raid on the Quincy brothel. Two of these men were previously arrested in Aug. 2005 after a police raid on the Peabody brothel run by Ms. Chen & Mike Chen. These traffickers ran several brothels out of various apartments scattered throughout the greater Boston area including Peabody, Quincy, Boston, Wellesly, Newton, Watertown, Somerville, Woburn, Burlington,Medford, Stoneham, & Malden. Most of these brothels have been in operation for at least the past 5 1/2 years. The traffickers enticed Asian women to travel to Massachusettes where they were put to work as prostitutes. They advertised in Chinese language papers in California, New York, & Massachusettes and on Craig's list and in the Boston Pheonix under the female escort section. It is reported that they paid over $13,125 to the Boston Pheonix over a 7 month period. The traffickers transported women by bus to South Station and then by car to various brothels throughout the greater Boston area. The women were lured or tricked into prostitution, being told they would be doing other types of work, and were forced to stay with threats to themselves or other family members and physical abuse if they did not comply with the demands of Ms. Chen. They also forced older women to work as domestic servants in the apartments (brothels) to take care of house cleaning and upkeeping of the apartments and taking care of the younger women as well.
Oakland, CA, United States
Members of a prostitution ring are charged with bringing Asian women into the Bay Area from Taiwan and China and forcing them into prostitution. Investigations began approximately a year before the arrests after neighborhood complaints about suspected prostitution activities in a home. The investigation revealed the home to be part of a chain of brothels. Law enforcement estimates that the chain had brought dozens of women into the country. Arrests were made in 10 locations around the Bay Area. Eight people were arrested, and ten women were brought into protective custody. The suspects were charged with conspiracy, pimping, pandering and human trafficking. They were all charged in the Alameda County Superior Court. “The suspects could face federal charges in addition to the local charges because federal agencies were part of the investigation.” (SF Examiner)
East Side, Detroit, Michigan, USA, United States
Mitchell faces charges that could land him in prison for life, including two counts of human trafficking, three counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, racketeering, counts of prostitution, felonious assault and felony firearms. The specific charges are: • Two counts of Human Trafficking - Threats of Physical Harm Causing Injury (Involving Criminal Sexual Conduct), a felony punishable by life in prison; • One count of Criminal Sexual Conduct - First Degree (Personal Injury), a felony punishable by life in prison; • Two counts of Criminal Sexual Conduct - First Degree (Relationship), a felony punishable by life in prison; • One count of Conducting Criminal Enterprises (Racketeering), a 20-year felony; • Two counts of Prostitution/Pandering, a 20-year felony; • Two counts of Prostitution - Accepting Earnings, a 20-year felony; • One count of Felonious Assault, a four-year felony; • One count of Felony Firearm - Second Offense, a 5-year felony; and, • One count of Felon in Possession of Firearm, a 5-year felony. A Michigan law banning human trafficking was strengthened in 2010 and went into effect in April 2011. The changes include adding trafficking to the list of offenses include under the state's racketeering law. It authorizes additional compensation for trafficking victims and stronger penalties.
Czech Republic, Bohemia, Pardudice, Czechia
The law enforcement in Czech Republic had a year long investigation going on, in the process of this when the women were rescued there was charges laid where. These charges are soliciting sexual services-pimping- leading to human trafficking as the women were forced into there jobs. This information can be found in the article. http://www.ceskapozice.cz/en/news/society/police-arrest-gang-pimping-and-human-trafficking
Tokyo, Japan, Japan
“Ahn recruited heavily indebted women and, through a loan shark, all their debts were repaid. Afterwards, they were sent to Japan, believing that they were to work at ‘massage parlors.’ Instead, the victims were locked up and forced to sell their bodies. “Their passports were also taken away from them and were under 24-hour surveillance. Most of the money they made was taken away.” A warrant for the trafficker’s arrest was issued on suspicion on of brokering Korean women into prostitution in Japan.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
A 30 year old Atlanta man, Demetrius Homer (“Cateye”), was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison on charges of sex trafficking of a minor. According to the U.S. Attorney Sally Yates, “HOMER recruited and enticed a juvenile girl by becoming her boyfriend. The victim, identified in the charges only by the initials “A.M.,” was 14 years old when HOMER met her and began to use a cycle of romance and violence to cause her to engage in prostitution. HOMER hit A.M., threatened A.M. with a knife, and even shocked her with a taser her in front of another juvenile he also placed in prostitution. From January 2009 through November 2009, HOMER took pictures of A.M. and placed advertisements of this young girl on the Internet site Backpage.com to solicit customers. The advertisements listed prices ranging from $60 to $175 depending on the amount of time booked and the location. HOMER would also pay for hotel rooms in the greater metropolitan Atlanta area where the commercial sex acts took place. HOMER even had A.M. engage in prostitution while she was pregnant with his child. HOMER took all the money from A.M. and another juvenile identified in the charges by the initials “J.F.,” which both of the juveniles had earned. HOMER also bonded out “A.M.” from police custody when she got arrested, knowing that she was a minor”.
Copenhagen, Denmark, Denmark
Copenhagen Police received a message from the Lithuanian police through Europol that a Lithuanian woman was being held hostage somewhere in Copenhagen and being forced to prostitute herself. Another two days passed before Copenhagen Police were able to locate the address where she was being held. “We got a description of the building that she was being held in from Europol. With a little local knowledge and some people watching on the street, we discovered the place,” Trine Møller Andersen, who leads the Copenhagen Police’s anti-human trafficking efforts, told Jyllands-Posten newspaper. The woman was found in a wretched, cockroach-infested building. But, according to Andersen, she had not been physically harmed and had been given food and water. When police finally found the woman, she handed them a hand-written note. It read – in halting English – that she was being held as a sex slave, that she could not speak English, and that she needed help.
Chicago, Illinois, United States
FBI agents say they arrested the 25-year-old male, of Kalamazoo Friday morning outside a hotel near Chicago, where he allegedly brought three females, two of them under the age of 18, from Michigan to engage in prostitution. Agents say Delaney thought he was bringing the girls to a bachelor party at the hotel, where they would engage in sexual activity with ten to twelve men, and charge between $150 and $300 per customer for various sexual acts, but was actually a sting operation to arrest Delaney following a long-term investigation. Agents say the three females were 16, 17 and 18 years old.
New Delhi, India, India
A 38 year old woman, a suspected manager of a New Delhi brothel where police recently rescued several underage girls, was charged in or about August 2011 with kidnapping, the kidnapping of minors, forced prostitution, rape and operating a brothel, New Delhi police officer Surinder Kaur told CNN reporters. The woman has been jailed under India's Immoral Traffic Prevention Act. Kaur said she could not release the woman's name but described her as an Indian citizen and a former prostitute herself. Under Indian law, prostitution is legal, but profiting from another person's prostitution is not. One of the girls rescued is 10 years old, said Triveni Acharya, the president of the Mumbai-based Rescue Foundation, an anti-trafficking group that tipped off police. Five of the nine girls taken from the brothel have been confirmed to be underage, and tests are pending on the remaining four, Kaur said. All are estimated to be 16 years of age or less. Three of the girls are Indian, and the remaining six are from Nepal - the source of a steady supply of sex slaves for the brothels of Delhi and Mumbai, many of whom are forced into prostitution by traffickers.
Glen Burnie, MD, United States
A 12 year old girls, was abducted from Washington , DC and taken to Atlantic City, N.J., to work as a prostitute. According to trafficker’s plea agreement, he took her there for a weekend where he had her work as a prostitute and taking all the money she earned. The girl had been reported missing on May 26, 2010. The girl was rescued on June 7, 2010, from a Laurel motel room by the task force after she called a relative when the trafficker was out. She told police that the trafficker had said they would have sex when he returned. The trafficker, who was arrested when he returned to the motel, initially claimed he thought the girl was 22 and denied having sex with her. He later admitted that he picked her up on the street in Washington and paid her for sex in the back seat of his car. He recruited her to work for him as a prostitute and then drove her to Atlantic City, where she performed multiple sex acts with adult males, according to his plea agreement. (US district judge) A federal judge in Baltimore has sentenced to a prison for transporting the girl across state lines to engage in prostitution. He was to serve 121 months in prison followed by 20 years of supervised release. The trafficker pleaded guilty in March. On his release from prison, he must also register as a sex offender where he lives, works and goes to school.
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
Charles Ford, a Las Vegas man, was found guilty of repeatedly raping and forcing a Canadian tourist to work as a prostitute. Ford was convicted in April 2011 by a Clark County jury. During the trial, the victim testified she had been a prostitute as a teenager, had stopped for many years as an adult and had raised a family. She decided to go on vacation from her home in Alberta, Canada, to the U.S. While she was staying in Los Angeles she decided to earn money for herself as a prostitute. At that point, she met another prostitute along Sunset Boulevard, Annette Dennis. The two women struck up a conversation and the victim agreed to drive Dennis to Las Vegas. Then when they got to Las Vegas, Dennis' boyfriend, who was known as "T," introduced the Canadian woman to his friend, "Charlie Mac," the name used by Defendant Charles Ford. Prosecutors say that through threats and intimidation and with information gathered by Dennis, Ford coerced the Canadian woman into working as a prostitute for him, making about $2,500 for him over two nights. The victim said Ford gathered personal information about her, got access to her driver's license and her laptop computer, isolated her, monitored her phone calls and e-mails and sexually assaulted her from Jan. 1 to Jan. 3. Although the woman initially refused to "break" to Ford as her pimp, he told her he had information on her adult children and they would suffer the consequences if she didn't comply. Al Beas, a Metro vice detective who is an expert in the subculture of prostitution, told the jury about intimidation and psychological techniques pimps use to get a prostitute under their control.He also said it was easier for a pimp to get a woman who had previously been a prostitute under his control than a woman who had never sold sexual favors. He said a former prostitute was "almost like an addict being put back on drugs." The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Michelle Fleck, explained to the jury that those psychological techniques were the same ones used against the Canadian woman — shame, fear, humiliation and isolation.
Hakata Ward, Japan, Japan
After having sex at a hotel with the girl, he allegedly hit her over a money problem. He was arrested for battery, and the cops wound up finding provocative and illegal images on his mobile phone and personal computer. They were able to identify one middle school girl and another eight girls from high school. He took shots of three of them while engaged in actual sex acts. This led to an additional citation of Child prostitution.
Chicago, Illinois, Elk Grove Village, Cook County, United States
The trafficker was originally charged on August 8, 2010 following arrest with one count of involuntary servitude, a Class X felony; one felony count of trafficking of persons for labor or services; one count of unlawful restraint; one count of pandering; one count of possession of a controlled substance – heroin; and one count of possession of a controlled substance – cocaine. He was convicted May 3, 2011 following a three day jury trial on felony charges of Involuntary Servitude, Trafficking in Persons for Forced Labor or Services and Pandering and faced up to 30 years in prison. His final sentencing by Cook County Judge William lacy was an 18 year prison term. This is the second time this year the Sheriff’s Vice Unit has charged someone for human trafficking, but he was the first person convicted in Cook County under the updated laws against human trafficking. Sheriff Dart thanked the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Human Trafficking Unit for their assistance in the case. His conviction was the result of efforts by State's Attorney Alvarez's new Human Trafficking Initiative Unit, which worked in cooperation in this case with Cook County Sheriff's Police. "Today's sentence represents a significant achievement in our new efforts to investigate and prosecute the crime of human trafficking, which is occurring in our own backyard," said State's Attorney Anita Alvarez in a release today. “Human trafficking is a problem that is becoming more prevalent in our communities and it is a crime that no woman or child should be subjected to,” said Alvarez. “We will continue to aggressively prosecute offenders who are forcing victims to sell themselves and help victims seek the help they need.”
Rochester, MN, United States
The Undercover Officer (UC herein) called the phone number provided in the ad at 4:30 PM. The UC spoke with a female. The female on the phone stated that she was just checking in at her hotel and asked the UC to call back in 30 minutes. Officers then contacted the hotel and learned that Sanders and Nicholas had just checked in again. Officers learned that they had rented rooms 216 and 253/4 (a suite). The UC called the phone number in the ad at 5:30 PM and again spoke to the female. The female on the phone stated it was $150.00 for a 1/2 session and $200.00 for an hour. The UC and the female discussed the particular sexual acts included in this price and the female indicated it was "full service." The female indicated her location and told the UC to call back when he was close to get the room number. At about 5:59 PM, the UC called the phone number again and the female stated she was in room 216. As he exited his vehicle, the UC observed a white female, exit room 216 and walk around the corner towards room 253/4. The female stared intently at the UC as he approached the hotel. The UC went to room 216, knocked on the door and victim answered. The UC and victim agreed to exchange money for sexual contact and the UC signaled the arrest team to enter the room. Officers went to room 253/4 and located defendant and other as well as a small child. The room smelled of marijuana. A plastic bag containing a small amount of what appeared to be marijuana was located on defendant.
Haines City, Florida, United States
The 27 year old trafficker was arrested in July 2011 on bribery of a law enforcement officer, procuring for prostitution a minor under 18 (2 counts), sex trafficking (2 counts), lewd and lascivious battery (3 counts) and unlawful sexual activity with a minor (2 counts). The 25 year old police officer was charged in July 2011 with sexual battery by a law enforcement officer, lewd battery and official misconduct. He resigned from his position as a law enforcement officer the same day as he was arrested.
Las Vegas, Nevada, United States
The victim walked over to a Casino Hotel and saw a man dressed in what she thought was a police uniform and told him what had been happening to her. She said the man was not an officer, but was with the Taxicab Authority. However he took her inside and Metro Police were contacted.
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
Deputy U.S. Attorney Brad Shepard reported that the ring was controlled by Mexican brothers Noberto, Gregorio, and Jose Louis Hernandez-Castilla. The women were rotated weekly among the brothels generally set up in apartments in Indianapolis. It also is believed to have operated brothels in Fort Wayne and Elkhart, FBI Special Agent Michael Langeman said in a probable- cause affidavit. The brothers were known to have guns and use violence to intimidate others in the ring, Langeman said. An informant told investigators that he was fearful of Jose Louis Hernandez, who was known “to have connections everywhere,” the affidavit said. Shepard says the traffickers used business cards advertising car repairs and western wear to attract clients. Typically, the cost for services ranged from $40 to $50.
Muscat, Oman, Oman
The victim- a woman of foreign origin to Oman was employed in Muscat as a housemaid by a sponsor. The woman was then reportedly coerced by a man (accused 1) to “run away” from her sponsors, and come work for him as a prostitute as she would “receive more money”. After having sex with her, this man then sold her to a second man for RO 100 ($34 USD). The second man (accused 2) then earned a living from her, using her as a prostitute. He turned his home into a brothel and men would visit and pay him money to have sex with her. Source 1: Muscat Daily.Com, ‘Two men get three years jail for human trafficking’ June 14 2011 Link: http://www.muscatdaily.com/Archive/Oman/Two-men-get-three-years-in-jail-for-human-trafficking Source 2: Oman Daily Observer, ‘Human Traffickers imprisoned’ June 15 2011 Link: http://main.omanobserver.om/node/54778 Source 3: Khaleej Times Online, ‘Two jailed, fined for human trafficking’ Link: www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/middleeast/2011/June/middleeast_June432.xml§ion=middleeast&col=
Aba, Nigeria, Nigeria
Dr Hyacinth Orikara proprietor of the Cross Foundation Owner of the "illegal baby factory" is likely to face child abuse and human trafficking charges. Buying or selling of babies is illegal in Nigeria and can carry a 14-year jail term. Location: Cross Foundation Aba, Nigeria Nigerian police have raided a home allegedly being used to force teenage girls to have babies that were then offered for sale for trafficking or other purposes, authorities said on Wednesday. Some of the girls told police they had been offered to sell their babies for between 25,000 and 30,000 naira (192 dollars) depending on the sex of the baby. The babies would then be sold to buyers for anything from 300,000 naira to one million naira (1,920 and 6,400 dollars) each, according to a state agency fighting human trafficking in Nigeria, the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP).
Gold Coast, Australia, Australia
He recruited Thai prostitutes and brought them to Australia on false pretences. The women went over to Australia knowing that they were going to be prostitutes and they agreed to come since they wanted to make money for their children in Thailand to give them a better life. He earned up to $1000 a day from the women and only gave them $20 for their expenses and use of a room. The women had to work whether they wanted to our not and do things that they did not feel comfortable doing, he would became verbally abusive towards them and threatened them that he was their visa sponsor and they could not leave. He deceived them about the amount of hours they would work and how much money they would earnHe pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking, it totally he received five years for human trafficking, with 22 months non-parole period. http://www.law.uq.edu.au/documents/humantraffic/case-reports/dobie.pdf
Guatemala, Central America, Guatemala
An eight year old girl from El Salvador was sold into slavery by her parents. The men who purchased her brought her to Guatemala where she was forced to work in a brothel.
Qingdao, Shandong, China
Name: Age: 30 Female North Korea refugee Name: Age: 40 Female North Korea refugee Two ethnic Korean Chinese living in the South were also arrested for working with the pair in China. Police also suspect that another North Korean refugee in China and a South Korean who lives overseas acted as accomplices. Police said that over a two-year period the pair acquired 70-80 North Korean women fresh from their impoverished homeland, about half of them from Chinese brokers. They paid the brokers about 3.6 million South Korean won ($3,298) for each woman. The pair allegedly forced the women into prostitution in night-time establishments they operated in the northeastern Chinese city of Qingdao between 2007 and 2009. Two female refugees from North Korea have been arrested in South Korea for allegedly forcing fellow fugitives into prostitution while they were in China, police said Tuesday.
Cape Town, South Africa, South Africa
Law enforcement raided a brothel in Cape Town which was being run by two Chinese women as part of a crime syndicate. The Captonian girl had responded to a job offer to be a masseuse, which had resulted in her working as a prostitute for the two traffickers. The other two Chinese victims had responded to a job offer just a few weeks before, where after they had been flown to Mozambique and driven over the South African border. The trafficker then took their passports away and told them that they were expected to repay a debt of R30 000. The girls were terrified, and had been told that if they talked to police or any men in uniform, the police would beat them and sell them to a black township where they would then be killed. One of the girls had her boyfriend in China deposit 30,000 into the bosses’ account hoping that by paying her debt the boss would let her go, but she still wouldn't let her leave. The other girl tried to send an SOS to the chinese consulate from a cell phone, but she got no response. The girls are totally uneducated and spoke no english.
norcross, georgia, United States
Amador Cortes-Meza Age-36 Currently at State Penn in Atlanta Charges: sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, transporting minors for the purpose of prostitution, smuggling aliens into the United States for purposes of prostitution, and conspiracy to do the same.$292,000 in restitution charges! Juan Cortes-Meza Age 31 Hometown: Mexico Charges: 16 years, eight months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $57,600. Raul Cortes-Meza Age 22 Hometown: Mexico Charges: 10 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $7,000. Edison Wagner Rosa Tort Age: 71 Hometown: Cartersville, GA Charges: five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $57,000. OTTO JAIME LARIOS PEREZ Age 27 Hometown: Guatemala Charges: two years, six months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $3,600. Federal authorities believe the defendant led a sex trafficking ring that brought at least 10 women into the country and forced them to engage in sexual acts with men. According to the prosecution, the defendant and other men, mostly relatives, tricked the young women, including four juveniles, into leaving their families in Mexico by pretending to be romantically interested in them. brought 10 victims to Georgia, where they were beaten and forced to have sex with about 40 men a night, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Q. Yates. The victims testified that they lived in Norcross homes. One victim testified that when she refused to engage in prostitution, Cortes-Meza threw an iron at her head, then denied her medical care. Other victims said Cortes-Meza hit them with his fists, belts and sticks and dragged them around by their hair. "This defendant tricked young girls and juveniles into leaving their families in Mexico, beat them, and forced them into more than 20 acts of prostitution a night here in Atlanta," Yates said in a statement. "These survivors courageously testified against the defendant and played a significant role in bringing him to justice. This defendant earned every day of his 40 year sentence.” During the trial, victims testified that they sometimes were ordered to service 40 customers a night at a rate of $25 a customer, Yates said. That money was split between Cortes-Meza and his co-conspirators and the drivers, she said.
Seattle, Washington, USA, United States
Convicted pimp Anthony "Mack" Terry was sentenced to 20 years in prison April 29, 2011. Terry, whose defense was that he was a drug dealer, not a pimp, was convicted in March 2011 of two counts of promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor, second-degree promoting prostitution, and witness tampering. King County Superior Court Judge Beth Andrus had just handed down the 20-year prison sentence when the courtroom phone rang. On the line was the teenage victim Terry had pimped out and later asked to lie for him in a series of recorded phone calls he made from inside the King County Jail. "I just want to say I was never a victim, and Anthony Terry was never my pimp," said the woman, whose call was put on the Court's speaker phone. The woman was 18 at the time of the sentencing but was 17 when Terry was twice arrested for pimping her out. Judge Andrus had already heard the woman's denials during Terry's bench trial, but apparently found them unpersuasive. In March 2011, Judge Andrus found Terry guilty of two counts of promoting the commercial sex abuse of a minor, second-degree promoting prostitution, and witness tampering. During closing arguments in March 2011, Prosecutor O'Donnell played a series of recorded phone calls between Terry and the 17-year-old, in which Terry can be heard directing her to post photos of herself online to make money to bail him out and pay for an attorney. O'Donnell also held up a screen shot of Terry's MySpace page, which bore the words "pimp in action."
Mecklenberg, N.C, United States
Craig Allen Rodgers Age: 34 Originally from California Rodgers, who has previous prostitution-related convictions, is accused of procuring customers via the Internet and traveling with his prostitutes to meet clients in hotel rooms in Charlotte, Covington, Ohio, Albuquerque, N.M. and Nashville, Tenn., the complaint said. A federal criminal complaint alleges that Craig Allen Rodgers transported the woman against her will and used force to make her engage in sexual activity with paying customers. According to court records, Rodgers is originally from California and has several previous prostitution-related convictions. In 2006, he pled guilty in Oklahoma to aiding and abetting in prostitution and using a computer to violate Oklahoma law.
Travelodge hotel on North Coast Highway in Oceanside CA, USA, United States
An April 18, 2011 federal indictment says that Hitesh Vinod Patel, age 27, and his father, Vinod N. Patel, age 60, acting on behalf of Gayatri Investments LLC, helped and allowed members and associates of a criminal enterprise to rent rooms for prostitution at the Travelodge hotel on North Coast Highway in Oceanside. According to the indictment, the Patels arranged to have the participants housed in specific areas and rooms within the hotel so that they were segregated from legitimate customers. According to the indictment, the Patels charged --- and the defendants paid higher room rates --- in exchange for permitting the prostitution activities to be conducted at the Travelodge.The Patels are also accused of warning members and associates of the enterprise about law enforcement activity or inquiries. The operation was run by the Oceanside Crips gang, which included three different gang "sets," authorities said. The sets -- the Insane Crip Gang; Deep Valley Crips; and Crook, Mob, Gangsters -- who have been rivals in the past, worked together to run the prostitution operation, according to U.S. Attorney Laura E. Duffy. Six others, all women, were charged as associates of the criminal enterprise. The indictment targets not only pimps, but also women known as "bottoms," who federal prosecutors said are the most senior and trusted prostitutes, who help recruit and rein in the junior girls. U.S. Atttorney Laura E. Duffy said prostitutes caught up in the operation were often "traded like property" and beaten by their pimps if they did not do as they were told. Michael Carney, Acting Special Agent in Charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego, said the victims and the gang members were primarily U.S. citizens. An indictment is not evidence the defendants are guilty of the crimes charged. The defendants are presumed by the law to be innocent of the charges until the Government proves guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Moscow, Russian Federation, Russian Federation
Igor Slearev and Avi Yanai were found by The Moscow District Military Court to be leaders of an international human trafficking ring. Lt. Col. Dmitry Strykanov of the foreign military intelligence directorate was also found guilty and sentenced to 12 years in a high security prison. Through deceit the criminal group drew women and smuggled them to Europe and the Middle East, where they were forced to engage in prostitution, according to the Prosecutor General's Office. Approximately one hundred and thirty women are victims in the case, among them citizens of Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Moldova and Russia. Most of the women were sold to Israel, Italy, Spain, Germany, Greece, Holland and the United Arab Emirates.
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States
Jeffrey L. Byrd was investigated for recruiting an 18-year-old prostitute and transporting her to New York, and attempted recruitment a 14-year-old into prostitution. Local law enforcement interceded in the matter and arrested Byrd. Byrd was charged with transportation to engage in prostitution; attempted interstate transportation to engage in prostitution; and attempted interstate transportation of a minor with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity. Byrd entered a guilty plea and was sentenced to over 4 years imprisonment; three years supervised release, and was ordered to pay $600.00 in fines.
Lebanon, Missouri, USA, United States
Case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in conjunction with the Human Trafficking Rescue Project. The March. 30, 2011 superseding indictment contains an additional charge against Edward Bagley for possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence. Cook is also charged with two additional counts of using an interstate facility in the commission of murder for hire, and with one count each of attempted tampering with a victim and attempted witness retaliation, all of which are related to an alleged attempt to kill FV between Sept. 28, 2010, and Dec. 9, 2010. Cook is also charged with tampering with another witness, who is identified as “JP” in the indictment. The superseding indictment also contains additional charges against Stokes for receiving child pornography over the Internet and for possessing child pornography. The Bagleys used the Internet and BDSM pornography to train and groom FV (while she was still a minor) to be a sex slave. Marilyn Bagley allegedly modeled “slave clothes” as part of recruiting FV to become Edward Bagley’s slave. Edward Bagley allegedly gave FV marijuana and ecstasy, showed her images of pornography and sadomasochism activities, and began sexually abusing her while she was still a minor. Edward Bagley began sexually torturing FV in February 2004, according to the indictment, when she turned 18 years old and he had her sign a sex slave contract, which he convinced FV legally bound her to him as his slave for the rest of her life. The indictment cites numerous allegations of a variety of sexual acts, torture, and mutilation over a five-year period. Marilyn Bagley posed in photographs taken by Edward Bagley, the indictment says, where she sexually abused FV. Marilyn Bagley allegedly told FV to “do as she was told” and refused to offer assistance when FV expressed fear of Edward Bagley. Marilyn Bagley benefited financially and by receiving something of value from her role in the sex trafficking scheme. If FV attempted to stop the activity or cried for help, the indictment says, Edward Bagley escalated the torture. Edward Bagley allegedly threatened to kill FV and demonstrated to her that he could do so by keeping numerous guns in the home. Edward Bagley shot animals that FV cared for in front of her, the indictment says, and bragged about the bodies he had already buried in the woods behind the trailer home. Edward Bagley also threatened to bury FV alive, the indictment says, and showed her a video demonstrating how he intended to do it. Edward Bagley had FV tattooed to mark her as his property, the indictment says, including a bar code on her neck, a tribal tattoo on her back to mark her as a slave, and the Chinese symbol for slave on her ankle. Between February 2004 and February 2009, the indictment says, Edward Bagley tortured FV on live webcasts on the Internet. Cook allegedly watched live video over the Internet of FV being sexually abused and tortured, and downloaded pictures of FV to his computer. Cook allegedly sent images to Edward Bagley of females in his residence that he beat, bound and tied up to share ideas of how to abuse FV. Cook allegedly used those torture methods on FV when he visited the Bagley residence. Cook gave Bagley a hard drive with sadomasochism and torture videos downloaded from the Internet, including videos demonstrating to Bagley how he could bury FV alive. Stokes allegedly traveled to the Bagleys’ residence and engaged in both sexually torturing FV and watching Edward Bagley torture FV. Stokes gave Bagley steaks, cigarettes, coats, clothing, lighters and cash. Stokes paid $1,000 for Bagley to transport FV to California in December 2006 for a photo shoot in which FV performed sexual acts. Stokes paid Bagley $300 for a torture session, and also gave him money to build a home-made device to sexually torture FV. In addition to the criminal conspiracy, each of the defendants is also charged with one count of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion and one count of using the Internet to facilitate the unlawful activity. Edward and Marilyn Bagley are also charged together with forced labor trafficking and document servitude. The federal indictment alleges that the Bagleys forced FV to work as a stripper and exotic dancer at adult entertainment clubs from June 2007 to February 2009. They allegedly earned approximately $112,200 from FV’s work. According to the indictment, Edward Bagley punished FV with torture and physical and sexual abuse for failing to be a top earner at the adult entertainment clubs where he had her dance and strip. Edward and Marilyn Bagley allegedly confiscated FV’s identification documents, including her state-issued identification card, birth certificate and Social Security card. Edward Bagley is also charged with one count each of using the Internet to entice a minor to engage in illicit sex, enticement to travel for illicit sexual activity, transportation for illicit sexual activity, possessing a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence, conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance to a person under the age of 21 and being a drug user in possession of firearms and ammunition. Beth Phillips, United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, cautioned that the charges contained in this indictment are simply accusations, and not evidence of guilt. Evidence supporting the charges must be presented to a federal trial jury, whose duty is to determine guilt or innocence.
West North Avenue, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA, United States
Local (Oak Creek, WI) police discovered the victim, a 14 year old girl, during an investigation into escort services. In or about May 2010 Booker picked up his 14 year old victim on West North Avenue in Milwaukee, then took nude photos of her. The photos were posted on www.backpage.com, advertising the girl as a 19 year old escort. The girl was then taken to a hotel where she engaged in sex with men, who paid Booker and another woman, Holly Arnold, age 23. The victim told a detective she was afraid to leave the hotel because she did not know where she was, had no money, and no way of going elsewhere.
Catumbal, Cabaluay, Zamboanga City, Philippines; Bongao, Tawi-Tawi; Sandakan, Malaysia, Philippines
As reported by the Republic of the Philippines Department of Labor and Employment, 2011-02-11 http://www.dole.gov.ph/secondpage.php?id=1790 "Arlene Ramos, a.k.a. "Michelle Ramos," "Arlene Lee," or "Arlene Anova" was found guilty beyond reasonable doubt in violation of Section 7(a) of Republic Act No. 8042, or the Migrant Workers Act of 1995; and of human trafficking under Section 4(a) in relation to Sections 3(a) and 10(a) of RA 9208, otherwise known as the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003. The case was filed in 2005 after Ramos, who was found to have no license from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), had recruited sisters Aleli T. Wee and Herminia T. Wee for non-existent jobs as food servers in a restaurant in Malaysia. Ramos promised the victims' mother, Jasmine T. Wee, that her daughters will receive the monthly salary of P12,000 each, but said the cost of the recruitment will be through salary deduction equivalent to P3,000.00 for the first four months. Ramos further told the mother not to worry because she (Ramos) will take care of the needed documents. It turned out that Ramos were to sold the sisters to slavery. She first brought them to her house in Catumbal, Cabaluay, Zamboanga City, then to Bongao, Tawi-Tawi where they were forced to board a vessel of the Aleson Shipping Lines which brought them to Sandakan, Malaysia. In Malaysia, the sisters were forced to work as domestic helpers without pay. One of the sisters, Herminia, was forced to become a sex-slave. Afraid to escape because they had no documents, they accepted their fates, but at the close of 2005, they were able to go back to the Philippines. Aleli went home on 03 December while Herminia arrived less than a month later, on 27 December."
Independence, MO, United States
Operation Guardian Angel was created and executed by the Human Trafficking Rescue Project, a joint task force from the Independence PD, the Kansas City MO PD, ICE, and FBI. On April 23, 2010, Doerr was sentenced to 5 years in federal prison. Specific sentencing info was not found. 7 men were arrested during the course of this 2-month sting operation. All of the perpetrators were charged with attempted commercial sex trafficking of a child and using the Internet and telephone to attempt to induce a child to engage in prostitution, and all seven defendants have been indicted and convicted in "the nation’s first-ever federal prosecution of the alleged customers of child prostitution under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act."
Independence, MO, United States
The arrest and conviction of Mikoloyck resulted from an undercover law enforcement sting operation called Operation Guardian Angel. "On Saturday, January 29 2009, Mikoloyck responded to an online advertisement that said, in part, 'While there mommas away these girls will play. My girlfriend is out of town her daughters are ready to play with you. Be the first for the little girls ...' (sic). Mikoloyck engaged in a series of e-mails with the undercover officer, who was posing as the pimp, in which he discussed the price for a 16-year-old girl. The next day, Mikoloyck engaged in another series of e-mails with the undercover officer, and further discussed the deal for the 16-year-old girl over the phone. The following day, Jan. 31, 2009, Mikoloyck engaged in another series of e-mail and telephone conversations with the undercover officer, and agreed to pay $100 to take the 16-year-old girl outside the residence for sex for half an hour. Mikoloyck drove from Overland Park to the agreed-upon meeting place, but when he wasn’t able to reach the undercover officer by phone, returned to Overland Park. After making contact with the undercover officer, he then drove back to the location. When Mikoloyck arrived at the house, he paid the undercover officer $100 and was arrested."
Brooklyn, Cape Town. South Africa, South Africa
The victim was dropped off at the hospital by her perpetrator because she had experienced severe physical abuse from her trafficker. While she was receiving treatment for the physical abuse after receiving psychosocial support from the social worker at the hospital , it emerged that she was a victim of trafficking and that her perpetrator was still trying to make contact with her while she was in hospital.The victim had left her home in the Eastern Cape and ended up in Johannesburg, when she arrived her and her friend were approached by a Nigerian man who promised them employment in Cape Town. On arrival they were forced into sex exploitation in a brothel in the Northern Suburbs in Cape Town. Local NGOs assisted with both the practical support and aftercare support.
Tacoma, WA, United States
Shadina Rice, a 38 year old woman from Tacoma, WA, took in two, 13 year old girls who had runaway from home and pimped them out. She would post pictures of the girls online, and then men would meet her at a doughnut shop and then taken them to an apartment where the girls were. She would then wait in the car till the johns were finished. http://www.ktvb.com/news/regional/Tacoma-woman-used-donut-shop-for-child-prostitution-say-feds-111611689.html http://www.thenewstribune.com/2010/12/09/1457919/tacoma-woman-charged-with-sex.html
Seoul, Korea, Republic of
Arrest made by the International Crime Investigation Team of the Seoul Metropolitan Police. Around 20 Thai masseuses were brought from Bangkok in the period from July 2008 to work in massage parlors, and were told that they could eartn extra for sex work. They entered Korea on tourist visas, then their passorts were confiscated, their movement limited to the place of work, and forced into sex work.
Yeosu, Korea, Republic of
18 yr old female child (Korea constitutes a minor as 19yrs and younger) forced into prostitution by traffickers. The exact details of intervention are not clear in the article.
Good Nite Inn, Redwood City, CA, United States
The trafficker allegedly set up appointments for the victim, a 17-year-old girl, using Myredbook.com. The suspect met the victim when the victim was sitting on a curb in Oakland. She recruited the victim to work as a prostitute, took seductive pictures of the girl, posted them online, and handled all monetary transactions. The suspect was arrested on October 12, 2010 in the Good Nite Inn on Veterans Boulevard as part of a police sting operation.
Indianapolis, IN & Speedway, IN, United States
Chris Smiley - 27 years old - The victim tried to escape but she says Smiley "pointed a black semi-automatic gun at her and hit her in the side of the head with it" saying "You know what happens to the girls that try to run?" Ayannah Willis - 26 years old - The victim told police that night Willis threatened to "rape her with the knife." The victim says that's when Willis told her she would have to prostitute herself to pay off her parents' drug debt: she "would perform sexual acts and sexual intercourse with several men a day from ads" on "Craig’s list" and "live links" phone line. Latoya Harlin - 21 years old -Court documents detail the relationships of the three, who called themselves "Team Smiley."
north charleston, south carolina, United States
One person (Rubi Bertaud-Cabrera, 27) is charged with human trafficking and two others (Efrain Pacheco-Martinez and Marcos Antonio Pacheco-Martinez) were being sought after a 20-year-old woman told police she was smuggled in from Mexico, held captive for three weeks at a house in North Charleston, and forced to have sex.
Denver/Lakewood (various locations in this area), United States
The trafficker was found guilty of pimping a 17-year-old girl and an 18-year old woman, coercing them too charge up to $175 per hour for sex, and keeping most of that money. The trafficker forced two women to pose for explicit photos, which he posted on Craigslist. He then instructed them to charge $150 for a half hour and $175 for an hour for “out-calls” to hotels in Denver and Lakewood. The trafficker’s co-defendant drove the teens to the “out-calls” at motels. The trafficker, who was 19 at the time of the arrest, was charged with human trafficking, pimping, trafficking in children, pimping of a child, pandering of a child, and inducement of child prostitution. His co-defendant was charged with conspiracy to commit pimping and possession of a controlled substance. The trafficker was convicted in 2011 and will serve an 8 year sentence in prison.
lexington county, south carolina, United States
In Lexington County, South Carolina recently, authorities arrested a Batesburg-Leesville bondsman on the charge of forced labor after he was accused of making a woman do sexual favors and work for him in exchange for bail. According to the McClatchy News Service, sheriff's deputies arrested Curtis Jackson Maroney, 51, on charges of blackmail and human trafficking charges, the sheriff's department said.
Denver (exact location unknown), United States
A teen from Colorado Springs was kidnapped and forced into prostitution in Denver. The 17-year-old girl was suspended from school in May 2010, and instead of going home, she went to her ex-boyfriend’s house. He arranged to take her to Denver to “make money.” There, she was taken to a house where she was taught how to be a prostitute and how to identify undercover policemen. She performed numerous sex acts on local Denver men, and she was advertised online as an escort. Of those arrested, one of the 19-year-old men was the victim’s ex-boyfriend, and he arranged for the victim to go to Denver. The 32-year-old man drove the victim, as well as another 19-year-old woman to Denver. There, the 28-year-old woman taught the victim and the 19-year-old woman how to be prostitutes, and posted nude or semi-nude pictures of them online to advertise them to johns. At the time of the source articles, there three were all in custody. The other 19-year-old man aided the traffickers by providing rides for the girls to hotels, where the sex acts occurred. At the time of the articles, he had failed to appear in court, and a warrant had been issued for his arrest.
Illinois, United States
This case was the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney David P. Steinkamp. Baynes was sentenced to 96 months in prison on one count of transportation to engage in a commercial sex act.
Várzea Grande - Mato Grosso, Brazil
Original source translated using googletranslate.com: 20 women and 4 men were found in ‘degrading conditions’ and subjected to ‘exhaustive days’ described as similar to slavery (according to art. 149 of the Penal Code). They were held in sexual exploitation and debt bondage at a nightclub in the “Zero KM” region of Mato Grosso. All the survivors were between 18 and 23 years old. They did not receive the paid weekly rest required by law, and their salary was paid in “chips” which could be exchanged for overpriced products from the store in the club. Some workers had signed contracts which meant that they could not leave the premises until their debt had been paid. The women lived in overcrowded conditions with poor ventilation and fire protection. The sanitary conditions were inadequate and did not comply with hygiene standards.
Aikins Street, Winnipeg, MB, Canada
38 year old woman befriended the 21 year old aboriginal female victim after she had moved alone to Winnipeg from northern Manitoba. The woman took the victims personal items and identification, confined her, assaulted her and forced her to prostitute herself, withholding all of her earnings.
Vancouver BC, Canada
WaiChi (Michael) Ng, Vancouver. Accused of trafficking 2 Chinese women into sex trade. Was acquitted on trafficking charge, sentenced on prostitution-related charges. Sentenced to 9 months for two counts of falsifying immigration documents and extra 6 months for keeping bawdy house and two counts procuring person to have illicit sexual intercourse.
Poppleton Ave & S 30th Ave Omaha, NE 68105, United States
Four individuals ran a sex trafficking business out of their home property in Omaha, Nebraska. Merrideth Crane-Horton was described in court records as the "mastermind." Her husband, Edwin Horton, handled the money, while Ramon Heredia, Horton's nephew, provided the muscle. Katherine Heredia worked as a prostitute. The trafficked girls involved were under the age of eighteen, one girl was only thirteen years of age. Two girls, the thirteen year old and a fifteen year old, managed to escape. Girls harbored at this Omaha residence were beaten and threatened to perform sexual acts for pay with their earnings going directly to their traffickers. One woman, now 20, told authorities that Crane-Horton and Ramon Heredia beat her to coerce her into prostitution and to keep her from talking to police. The woman said Crane-Horton would lock her inside a room without heat or lights to compel her to perform sex acts. Katherine Heredia was also working as a co-conspirator as well as a prostitute. She claims to have been subject to violent beatings to “keep [the other girls] in line”. A local expert on human trafficking said it's not uncommon for a victim like Katherine Heredia to become a co-conspirator. "It is very similar to a domestic violence situation," said a member of the Omaha Salvation Army's social services division. "It is somewhat like Stockholm syndrome. After a period of brainwashing and breaking,' you co-opt with your abuser ... and bring into the fold younger people. It is a distorted idea of love."
Ginger Lane, NORTH CHARLESTON, SC, United States
Rubi Bertaud-Cabrera Age: 27 Charged with one count of importing an alien for an immoral purpose; two counts of bringing in and harboring aliens; one count of transporting for prostitution; and one count of failing to file a factual statement about an alien. Police are now looking for suspected human traffickers Efrain Bertaud-Cabrera, who is described as 5'5", 200 pounds, and about 30-40 years old, and Marcos Antonio Pacheco-Martinez, 5'9", 160 pounds and about 25-35 years old. Victim had been smuggled into this country illegally after Bertaud-Cabrera's mother in Mexico approached the victim's mother about traveling to the United States to care for Bertaud-Cabrara's children, the affidavit said. The offer was first extended when the victim was 16, but her mother resisted until four years later. The victim then traveled to Altar, Mexico, to meet someone who would smuggle her across the border. She paid the smuggler 1,200 pesos, or about $100, the affidavit said. She first was taken to a "stash house" in the Phoenix area for several days, then moved to Atlanta and ultimately to the house on Ginger Lane. She initially did housework there, but Bertaud-Cabrera then told her that she would have to work as a prostitute to pay off her smuggling fee, the affidavit said. The Victim escaped from her alleged abductors and was walking around the Pepperhill subdivision about 7 p.m., according to a police incident report. A woman in the neighborhood saw the victim and called police, said Spencer Pryor, police public information officer. “She looked like a child and she looked confused,” said the caller, a Smoketree Court resident, who asked that her name be withheld. “I didn’t stick around to hear what was wrong with her. I just called police and left.” Using a Spanish-speaking officer as an interpreter, the victim led police to a house on Ginger Lane where she said she had been held against her will for three weeks.
Mableton, Georgia, United States
David Lee Walker Age: 29 Sentenced to 12 years in prison for Human Trafficking and other related charges - May 20, 2011 David Lee Walker, a pimp who operated in the metro Atlanta area, controlled at least five women, all between the ages of 20 and 24. They operated out of Rodeway Inn at Fulton Industrial Boulevard, south of the city. But one night, apparently, one of the girls decided she had had enough and wanted to leave. When Walker wasn't around, she fled to a nearby restaurant - The Varsity - to look for help. But Walker found out, and he ordered the other women he controlled to bring her back to their motel. Walker and the women beat the 21-year-old with a bottle until her eyes swelled shut and there was a hole in her head. Then, one of the women locked her in the dog cage and left her there overnight, with injuries untreated. Five people, including alleged pimp David Lee Walker, are charged with beating the woman until her eyes were swollen shut and she had a hole in her head from being hit with a bottle. The victim was then forced into a 3-by-5 foot dog cage and kept there overnight. Walker sent cell phone pictures of the caged woman to other pimps.
Raffa, Dubai, UAE, United Arab Emirates
Two Chinese women, a 40 year old businesswoman and her 38 year old colleague were tried and convicted of human trafficking crimes. It is believed that two others, including the son of the 40 year old, were also involved. They have been found to have forced the victims, two women and a man, to work at a massage parlour owned by the businesswoman, providing illegal massages and sexual services without getting paid under threat and confinement. One of the victims, a 32 year old Thai woman was picked up from the Dubai International Airport by the businesswoman and her son in February 2010. She was forced to provide sexual services in an apartment run as a massage parlour. She worked primarily for free as the massage centre owner threatened her that she would have to pay the expenses incurred for bringing her to the country and the accommodation. During the investigation, the businesswoman admitted that she seized the passports and visas of the victims upon their arrival. She was accused of taking advantage of the financial hardships of the victims to force them to obey her.
Green Heights, Kuching, Malaysia, Malaysia
Wong Tak Leong, a 22 year old Malaysian man, was convicted of the human trafficking of 13 Indonesian woman. He facilitated their arrival to Malaysia, picked them up from the airport, kept them in a condominium and acted as their pimp in procuring them clients to perform sexual services for them. The girls testified in court that while they came to Malaysia of their own free will they did not know the nature of the work that they would be doing, and it was claimed by the prosecution that the girls were exploited into prostitution. Wong claimed he was not their pimp, and merely the boyfriend of one of the girls who was helping them out with their daily activities.
Makindye, Kampala, Uganda, Uganda
Girls in the home she was a housecleaner were CSW's forced her to join them.
Edenfield Rd, Jacksonville, FL, United States
On September 16, 2009, the Canadian woman was apprehended by the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office as part of an undercover prostitution sting. At that time, the woman became hysterical and advised officers about what had happened to her. The investigation into Townsend's sex trafficking activities then commenced. The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office conducted an undercover prostitution sting. Upon arrival in Jacksonville, after stops in many cities down from New York City, Townsend caused the women to engage in commercial sex acts from an abandoned apartment on Edenfield Road and also from the locations of customers, including local homes and hotels. Investigators amassed a large amount of evidence including hotel records, phone records, bank records, and 28 internet ads in which Townsend advertised the victim's availability for commercial sex acts. Investigators also seized a GPS from Townsend's vehicle and were able to establish locations of various customers in Jacksonville from the data contained in the GPS. The Canadian victim testified that Townsend forcibly removed her personal property (including her passport, cell phone, and laptop computer) from her belongings at the residence of Townsend's brother in Thomasville, North Carolina as a means of preventing her from leaving. Investigators actually recovered the woman's hidden passport from inside a stereo speaker at the brother's residence. Evidence also included a social networking message to one of the victims in which Townsend acknowledged that the victim would be beaten for not making "her number," a reference to a nightly quota of $1,000.00.
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Tyrelle and Myrelle Lockett, twin brothers, 18-years-old, operated trafficking ring in South suburbs. Traffickers plead guilty to Class 1 Felony charges of Trafficking in Persons for Forced Labor or Services. They were sentenced to 4 years in prison.
Albequerque, New Mexico, United States
Tilford Black offered an 18 year old runaway food, shelter, and money. She agreed, and was then forced to engage in sexual acts for money, and hand the money over to Black. Black admitted that he "knowingly recruited, solicited, enticed, obtained or transported the victim with the intent or knowledge that force, fraud or coercion was used to subject her to engage in commercial sexual activity."
Bonn, Germany, Germany
A 30 years old woman. The „Madame“ how the pimp was called had her victim in a brothel in Bonn. She was caught in Koblenz and was leading towards apartments in Berlin, Oberhausen, Duisburg, Essen and Hamburg. With this case another „Madame“ pimp in Hamburg was caught. The trafficker was caught and charged by the department of public prosecution for contravention of the Immigration Law, illegal transportation of foreigners, money laundering, support of human trafficking and human trafficking. The trafficker was into a kind of Vodoo-magic from her hometown. She made her victim swear to a „Ju-Ju“ priest unconditional obedience to her. In case she would not obey or talk about it she should be dead. The a so called Voodoopac, contains finger nails, hair, garments, a photo of the person and the name of the person. The vivtim believes that the owner of this pack has power over them. On Thursday the 14.10.10 she was finally convicted and placed on probation. She was giving an all out plea of guilty and namend another perosn who was invovled as well. Because of her cooperation they saved a lot of time in hearing of evidence and was able to be finished during one day. Informations of the State Office of Criminal Investigation show that there was already a case of Voodoo in 2009 in the State of NRW, Germany. In December 2009 another „Madame“ pimp in Hamburg was caught as well and convicted at the court of justice. The court of justice already convicted her and placed her on a two years suspended sentence. The trafficker got a rightless VISA for her victim and her victim promised her 50.000€ for it. To earn the money for her pimp she worked in brothels.
Sydney, Australia (exact address has not been released), Australia
After being arrested for "sexual servitude," Ms Netthip also pleaded guilty to a number of immigration offences. Ms Netthip was sentenced on 30 July 2010 to two years and three months imprisonment for the sexual servitude offences, with a non-parole period of 13 months. In relation to the migration offences she received a three-and-a-half year good behaviour bond. As stated above, between about August 2005 and March 2008, Ms Netthip conducted a business through which she organised the placement of 11 Thai women in brothels in Australian cities, including Sydney, Newcastle, Wollongong, Melbourne, Canberra, Adelaide and Perth. Each women was recruited in Thailand. A Thai facilitator arranged passports and visas and made travel arrangements. Each women agreed that, once in Australia, she would repay a "debt" of $53,000. On average, a complainant took about six months to repay her debt. Ms Namthip Netthip worked to fraudulently assist the Thai women to receive refugee status in Australia. Ms Netthip provided her with false factual information about the conditions that they had experienced in Thailand. The offender coached complainants about the manner in which they should respond to questions posed by DIAC officers. Once one of the Thai women had applied for a protection visa, she was entitled to work while she awaited the outcome of the immigration assessment. This incident was reported by the Media in Australia, see, http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/07/30/.htm and by the University of Queensland - TC Beirne School of Law - Human Trafficking Working Group - Case Reports - Case Name - R v Namthip Netthip - current on August 12, 2010. For further information see the court report at the following address - http://www.lawlink.nsw.gov.au/dcjudgments/2010nswdc.nsf//086afd561dfad40fca2577700002d911?opendocument
London UK, United Kingdom
Five of the six men were convicted and spent up to 14 years jail time Two men from Peterborough, Slovakian Edward Facuna, 54, and Czech-born Roman Pacan, 39, charged for trafficking a Slovakian teenager to the UK for sexual exploitation and were both sentenced 11 years in jail Turkish-born Ali Arslan, convicted of controlling two brothels, controlling prostitution for gain, controlling a child prostitute and trafficking a teenager to the UK for sexual exploitation, was sentenced for 14 years. a 26 year old spend two and a half years in jail for brothel keeping and a child prostitution offence. He was cleared of trafficking in the UK. Kosovan Martin Doci, 29, was convicted of controlling child prostitution and trafficking a teenager within the UK and received 11 years jail time. 29 year old Valmir Gjetia of Albania was jailed for three years under the changes of controlling prostitution
Naples, Florida, United States
Naomi Vasquez (31 years of age)was pimping out 3 girls and enforcing an operation run by her boyfriend Derrick Ned. The girls were not allowed to leave and were not paid though compensation was said to have been given through drugs. The appointments with clients were made by Vasquez on an internet site untitled "My Goddess Companion." Vasquez herself is a mother of a few children who fell pregnant at 16 and ended up moving from Hotel to Hotel and becoming addicted to drugs.
Des Moines, WA, United States
Marquin Thompson, 28, Male, a resident of Everett, WA and San Diego, CA, acted as a pimp for the victim during 2007 and 2008 in the states of Washington, Arizona, and California. His conviction was for the trafficking he perpetrated in Des Moines and Kent, WA, along the Pacific Highway South. Victim was estranged from her family. Thompson forced the victim into prostitution, controlled her with threats and violence, and continued to coerce her in further months using threats of harm and abandonment. The victim was expected to make hundreds of dollars each day, and turn over all earnings to Thompson. Thompson has a prior conviction for supervision of a prostitute in February of 2006; was arrested for violation of probation while in the company of a suspected prostitute in August of 2009; was a suspect, along with two other individuals, in a prostitution recruitment case in May of 2009.
Bay of Plenty, Tauranga District, New Zealand, New Zealand
A 19 year old male New Zealand national, prostituted his 15 year old girlfriend in order to earn money for his drug addiction. It was their only source of income, and he took from her all the money she earned. It is reported that she was "scared of him". The girl worked 3-4 nights a week, servicing 1-3 Johns a night. The man would escort her to her clients, and afterwards would give the money she earned over to him. The relationship ended in June 2007, but over the following month the man sent the girl numerous offensive text messages before being arrested.
Lakewood, WA, United States
Juan Alexander Vianez, aka Nauj, age 26, from Lakewood, WA, and Las Vegas, Nevada. According to records in the case and testimony at trial, VIANEZ met the victim in this case when she was just a week past her 17th birthday. VIANEZ convinced the girl to become sexually involved with him. He then pressured her into prostitution to earn money for him. With threats and beatings he kept her isolated in the world of prostitution forcing her to work in Portland, Las Vegas and Arizona, and returning all money earned to him. As prosecutors wrote in their sentencing memo, “On a nearly weekly basis over the course of four years, the defendant threatened (the victim) with harm, and assaulted her, including punching her in the face, the stomach and ribs. The beatings did not excuse (the victim) from prostituting; she just had to put on more make-up to cover up the bruises.” http://www.justice.gov/usao/waw/press/2010/sep/vianez.html
Killeen, Texas, United States
Dwayne Charles Love, 24, from Suisan, California. The woman told police that Love had created listings on sexually-oriented websites, and had provided her with a work cell phone that was linked to the listings online, according to the arrest affidavit. She said that she had been at the hotel for three days and during that time, she had sex with four men, Witherspoon had sex with five or six men, and the other woman with three men. She said that she and the other woman would collect the money and give it to Witherspoon, who would give it to Love. She told police she couldn't keep any of the money, but was given a place to stay and food to eat. http://www.kwtx.com/waco/headlines/101919423.html http://www.kdhnews.com/news/story.aspx?s=41099
Edgecliff, NSW 2007, Australia, Australia
Father had legal custody and reported the case to the Police and took his daughter into the station for an interview. The girl says she was subjected to physical and mental abuse and forced to take illicit drugs. The Mother initially denied any knowledge of the claims, then changed her mind and pleaded guilty. The victim, whose identity has been kept confidential, said that she is heartbroken by the actions of her mother. She has also described how her mother’s betrayal left her incapable of trusting anyone and caused her to self-harm. The girl, then 16, was put on a train from Wollongong and sent to work at a brothel in Edgecliff, close to Sydney. The brothel was described by Judge Paul Conlon as ‘a high class agency, however frequented by low class individuals’.
Northport, Alabama, United States
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and state and local law enforcement agencies investigated and intervened. Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel Fortune prosecuted it. U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon sentenced Castiblanco-Hernandez to 10 months in prison and five years of supervised release after completing his prison term. CASTILBLANCO also must register as a sex offender. “Making money off the exploitation and misery of another human being, whether for commercial sex acts or forced labor, is human trafficking and nothing more than modern day slavery,” Vance said. “Prosecuting this type case is how we begin to address the criminal enterprise of human trafficking…” said U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.
bronx, new york, United States
DAVIS, 36, is charged with one count of sex trafficking involving a minor through the use of force, fraud, or coercion. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years in prison, and a maximum fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense. This case is being prosecuted by the Complex Frauds Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Amanda Kramer is in charge of the prosecution. The charges in the criminal Complaint are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. Follow-up January 20, 2011: Lawrence Taylor to Register as Sex Offender http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/13/sportsline/main7243830.shtml Hall of Fame Linebacker Lawrence Taylor Pleads Guilty to Two Misdemeanors for Sex With 16-Year-Old Prostitute (AP) NEW CITY, N.Y. - Former NFL star Lawrence Taylor pleaded guilty Thursday to sexual misconduct and patronizing a prostitute, misdemeanor charges that carry no jail time but require him to register as a sex offender. The 51-year-old ex-linebacker, who led the New York Giants to Super Bowl titles in 1987 and 1991, will serve six years probation. “She told me she was 19,” Taylor said in court as he admitted having sex with a prostitute who turned out to be a 16-year-old Bronx runaway. Harry Carson, his former teammate and fellow Hall of Famer, was in the courtroom and gave Taylor a supportive greeting when he arrived. Taylor was arrested in May at a suburban hotel. He previously had pleaded not guilty to third-degree rape, patronizing a prostitute, sexual abuse and endangering a child. He had been resisting a plea deal for months. Prosecutors said in December he had been offered a six-month jail term and 10 years' probation in exchange for pleading guilty to a felony. Taylor would have had to register as a sex offender. Defense attorney Arthur Aidala had called that offer unacceptable but said he would listen to any other offers. Two other members of the Giants' 1991 Super Bowl team are behind bars. Mark Ingram Sr., a star receiver, is spending nearly 10 years in federal prison for money laundering, bank fraud and bail jumping. And the electrifying kick returner Dave Meggett was sentenced last year to 30 years for criminal sexual conduct and burglary. Taylor's trial would likely have started within a few weeks. He was arrested May 6 after the underage girl's uncle contacted New York City police. Officers from Ramapo woke him at a Holiday Inn in Montebello. Police said he was cooperative and no drugs were found in the room, although a bottle of alcohol was. Taylor has a history of drug offenses but has been to rehab and his lawyer says he has been sober for years. In a related case, federal prosecutors in Manhattan filed a complaint last year against a man who is accused of acting as the girl's pimp. Court papers in that case say Taylor admitted to sex acts with the girl but said he was told the girl was 19. Ramapo police Chief Peter Brower said after Taylor's arrest that ignorance of a minor's age is not a defense to third-degree rape. Aidala had claimed that Taylor's arrest was illegal because police did not have a warrant when they burst into his suburban hotel room in May. Prosecutors said no warrant was required and state Supreme Court Justice William Kelly rejected the claim. But he granted a pretrial hearing on whether statements Taylor made upon his arrest were admissible. Aidala said in December he was relishing the chance to cross-examine the arresting police officers. Taylor was inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1999. A fierce, athletic linebacker, he redefined his position and was selected to the NFL's 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. In 2009, he competed in ABC's “Dancing With the Stars.” He had also been a spokesman for the NutriSystem weight-loss company, but he was dropped after his arrest.
Fingerboard Road, Staten Island, United States
Most of the defendants were arraigned yesterday in State Supreme Court on Staten Island before Justice Leonard P. Rienzi, who set bail for Mr. Farella at $400,000. He set bail for Mr. Pioppo at $80,000 and for Mr. Galbo at $40,000. Mr. Farella's lawyer, Vincent J. Romano, said he and his client knew about the investigation since the first search warrant in the investigation of the prostitution ring was executed in October 2002. But Mr. Romano insisted that his client's businesses were lawful and that he was unaware that anyone who worked for him was exchanging sex for money. ''It was a business,'' Mr. Romano said. ''It was a legitimate business.'' He said his client ''didn't authorize, force or coerce'' anyone to take part in any illegal activity. ''If it happened, my client didn't know it happened,'' the lawyer added. The women were dispatched from storefront offices in Staten Island and from a Brooklyn apartment and would be dropped off by the limousine drivers, mostly in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, the law enforcement official said. Two women would ride with each driver, and they would work 12-hour shifts, the official said. They carried a device inside the car to make an imprint of customers' credit cards, the official said. At the end of the night, most of the drivers and the women would come together to settle up at a Dunkin' Donuts shop or a diner in Brooklyn, with as many as six of the cars parked outside as the credit-card receipts and cash were counted and the women were given their share of roughly one-third of the proceeds, the official said.
Falconridge, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Canada
Eric Jean-Pierre Riendeau was charged on Aug. 9 with living off the avails of prostitution, assault and trafficking in persons.
Aurora Ave North Seattle, Washington, United States
"A man charged with kidnapping and promoting prostitution on Aurora Avenue North served two decades in prison for selling crack cocaine within 1,000 feet of Garfield High School. Additional police documents in the case against Derrick "Vamp" Hargress were released Tuesday. Hargress has pleaded not guilty to first-degree promoting prostitution and second-degree kidnapping. His next court date is Aug. 19. Hargress told a 21-year-old girl he allegedly forced himself upon that he was a Hoover Crip. When Hargress, now 48, pleaded guilty to selling crack and using a firearm while dealing, a federal judge said he would consider lowering his sentence if he wrote a letter warning Los Angeles Crips gang members of the risk of committing crimes in Seattle. "Crip members, wake up and learn from my experience (not the hard way!) that coming to Seattle to sell cocaine isn't wise at all," Hargress wrote in a two-page letter, according to a 1988 P-I story. But prosecutors questioned his sincerity and after Hargress' letter said he is "probably the most dangerous and the most dedicated to crime of the 26 'gang-related defendants' indicted thus far." From 1986 and 1988, Seattle saw an influx of gang members from Los Angeles who were paid more for crack cocaine here than in Los Angeles. Many were members of the Nine Deuce Hoover Crips, a name that comes from the intersection of 92nd and Hoover streets in L.A. A Seattle crack house busted in 1988 showed the graffiti tags of Hargress and other gang members who pleaded guilty to federal charges. Hoover Crips are still a problem in Seattle, but not to the extent seen in the late 1980s, according to police. Hargress was released from federal prison in 2008. Court documents show that year he was convicted of drug offenses, assault and had domestic violence assault convictions in 2009." -seattlepi.com www.seattlepi.com/local/424864_cop11.html?source=rss
Mc Allen, Texas, United States
Beleal Garcia Gonzalez lured three Honduran girls, ages 14, 15 and 17, promises jobs as waitresses. For $700 and when they arrived gave them $150 and kept most of that for the smulling fee. They worked in his bar in McAllen, Texas
Belville, Cape Town South Africa, South Africa
The police were tipped off from a local who talked to one of the girls at the local McDonald's. They then went in to rescue the girls.
Newlands, Cape Town, South Africa
On May 15, 2010 the City of Cape Town's Vice Squad raided the house. All of the girls except for one were out of the house because of work. The girls were on study visas. No one was rescued and shortly after the raid the girls were moved to a different suburban naighborhood.
Orange Blossom Trail, Orlando, Florida, United States
"A 24-year-old Orlando woman is behind bars after she was caught forcing an Ohio woman into prostitution. It all started 8 months ago when 24-year-old Melissa Ann Scivoletti started talking to a woman over myspace. The woman said Scivoletti told her she could get her a job at an Orlando Walmart. Scivoletti sent the victim a bus ticket from Ohio to Pittsburgh where Scivoletti and a man named "Stay Ready" met her. Shortly after, the victim says "Stay Ready" beat her and forced her to have sex with men for money. She says when she refused "Stay Ready" and Scivoletti threatened her with violence and violence on her family. Eventually, they came to Orlando staying at the Econo Lodge on Orange Blossom Trail, working the streets. A deputy found the victim there along with Scivoletti, watching from a nearby car." http://wdbo.com/localnews/2010/08/woman-forced-into-prostitution.html
Atlantic city, United States
Kasiem Brown, 36 years old pleaded guilty to sex trafficking of a minor girl by force, fraud and coercion, and conspiracy to deal in firearms without a license.In the US Camden Court.
Sophiatown informal settlement in Thembisa, Ekurhuleni,, South Africa
The parents of this 13 year old girl sold her to a 24 year old. She was originally from Maputo, Mozambique. Apparently, he paid ilobolo for her. He would lock her up all day while he went to work. Here is what the article has to say: The girl told how her "husband" was very strict. "He locks me in the house all day. I am not allowed to go outside and speak to other people. If he sees me with someone else he beats me." "He promises to let me call my parents back home but never keeps his word," she said. He also prevented her from seeking help by bribing her with food, clothes and money. She said she wanted to go back home and return to school. She was in Grade 4 when she left.
Everett, WA, United States
At about 10 a.m. Tuesday, detectives posed as clients of the girl's, whom they met at a Seattle location that police did not reveal. The detectives also found two adult women with the girl. One of the women, 25, was arrested for allegedly promoting the commercial sexual abuse of a minor. The other woman, whose age was not given, was released.
Serbia, Serbia
Convicted in 2005 in Serbia for 4 years in prison for the trafficking and forced prostitution of 11 Moldavian women. Convicted in 2008 in Bologna Italy for 17 years in prison for human trafficking and associating with the mafia, as well as a fine of 150,000€. Primary Sources: •http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/world_1KathiLev&xml/&aspKath/world.asp&fdate=13/03/2010 •http://humantrafficking.change.org/blog/view/notorious_balkan_trafficker_gets_four_years Secondary Source: •http://dalje.com/en-world/serbia-jails-balkan-human-trafficking-kingpin/297648
Zhonjiang, Deyang, Sichuan and Hohhot, Mongolia, China
The trafficker was a boyfriend of the girl in this small village in South Western China. For a living, the man removes warts of local farmers. He offered to take her to his see his parents, but ended up selling her to a man in Hohhot, Mongolia. The girl was often beaten and raped during the 32 months she was trafficked.
Bellville, Cape Town, South Africa, South Africa
The boyfriend of the girl took her to Cape Town under the guise of a loving relationship. Soon after arriving he made her prostitute herself for money. Using drugs and intimidation he keeps her under his control.
Port Elizabeth, South Africa, South Africa
Her parents had reported her missing, so the police recognized her when they picked her up on the street (initially thinking she was a prostitute). They attempted to identify the foreign nationals as well as the friend that helped them traffick the girl, but they did not have any luck finding them.
Queens, NY, United States
Cui has in recent months posted job advertisements in Korean-language newspapers seeking nail salon attendants. But once the women responded, Cui threatened them, Spota said, at times saying that she would have them or their families killed by Chinese gangsters. Cui also threatened to abandon them penniless on Long Island or tell their families they were prostitutes if they refused to cooperate, Suffolk DA Spota said. As many as eight women, all in their 30s and 40s, serviced dozens of clients a day at a Huntington Station nail salon and an unnamed "spa" near the Hicksville train station. The women performed a variety of sexual services for as little as $60, officials said. Cui got the money, officials said, and the women kept tips. One Craigslist ad earlier this month promised erotic services. Raids at the businesses and Cui’s home, an 8,000-square-foot, Tudor-style house in Flushing, found $20,000 in cash, lingerie, shower massage tables, cases of condoms, baby oil and rubbing alcohol. "There was not a single bottle of nail polish found," said Suffolk police Detective John Rodriguez, who assisted in the investigation. Rodriguez said many of the women — only some of whom have agreed to cooperate in the case — did not speak English and were new to the country. "If you’re from a small village, you don’t know the language, it can be easy to intimidate someone like that," he said. All information found from the following sources: http://www.nbcnewyork.com/news/local-beat/Queens-Woman-Charged-With-Sex-Trafficking-97407769.html http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/06/29/2010-06-29_queens_madam_forced_young_korean_women_into_lives_of_sex_slavery_in_li_massage_p.html http://www.bostonherald.com/news/national/northeast/view.bg?articleid=1264866 http://www.newser.com/story/94221/ny-madam-forced-korean-women-into-sex-slavery.html http://scallywagandvagabond.com/2010/07/have-you-become-a-hooker-today/
Everett, Washington, United States
Marquin Thompson pleaded guilty in January to forcing a then 19-year-old woman into prostitution after the woman had become estranged from her family, according to a U.S. Attorney's Office media release. She has since been reunited with her family. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour imposed the sentence. Thompson also took the woman to Arizona and California where he forced her to work as a prostitute. According to records filed in the case, between September 2007 and January 2008, Thompson forced the woman to work for him as a prostitute along Pacific Highway South. He controlled the woman with threats of violence. She was expected to make hundreds of dollars each day and required to turn over all of her earnings to Thompson.
Umbillo Rd, Durban, South Africa
http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/article369559.ece A South African couple, Sayed and Chuchumporn, have been arrested after three Thai women fled their brothel on Umbilo Road in Durban. The women were recruited by Chuchumporn in Thailand and although they knew that they were being recruited to be prostitutes, the harsh treatment that they received at the brothel forced them to flee and seek the help of their embassy. The details of their story are unknown. Further investigation revealed that the couple was responsible for managing operations and activities at the said premises. The brothel was therefore identified as the central point for the unauthorized, illegal activities. There was an organized human trafficking structure where women were being sexually exploited.
Ermelo, South Africa, South Africa
Nine Nigerian men were arrested for allegedly trafficking twelve women, between the ages of 18 and 30, from around the country to Ermelo and forcing them into prostitution. Home affairs officials confirmed that the suspects applied for asylum in South Africa, and according to the information in their application forms, they do not qualify for asylum. The women were given R30 a day for food, and from time to time they were forced to take drugs to ensure they remained addicts. The twelve women, between the ages of 18 and 30, told the police the men took all their earnings and the y were not paid for the jobs that they were doing.
Kempton Park, Johannesburg, South Africa
On Saturday, May 29th, Police were tipped off about a number of women between 23 and 27 years old, who were being sexually exploited in Kempton Park. The Hawks specialized crime-fighting unit raided the brothel. The women are suspected to have been trafficked, but further investigation is occurring.
Greystone Cabot,AR, United States
A man who worked for Janus, a company that works on military basaes, was arrested for running a prositituion ring out of his home in the Greystone country club community.According to a sheriff’s press release, complaints of high traffic volume at 105 Ridgecrest Square led to a search warrant for the residence and the subsequent arrest of three people May 12. jerry would go to Vietnam marry women and bring them back to U.S. and divorce tham and pimp them out of his home.
Laurel, MD, United States
A 42-year-old Glen Burnie man is jailed in Anne Arundel County on charges he trafficked and prostituted a minor after a federal and state task force on human trafficking on Monday removed a 12-year-old girl from the suspect's motel room on Route 198 in Laurel. Derwin Samuel Smith, 42, of McGuirk Drive, was accused of transporting the girl between the District and Atlantic City, where she worked for him as a prostitute, according to accounts she gave police. The girl was reported missing from the District on May 25 and was believed to have been involved in prostitution, Anne Arundel police said. She later told police she met the suspect in the District after he picked her up and paid her for sex.
Mount Waverley, Ashburton and North Fitzroy in Melbourne VICTORIA, Australia
Supreme Court of Victoria sentenced these 4 people with in varying degrees with some of the following: 1. possessing a slave 2. exercising over a slave any of the powers attaching to the right of ownership 3. entering a commercial transaction involving a slave
Bellevue and Seattle areas, United States
From an article in the Seattle Times on Tuesday, April 27, 2010 titled, "Arrest made in prostitution, child-pornography case." The trafficker, Alexander Dalgardno,a 20-year old man from Mukilteo and "convicted child rapist" has been arrested for "allegedly forcing a young woman into prostitution and possessing nude photos of her and a teenage girl." With the assistance of a 16-year-old girl and 17-year-old boy, the woman was lured through a "social networking site" and was offered a job in "hospitality work." According to the article, after meeting them, they "drove her to Bellevue Square, where they bought her $500 worth of clothes and lingerie. Later, in a hotel room they told her she'd be in the 'escort business'...The young woman wanted to leave but...'They threatened to harm her family and threatened to break her fingers if she did not comply,' a Bellevue detective said." This article also explains that Delgardno raped the woman, and "advertised her as an adult escort on a website and hosted those who replied at the Bellevue hotels...[and]three men had sex with the 18-year-old during three nights in early March, according to the police."
Arabi, Louisiana, United States
In April 2008, a NOLA vice unit was driving around in an unmarked car when Ricky Womack and an "unidentified white female" were seen flagging down cars. They stopped and he offered the girl as a prostitute to the plain-clothed cops for $100. Womack only allowed sexual liaisons to occur in his motel room so that he could protect the girl. The police officers found a "contract" handwritten by the girl in the motel room: 'I do solemnly swear to give Ricky Womack the next five years of my life. I promise never to cheat, lie, or betray him.' The detectives learned the girl was a teenage runaway from Arkansas whom Womack had lured to New Orleans.
Baghdad, Iraq, Iraq
Multiple incidents reported by Mohammed Jamjoom for CNN. Of the two specific cases mentioned: the first victim was sold by her father, then escaped but was imprisoned for using forged papers to re-enter Iraq. the second victim became aware she would sold by her father, attempted to take legal action and while waiting for the court system was raped by her father. This second victim subsequently murdered her father and is now in jail. Report is available at: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/meast/05/04/iraq.women.prisons/index.html?npt=NP1&on.cnn=1
Hobo Pantry # 2 616 North Oates St. Dothan, AL 36303, United States
4-29-2010 Red Van with black tinted windows. License Plate BKV-3507 Fulton, Georgia Two Tall mid-aged white males paid for gas at the Hobo Pantry (Chevron)on 616 N.Oates Street Dothan, AL 36303. They told me they had Chinese people in the van. It was a very suspicious vibe so I walk outside to sweep the parking lot. Another customer (a middle-aged black man) told the two white men to talk to me. They replied, "Oh no, and they left abruptly." What happened was, after they paid for they're gas and cigarettes, they had 3 young asian girls hop out the van, then one of the older white men, told two of them to get back in, while the other older white man paid the customer (the black man) 20$ to let the asian girl see how southern black men talk. He also asked the customer (the black man) if he knew any one willing to spend alot of money. I called the police and gave them the information I had written down. I'm pretty sure this same crew has been spotted at Bullets Speakeasy 176 S.Foster Street Dothan, AL 36303 after talking with the bartender last night.
Kingdom of Tonga, Tonga
44 year old female Lirong Liu was charged with the trafficking of two female victims from China to the Kingdom of Tonga under the guise of waitressing jobs. The two victims paid Liu 40,000 Yen for Visas. Upon arrival into Tonga Liu threatened the two women with death and took their passports. The victims were enslaved for two months.
Clifton Hotel, Kew, Melbourne, Australia
The case was initially brought to the attention of the authorities by an informant in 1997 and it resulted in the arrest of Mr Glazner 14 months later in 1999. Glazner had bought Thai women from agents in Thailand for between $15,000 and $18,000, and they had knowingly come to Australia to work as prostitutes (McKinney 2001). Evidence was presented at an initial committal hearing showing that the women feared Glazner and that he withheld their passports, restricted their movements, and kept them in debt bondage (Police vs. Gary Galzner and Paul Donato Marino 1999). Detective Senior Sergeant Ivan McKinney outlined the evidence presented (at the committal hearing and trial) at a public forum in 2001. He said Glazner chose to enforce the “contract” under the first condition of 500 “free jobs”, each job being a half hour of sex. (McKinney 2001). At least 40 women were proven to be connected to Glazner through DIMIA records. Investigators suspected four to five times this many women were involved. The women were generally prostituted for 12-hour shifts, seven days a week. McKinney detailed the conditions of sexual servitude under which the women were kept upon arrival in Australia. Their living conditions at the Kew hotel where they were housed were extremely cramped and they were locked in. Glazner had installed a large locked iron gate and bars on the stairwells, and sealed the windows. Glazner or an associate drove them to and picked them up from the brothel where they were prostituted (McKinney 2001). Journalist Mark Forbes, reporting on the trial for the Age newspaper, wrote that Glazner had verbally abused and intimidated the women, and kept a loaded gun in clear view of the women at the hotel (Forbes 1999). The women feared for their lives and of reprisals against themselves or their families back in Thailand. As “Michelle’s” translator stated for her at the trial: “She said if she is here, maybe she will die. If she goes back to Thailand, she will die” (Police vs. Gary Galzner and Paul Donato Marino 1999.
Cambodia, Cambodia
Koy Kuong, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, said the ban would remain in place while the government worked to ensure that South Korean men hoping to marry Cambodian women were able to first prove that they were single and did not have a prison record. “We want to make sure that their marriages are real marriages, not fake, and not involved with human trafficking,” Mr. Koy Kuong said. It was the second time the government had imposed such a ban.
Malmö, Sweden
the seventeen year old was convicted for pandering, illegal restraint, duress, robbery and abuse of legal proceedings to juvenile detention for ten months. The nineteen year old was convicted for pandering to probation with 180 hours of community service.
South Africa, South Africa
The Mozambican police say they have arrested seven people suspected of trafficking women to neighboring South Africa to work as prostitutes. Ms. Mahumane said the women were on sale for about $670 each. The police say the trafficking syndicate has 15 Mozambicans and several Chinese citizens. Two suspects said they were also trafficking Chinese women to South Africa.
Durban South Africa, South Africa
Sayed and Chuchumporn are due to be sentenced on May 10 and face a maximum sentence of life imprisonment or R100m fine, he said. The duo were arrested in 2007 after three Thai woman fled their brothel on Umbilo road and sought sanctuary at their embassy. The woman were recruited by Chuchumporn in Thailand. Recruited as prostitutes "It was clear from the moment they left Thailand it was for prostitution. There were no false pretences," said Mhaga. Though the women knew they were recruited to be prostitutes, the harsh treatment they received at the brothel forced them to flee. "It was also revealed that they were responsible for managing operations and activities at the said premises. The premises were therefore identified as the central operational point for the unauthorised and unlawful activities," said Mhaga. "There was therefore an existence of an organised human trafficking structure where females were being sexually exploited for a profit." Sayed and Chuchumporn are presently out on bail of R30 000 and R5 000, respectively. They were convicted on 19 counts. In addition to racketeering, they were convicted for contravention of the Sexual Offences Act and Immigration Act and money laundering. Police confiscated R19 700 and have shut down the Umbilo road brothel.
Maputo, Mozambique, Mozambique
"Over the past three weeks City Press visited Maputo twice to infiltrate the syndicate. On our first visit the syndicate paraded six Chinese women (four had already been sold) and three Mozambican women for sale for between R5000 and R10000. When we returned last week only one Mozambican woman was still for sale. The others had already been brought to South Africa. The syndicate members said they could find more Mozambicans in a few days and that two Chinese women were arriving in the country that Saturday. We provided this information, with more details, to the police during a meeting with a top Home Affairs official. Three Chinese men and a Chinese woman were arrested at the airport on Saturday morning as they entered the country. A second woman was collected by a local man and they managed to evade the police. The four arrested are all allegedly linked to the trafficking syndicate. This week another Mozambican, a bank official, was also arrested for alleged links to the syndicate. All eight suspects are in custody and are being questioned."
Rockford, Minnesota, United States
After paid sexual encounters in eight states, the woman sought help by calling a national anti-sex trafficking hot line. This led to the arrest of her husband who regularly posted ads promoting her for sex, arranged for her encounters with those who responded to the ads, and demanded that all money she received by immediately deposited into his bank acocunt. Illegally married at a young age, the man threatened that he would take her child away from her forever if she failed to comply.
Mpumalnaga South Africa, South Africa
Nine Nigerian men were arrested for alleged human trafficking. The nine Nigerians had applied for asylum in South Africa although they did not qualify. The men took 12 woman with them all over the country and forced to them to prostitute themselves. The women were given drugs to keep them submissive and they were given R30 a day for food.
Atlanta, GA, United States
The sex trafficking charges carry a maximum sentence of life in prison, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. The transportation charges carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison. Each count also carries a fine of up to $250,000.
Vaughan, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Canada
Police charged a Toronto man with human trafficking after a woman was forced to perform sex acts for drug money. Acting on a tip, York Regional Police launched their investigation in December after arresting a man in Vaughan for an unrelated matter. The 28-year-old woman was forced to “do sexual acts in order to obtain some money,” said Det.-Sgt. Henry Deruiter. Investigators also alleged the woman was forced to help a man commit crimes. Investigators were told there are at least a couple of other victims connected to the case. Officers want to find them. “We don’t know where they are, GTA I’d say,” he said. Mark Stewart, 49, faces many charges, including trafficking in persons, assault, and three counts of sexual assault.
Victory Gardens, New Jersey, United States
Trafficker(s)receieve women from NYC and drives them to NJ strip club.
Denver, Colorado, United States
Law enforcement has been informed and has arrested the mother. Children have been taken out of the situation.
Opelousas Lousiana, United States
OPELOUSAS, La. (AP) - Chief Deputy Hilman Popillion said that Ronada Fritz allegedly offered her 13-year-old daughter to 51-year-old Percy "Buddy" Stoute as a prostitute for $40. Note: Anyone under 18 used for commercial sex is legally considered a severe victim of human trafficking.
Valparaiso, Indiana, United States
Police sent undercover officers into the spa as clients. According to the report, the officers were offered sexual acts if they paid. Police also found advertisements for the business online, although it wasn't clear that the advertisements were for sexual acts. Arrested were Min Ye, 37, and Wendy Yao, no age given. No charges have been filed.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
DOJ Press Release - Feb 3, 2010 ================= Citizen of Mexico Sentenced for Role in Federal Sex Trafficking Conspiracy . http://atlanta.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/at020310.htm . ATLANTA, GA MIGUEL RUGERIO, 28, a Mexican national, lured young women from Mexico with the promise of money and legitimate jobs and then forced them into prostitution and repulsive living conditions. . According to Acting United States Attorney Yates, the indictment, and information presented in court: RUGERIO admitted in his plea that from July 2006 to August 2008, he conspired with others to use force, fraud and coercion to cause approximately five female victims to come to the Atlanta area from Mexico and to engage in prostitution for the financial benefit of the members of the alleged conspiracy. . RUGERIO further admitted to transporting a victim to states outside of Georgia, including Alabama and Florida to engage her in prostitution. RUGERIO used false promises of better lives and marriage to lure young, impoverished Mexican women to come to the United States, knowing that he would cause the victims to engage in prostitution upon their arrival. RUGERIO required his victims to engage in commercial sex with many men per night, seven days a week.
Wilson, North Carolina, United States
Police acted on tips of about a prostitution ring, "deputies raided a house on U.S. Highway 301 and found one woman. Information from that raid led them to arrest Chavez at his residence at 2101 Fair Place in Wilson. Two women were found at Chavez's residence, but investigators believe that three or four women lived there, Gay said." http://www.wral.com/news/news_briefs/story/6977322/
University Court area of Tony Sudekum Public Housing, United States
A woman picked up as part of a Metro police internet prostitution sting claims a south Nashville man coerced her into prostituting herself. The 22 year old victim told police that she met Donnell Minor, 34,in the University Court area of the Tony Sudekum public housing development. She said that the suspect paid the victim's sister $150 to watch her two children and promised to take her to Miami. Instead of Miami, the suspect allegedly took her to a Harding Place motel, told her that she now worked for him, and that he intended to advertise her services on the Internet, according to police. Police said the victim told them she went along due to threats and the fact that Minor knew where she lived.
Arequipa city -Peru, Peru
No pasó nada, yo fui testigo de que en un lugar cuando pasé con mi carro por ahi vi una joven que salio corriendo de un bar ella tenia cadenas en los pies salio piendo auxilo pero de inmediato salieron unos hombres un meter a la joven al bar, no pude hacer Nada , quiero participar ne esta lucha contra el trafico humano y explotacion sexual vivo en la ciudad de arequipa y quiero ser parte de esto
Salt Lake City, Utah, United States
Randy Chanhmany faces up to five years in federal prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The charges against Chanhmany and his co-defendant, Damari Dehan Dontre Anderson, 27, stem from a plan the two men implemented from July through October 2008. The men took photos of two women, published them on the Web site Craigslist and then "drove the girls to various hotels in Utah, so they could engage in commercial sex acts," the plea agreement states. Both men admitted that they also received at least a portion of the proceeds the women made while performing said sex acts.
Chicago, Illinois, United States
Jinfu F. Jin, 44, of Algonquin, is accused of offering to perform a sex act for the officer who was in the business as part of an investigation into ongoing complaints about it from its neighbors and others. Police also are questioning a second woman working at the parlor, but she was not been charged at this time. A patron inside the business when police made the arrest was not charged because there was not enough evidence to prove he was doing something illegal, said Master Sgt. Tim Sebastian of the North Central Narcotics Task Force.
Staffanstorp, Sweden
A 61-year-old Swedish man procured customers for a 17-year-old Slovakian girl for the purpose of sexual exploitation. He has previously been sentenced for procuring in 2005, he had a brothel in his house 2005. A 38-year-old man from Slovakia, living in Malmö. He has been organising the prostitution of the girl. He has been suspected of procuring several times before, but there have been no convictions. A 26-year-old man that met the 17-year-old girl in Slovakia when she had been thrown out by her family. The man promised to take her to Germany where she would earn money picking strawberries, but he sold her into prostitution and then later on to Denmark and the end destination was Staffanstorp in Sweden. He lied about the money that she was promised. He drove her to customers.
Lane County, Oregan, United States
Prosecutors believe the three “were involved in a conspiracy to recruit, entice, and provide minor girls online to engage in sex acts for money.” An indictment alleges they rented hotel rooms so the girls could have sex for money, which was given to the defendants. The defendants are also accused of taking photographs of underage girls and posting them on online advertising services.
Cape Town, South Africa
Mark Kozhanow, of the House of Rasputin and the Cape Dance Academy, brought Tatiana Malachi into South Africa to work as an exotic dancer in March 2009. Upon her arrival in the Country, Mark Kozhanow informed Malachi that her passport would be held for 30 days so that they could register her with the police. He then kept her passport for the duration of her employment and said he would not return her passport unless she paid him $2000 for her air ticket and R20,000 as levy. Malachi was unable to pay this as she was not earning sufficient income but was instead was obliged to pay R2,700 per week to the club (House of Rasputin). Over the course of her three month 'employment' Malachi had accumulated R120,940 in debt (this also included a R37,000 charge for the agent who located her). Kozhanow has been quoted saying that he knows the recipe for keeping girls who want to leave because they can not pay their travel debts "Immigration Attorney," Says Kozhanow, "He keeps their passports." After one month of working at the club, Malachi approached her employers and voiced a concern over her mounting debt, she said she felt trapped and wanted to go home, but her the club was not interested and wouldn't return her passport. Malachi did not want to do more the strip dance to earn extra tips.
Arkansas, United States
The perpetrator plead guilty to one count of sex trafficking. His co-defendant, name unknown plead guilty to involvement with sex trafficking on October 23, 2009.
Salt lake City, UT, United States
The men took photos of two women, published them on the Web site Craigslist and then "drove the girls to various hotels in Utah, so they could engage in commercial sex acts," the plea agreement states. Both men admitted that they also received at least a portion of the proceeds the women made while performing said sex acts.
Gimpo, Korea, Republic of
The traffickers confined the 2 runaway girls to a motel room, and among other victims, forced them to prostitute themselves, police said. The group of teenagers confined two 15-year-old runaway girls at a motel in northern Seoul, forced them to strip and hit each other on Feb. 21. They forced another victim they had confined, a 13-year-old girl, to film the scene of violence with a cell phone, telling the girls that they would spread the video clip on the Internet if they ran away. The boys, armed with a knife, kidnapped the two girls by car Monday and threatened to kill them if they refused to prostitute themselves. They also attempted to rape the girls. The girls managed to escape, but the teenage gang uploaded the footage on their blogs. With the video clip enraging Internet users, they removed it, but police tracked them down. They are also suspected of having pimped three girls over 60 times and made five million won between last October and November.
Bloomington, Minnesota, United States
Chappell (trafficker) was sentenced to 336 months in prison on one count of sex trafficking a minor. "June of 2007, the Bloomington Police Department conducted surveillance at a hotel, where they found four adult women in a room rented by Chappell. Police later learned that Chappell was prostituting both adult and juvenile females, promoting his business through computer ads on the Internet sites CraigsList and Backpage.com." -News Release
St. Paul, Minnesota, United States
Reed was sentenced to 180 months in prison on one count of the sex trafficking of a minor. St. Paul Police Department, Minneapolis Police Department, the U.S. Attorney's office, and the FBI were all involved in the investigation and prosecution of Reed.
Wroclaw, Poland, Poland
A Warsaw taxi driver, Krzysztof M. forced girls to prostitute themselves in a Warsaw night club. Two men, Miroslaw W. i Rafal S., acted as “guards.” A Ukrainian woman, the girlfriend of one of the traffickers, acted as a “guard” while the women were at the nightclub. After a few months they were sold for 3,000 PLN to Tomasz M. of Wroclaw where they were beaten, drugged, and forced to prostitute themselves. They we sold again for 2,000 euro to Maciej C of Wroclaw who had a plan to sell them to brothel in Vienna.
Aldine, Texas, United States
HTRA conducted an investigation into reports that human trafficking involving prostitution and drug dealing were occurring at La Potra Bar on the 6100 block of Airline in Houston, TX. As a result, all four Honduran nationals were arrested in Oct 2009 and charged by criminal compliant with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine. The fourth man from Mexico was charged with Alien Smuggling. All men plead guilty to the offense charged to them, accept the 46 year old male, who committed suicide while in federal custody pending charge for Human Trafficking. In the FBI press release, U.S. Attorney Moreno had this to say about this case: "Often, victims of human trafficking who are forced into prostitution or forced labor are also forced to endure living and working among alien smugglers and drug dealers. This case, in which five defendants were arrest for various criminal offenses, illustrates the dark world within which the human trafficking victims are forced to exist until rescued or until they can escape, but it also demonstrates our continued commitment to rescue the victims and to prosecute not only the human trafficker but other offenders as well."
Cagayan Oro Phillipines, Philippines
The Philippine government handed down life sentences to the Swedes on May 6th, 2011. The court also fined the Swedes, Emil Andreas Solemo and Bo Stefan Sederholm, $46,500 (American) each. Three Filipinos were given 20-year jail sentences for helping the Swedes, who had set up the internet and payment systems, to run the business. The Philippine government justified the charge of Human Trafficking because the women were transported from different parts of the Philippines to the site of the exploitation. As of June 1, 2011, Andreas and Sederholm are appealing the ruling.
Florence, Alabama, United States
The trafficker was arrested, charged, tried and convicted on 09/22/2010 of sex trafficking a 15-year old girl. He was also convicted of coercing a minor to engage in prostitution, harboring an illegal alien and failing to file a report with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Florence police, the FBI and ICE investigated the case.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Charged with multiple accounts of sex trafficking and transporting children across state lines for the purpose of engaging in prostitution. 19-year-old son Nicholas Harrison agreed to plead guilty to one charge of sex trafficking of a child and testify against his father. In return for this testimony prosecutors dropped four related charges. Nicholas faces a prison sentence of 10 years to life and a $250,000 fine. The father, Todd Carter, faces similar charges.
Glendale, Wisconsin, United States
Jermaine Rogers was charged with human trafficking, kidnapping/seizure or confinement without consent, and 2nd degree sexual assault with use of force.
San Mateo, United States
Timothy Richardson and Robert Hendricks pleaded guilty in mid August to traffickign two owmen in their 20's for commercial sex beginning in November when Hendricks met the victims in Lake Tahoe. Hendricks forced the women into acts of prostitution over the next several weeks. He then sold htem to Richardson. The women were often separated and beaten and one womans life was threatened. At some point one of them managed to reach a relative who called the Santa Clara Police.
Minneapolis, United States
15 members of the Evans family were arrested in August 1999 for running a multi-million dollar prostitution ring. It was believed that it was running for more than 17 years in more than 24 states and also in Canada. The ringleader was Levorn Evans.
Zwolle, holland, Netherlands
the 39-year-old Gilbert E. and the 45-year-old Solomon O.every eight years cell requirements. Against Solomon's wife, Vera EO, is four years imprisonment demanded.
Sandy Springs, GA, United States
Yes. The victims told police. Terry was busted through a police decoy he thought was going to be a 16 year old female. The story seen below can be found at: http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/child-predator-gets-20-460091.html Tuesday, April 13, 2010 Child predator gets 20 years for pimping girls By Alexis Stevens The Atlanta Journal-Constitution The 27-year-old man accused of pimping and raping a Sandy Springs teenage girl pleaded guilty on Tuesday. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison and must register as a sex offender. Johnathan Terry, of Miami, apparently met the 14-year-old in 2008 and began having sex with her, according to the Fulton County District Attorney's Office. Terry later manipulated the girl into various acts of prostitution in Fulton and DeKalb counties, according to the prosecution. In January 2009, the victim and another 14-year-old girl ran away from school and met Terry, who then pimped them out to several men and kept the money. The girls told police about the incident in May 2009, the DA's office said. Terry was arrested on May 26, 2009, after he tried to meet a police decoy, whom Terry believed to be a 16-year-old girl. Shortly after a jury was seated Tuesday, Johnathan Terry pleaded guilty to various sex crimes, including child molestation, statutory rape, pimping, pandering, enticing a child for indecent purposes and felony reckless conduct. Fulton County Superior Court Judge Henry Newkirk sentenced Terry to 20 years in prison, according to the DA's office.
Tea, SD, United States
Someone in the town of Tea, who knew the situation, contacted the Tea Police Department in July of 2009. After a few months investigation, the couple was arrested on November 20, 2009. Thompson eventually pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor by force in the hopes of receiving a lighter sentence, but the judge decided to overrule the recommended sentence of thirty years or less and handed down a sentence of life in prison. This case was investigated by South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, and the Tea Police Department. Assistant US Attorney Kevin Koliner prosecuted the case.
Hillbrow, Johannesburg, South Africa, South Africa
The Article: FOR millions of football fans across the globe, next year's World Cup will be the time of their lives. But for Winnie Khumalo, it will bring only more pain to her miserable existence. Just 14, she is one of around 10,000 child prostitutes working in the shadow of Johannesburg's awesome, Soccer City stadium. Map ... Soccer City, South Africa Last night the final nations qualified for the tournament - with the hope of reaching the final at the amazing arena, which seats 95,000 fans and cost a staggering £120million. In stark contrast, punters pay Winnie £2.40 for sex with her. Shockingly, she has been a prostitute since she was 11, and now sleeps with up to 20 men a day. And she knows just what next year's influx of tens of thousands of World Cup tourists to the city will mean for her - and other poor young girls lured to the city with the hopes of finding a job and a better life. Speaking in her native Zulu through a translator, Winnie says: "Other girls from villages like mine think the World Cup will give them jobs as waitresses or cleaners. But they will be caught by men who promise them a nice life." Winnie, who is too scared of her brothel bosses to escape, adds: "I did not choose to do this. I wish I could get out but it's no use." Her ordeal began when she left her home in a township near Port Shepstone three years ago and travelled the 600 miles to Johannesburg in search of work as a housemaid. A brothel owner's henchman spotted her on the street, befriended her and lured her to a house, promising to take care of her. Winnie says: "On my third day in the city the guy I met showed me upstairs and said, 'This is your room'. Then he gave me alcohol and wanted to come to bed with me. Beer "I didn't know what was going on but when he was on top of me it hurt so much. Then he brought another man to my room and when I protested, he hit me. So I started drinking more beer." Promise of new life ... South Africa World Cup Our investigators find Winnie after entering the brothel in the dark streets of Hillbrow, an inner-city district so dangerous that even the police fear to patrol there. She is wearing a clingy silver dress that is meant to be sexy, but it is draped on the body of an adolescent. She says poignantly: "Men like me because I am young and do what they ask. When I began this work my chest was flat - my breasts have grown since then. "Now I'm getting a bit older they probably won't be so interested for much longer." Winnie's warning to other young girls was this week echoed by organisations in South Africa who believe the World Cup will put children in host cities such as Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town in danger of being sexually exploited. World Cup head of security Linda Mti says she is working with intelligence agencies to identify "unsavoury elements". The Department of Social Development has announced that a Child Protection Action Plan will be operational by March. All Winnie can hope is that these measures will prevent others falling into the same dismal life as hers. She shares her room with three other girls, taking turns to service men behind the bars of her door on a ten-cell corridor filled with the stale stench of crack cocaine. Her legs are scarred from rough sex and beatings and she operates with a knife under her pillow. She says: "I am less frightened these days, but when a man puts a gun to my head I want to scream. World class ... Joburg's Soccer City stadium "That happens quite often, especially when they want to do it without a condom. At times like that, I decide I will run away. It's like I have a flash of light or something. It makes me want to go back to school, I want to have a good life. But if I go out into the street, the boss follows me and brings me back. He has people everywhere. I'm scared to break his rules." To get through her daily ordeal, Winnie drinks, morning and night. She says: "They tried to make me do drugs but I always say no. My brain is the last power I'll give up. "I beg the police and the teachers in schools to tell girls what this place is really like." Statistics released by the South African Professional Society On The Abuse of Children indicate around 530 child rapes occur every day across the country, though fewer than 60 are reported to police. Officials believe children are the victims in 45 per cent of all rape cases nationwide. Advertisement Domestic crimes contribute to the alarming figures, but child prostitution is responsible for a large proportion. Many victims are trafficked and the vast majority become infected with HIV. For teenagers such as Winnie things can seem desperate yet there is a glimmer of hope - just a mile down the road, charity workers at the New Life Centre offer vulnerable sex workers a second chance. They visit the 100-odd brothels operating above bars in the rundown district, giving health advice and urging young girls to break free. Manager Khopotso Nakin says wealthy gang lords are grooming underage girls as upmarket hookers aimed at fans including the 25,000 England supporters set to descend on South Africa. She says: "They persuade beautiful young girls that the World Cup will mean new jobs and a bright future. They put several at a time into homes they have bought here in the city. "Victims come from Thailand, Eastern Europe and even China. They never see the light again. Many men who are offered their beautiful bodies will not realise how young they are. "They appear clean and willing, but actually they are locked in squalid rooms most of the time. "I hope very much that one day Winnie comes to us, but it is incredibly hard for someone like her to break the cycle and have the courage that she will escape unharmed." Pimp Another prostitute, 25-year-old Nolukhanyo Vasi, was infected with HIV as a teenager after her aunt sold her to a pimp at the age of 14. Unfair game ... Nolukhanyo Vasi MILLER & MACLEAN She now helps the desperate new arrivals at the New Life Centre come off drugs, get medical treatment and set about finding alternative work. But the charity can pay her just £48 a month. And with a £32 rent bill to pay and a young son to feed, she is forced to continue working the streets. She says: "Life is hard and when I have no money to eat, I force myself to do it again. It's never been as hard as the first time. "My aunt had brought me from my home village and I trusted her. She told me and my parents I could live at her house. But one day she took me to a bar in town. "She pulled a mini-skirt, high heels and a backless white top out of her bag and told me to put them on. "A guy came over to us and asked, 'How much?' I didn't understand what was going on. Then my aunt said to me, 'Look, if you want to have money here you must sleep with a man'. "They took me upstairs to a room with a bed in it. The man handed my aunt some coins and before she left she put a condom on him. She knew I had no idea about things like that. "It was very painful and I was crying, but the man told me to stop being selfish. "I never saw my aunt again. The manager was good to me for a while but when I grew up a bit he got tired of me. "If I refused to do what he said he would beat me with a leather whip." Nolukhanyo dreads telling her nine-year-old son she has no idea who his father is. She says: "How can I admit to him I was a prostitute? "He is free of HIV, thank God, but we both will carry that shame for ever. "I can no longer have a relationship with a man. I have never been treated as a woman, just a thing. "When you are mistreated at such a young age you just expect to be damaged by everyone. "If any young girl thinks coming to Johannesburg in 2010 will bring her happiness, she should think again." To donate to the New Life Centre, email newlifeforgirls@yahoo.com.
Temple Hills Maryland, United States
42 year old foster father Shelby Lewis accused of raping his foster daughter and pimping her out in Washington DC.The foster child was one of the youngest of Lewis' alleged stable of prostitutes, according to court documents. She started working for him when she was 12 and continued to do so for two and a half years. The detective testified that Lewis had sex with his foster child and another who worked for Lewis for three years, starting when she was 13.
Den hague Netherlands, Netherlands
10 of 140 women who went missing from refugee centers in the Netherlands were traced and convinced to testify against their traffickers. They receieved both spiritual and legal intervention. A lawyer Wilma Hompe first came across the case with others, when they discovered similar stories of women dissapearing at asylum centers in the Netherlands. The 10 victims who were traced and freed, received a one year renewable visa to stay in the Netherlands after testifying against their accusers. They were convinced to testify because of the intervention of a local Nigerian pastor who intervened explaining to the girls that God was more powerful than the voodoo curses supposedly used by the traffickers to enslave the women along with a debt of 30-60,000 euros for their transit to the Netherlands, and threats against themselves and their family if the debt went unpaid. Because of the nature of the visa educational programs were unavailable to them. Other forms of aftercare were not mentioned.
Dubai Al-Harmud Hotel, United Arab Emirates
unknown what happened but the victim testified in court. She said: “I visited several clients of different nationalities in the Al-Harmud Hotel and had sex with them. I was in an impossible situation…” she said. Her passport had been taken, she couldn’t speak the language, and she didn’t have any money.
Anchorage,, United States
The indictment indicates that the FBI was intercepting Mujahid's telephone calls for at least five months. In one conversation, Hooks was overheard asking Mujahid "if there were any new girls with whom he could have sex," the indictment charged. . UPDATE The Anchorage Police Department Vice Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Internal Revenue Service–Criminal Investigation conducted the investigation leading to the indictment in this case. They were assisted by agents and detectives from the Innocence Lost Task Force and the Alaska Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force. The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office with assistance from the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section of the Justice Department's Criminal Division and the Criminal Section of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. . The indictment charges: * two counts of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children and by force, fraud and coercion; * two counts of sex trafficking of children and by force, fraud and coercion; * one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child and by force, fraud and coercion; * six counts of promoting prostitution of children; * eight counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; * ten counts of promoting prostitution; two counts of attempted sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; * two counts of possession of child pornography; * one count of sexual exploitation of a child—production of child pornography; * one count of tampering with a victim; * one count of conspiracy to defraud the government–filing false tax returns; and,five counts of identity theft. The 41-count superseding indictment names Mujahid, age 52, Greene, age 38, Marshall, age 21, and Hooks, age 50, as the defendants. Not all of the defendants are named in each count.
Bensonhurst, New York, United States
Agents arrested a 33 yrs old, who was described as an illegal alien who had been deported to Mexico after being arrested in a similar sex trafficking case. Sources said he returned to the US and ran a new trafficking ring that brought in several unwitting women from Mexico to become prostitutes. While in Mexico he began a romantic relationship with the teen and later paid a smuggler to bring her to the US in April 2007.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin, United States
Avery recruited his prostitutes at bus stations and off the street, wooing them with pricey clothes and jewelry, according to a criminal complaint. One prostitute said Avery was "selling me my dreams," it said. The case is being investigated by the Criminal Division of the Internal Revenue Service, the FBI and the detectives from the Milwaukee Police Department and prosecuted by the U.S. attorney's office.
Greenfield, California, United States
Law enforcement had been involved from the beginning of the case. Originally, they were investigating the missing persons report until it became a trafficking case. Both Galindo and Martinez were arrested. Galindo was cited for statutory rape and released. In February, Martinez pleaded not guilty to procuring a child for lewd acts, aiding and abetting statutory rape and child endangerment. On April 7, 2009, Martinez changed his plea to no contest, in exchange for reduced charges of felony child endangerment. Under the conditions of the plea bargain, he will serve up to a year in jail and face deportation after that.
Dallas, TX, United States
Emmanuel and Ngozi Nnaji are charged with forced labor conspiracy, forced labor, harboring a domestic worker for financial gain, conspiracy to harbor for financial gain, document servitude and making false statements to federal agents. The indictment outlines the rape allegations as part of the forced labor conspiracy.
Chiang Rai, Thailand, Thailand
A thirteen year old girl's boyfriend brought her to Chaing Rai. He sold her to a brothel in the Southern Islands of Thailand to work as a prostitute.
Belfast & Londonderry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom
Simon Dempsey (39) and Chen Rong (33) Both Simon Dempsey and Chen Rong have been charged for facilitating the UK arrival of Chinese girls for sex trafficking purposes. Dempsey, a former Police Service of Northern Ireland officer, acted as the enforcer while Rong acted as the "controller of the brothels". A group of 6 girls were rescued in Belfast & Londonderry, Northern Ireland. These girls were trafficked from China through a Chinese Mafia ring and have since been forced to work as sex slaves in England and now Northern Ireland. This operation has been a long time in the planning and have numerous partner agencies involved in bringing women over from China to work all across Europe. In this particular Northern Ireland case, the women were told they would be working as nannies/babysitters in the UK. Both Dempsey and Rong are now awaiting a final sentence.
Eugene, Oregon, United States
According to an article in the Register-Guard, Mathias Rey DeVasier, 50, "'lived most of his life blameless,' serving in the U.S. Navy, leaving with an honorable discharge, and working for decades as a local steel fabricator until he was laid off last year." He contacted the victim over craigslist, believing she was 18 or 19 years old. After it became apparent of her age (14), he continued to engage in sex acts with her and facilitate her services to other clients. He also provided her with methamphetamine and invited her to come live in his house, which she did until rescued. DeVaiser reportedly drove her around to different clients and kept a part of her profits for "gas money", which is viewed by law enforcement as reimbursement money for rent.
Mumbai, India, India
Anita eventually escaped from the brothel. She immediately found two police men who, after being paid, assisted her to the home of a Nepali boy she had met while in the brothel. She stayed with his family and later found out that Robert Mosier (IJM) had been contacted. After Mosier and the police raided the brothel, Anita led authorities through the building; giving specific information regarding her experiences.
Suite 5, 4105 4 St NW, Calgary, AB, T2K1A3, Canada
Linh Quy To, 52, has been charged with unlawfully keeping a common bawdy house, trafficking in persons, material benefit from trafficking in persons, conspiracy to commit an indictable offense, possession of property obtained by crime, and living of the avails of prostitution.
Bonita Springs, FL in Lee County. Arrested on Sherwood Lane in Bonita Springs, United States
The man was charged with human trafficking and forced labour. His bail was set at $1 million. He is 23 years old and lives at Sherwood Lane in Bonita Springs, FL. He is originally from the same village as the girl that he smuggled into the states is.
Daraga, Philippines, Philippines
Yes, The NBI workers posed as customers and immediately arrested the bar owner and cashier. The women were fined 20,000 USD and sentenced to 20 years in prison
Safety Harbor, Florida, United States
The Police received a tip in 2004 for a brothel. In response they sent a undercover officer who found a prostitute however she was willing, but later this incident revealed a sex-trafficking ring. One night 2 prostitutes were seen running from a trailer associated with this brothel. The police then arrested the man who had been keeping them in there and through thi they found out about the ringleader. After this, they had a undercover agent arrange to rescue one of the girls. Through questioning the rescued victim, they found out the ringleaders general route and pulled resources together and arrested him.
Plymouth, United Kingdom
The police were tipped off and then launched an undercover investigation. This led to them getting three warrants, and so they simultaneously executed Operation Hinton, raiding the properties on September 30, 2009. During the mission, police were accompanied by three interpreters. The police arrested the perpetrators and freed the victims, treating them as witnesses.
Tagbilaran City, Bohol, Philippines, Philippines
The two minors aged 17 and 18 were hired to work with a promise they are to be given a “decent job” in Manila and each would receive PhP300/per day sometime in August 2009. The duo ended up in delivery of food stuff allegedly on foot for they were not given fare for transport, the joint committees learned. The minors had cash advance of PhP3,000 each prior to their departure heading for home in Getafe , Bohol , the parents told the joint committees. They were accompanied by their parents during the committee hearing
Kenner, Louisiana, United States
Leonarda Martinez, age 53, was charged with human trafficking when a bordello was uncovered where she allegedly charged men $400 to have sex with women, using force, fraud or coercian to force the women to provide those illicit services. During the law enforcement raid, the invetigative team found a bedroom with two mattresses on the floor, condoms lying on a dresser and security bars on the windows.
Ranong, Trang, South Thailand, Thailand
Victims trafficked by Burmese gangs. Two of the brokers are ethnic Mon men from Burma. Most traffickers worked on and ran fishing boats. They trafficked the victims by road and told them they would work on a construction site, earning a sufficient wage. If captives complained, the traffickers threw them overboard or sold them to other boats.
Detroit, Mich., United States
Not much information given, they put up false adds in an over seas newspaper to bring girls to America, under the guise of a study abroad program. Picked her up at the airport, changed her final destination and took her passport and her freedom. http://www.cnn.com/2009/OPINION/11/25/carr.human.trafficking/index.html
Marche, Italy, Italy
The arrests follow a police bust of a drug trafficking network in April, in which drugs were smuggled from Madrid in Spain to the Italian regions of Piedmont and Marche by using drug 'mules', who were often the women forced into protitution. The suspects were arrested.
Topeka Women's Prison, 815 SE Rice Rd Topeka KS, United States
Prison vocational plumbing instructor Anastacio "Ted" Gallardo attempted to exchange money for oral sex from an student-inmate. She accepted because she makes $14 a month at a prison job. At the scene, he forces other acts upon her. He has used 3-6 other inmates as well. He used other inmates to cover up and as lookouts. He admitted to victims that he "should better prepare for sexual encounters with inmates by hiding condoms at the prison's plumbing shop. He threatened to hurt anyone who broke their code of silence. "He's the authority figure". He has "the ability to impact their liberty". Victim became pregnant and Gallardo attempted to obtain the abortion pill RU486 from Mexico and another inmate with contacts and also a registered sex offender. He attempted to sneak her out of the prison for an abortion at a clinic 65 miles away. She was frightened about authorities finding out she was pregnant. Gallardo had another inmate jump on victim's stomach to end pregnancy. He told victim no one would believe her because she was an inmate.
Mandar Apartment, Wadgaon Budruk. India, India
the police team led by senior inspector Rajendra Bhamare laid a trap and detained the suspects from Fatimanagar.
Schiller Park, Illinois, United States
quote from first online article: "Cook County sheriff's police conducting a sting discovered three women from Thailand who told investigators they had been forced to work as prostitutes in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Texas in the three weeks they have been in the United States." The second article states that the traffickers were not caught, though the first article states "The (Cook County) sheriff's office is working with federal authorities to investigate the ring."
Newberg, Oregon, United States
Sept. 4 report from KATU news: http://www.katu.com/home/related/63679802.html On Sept. 4 a 15-year-old girl disclosed to Newberg-Dundee police officers, 44-year-old Newberg resident Darrin Vaughn Daily, had given her marijuana and alcohol and had sex with her. During the investigation, a search warrant was executed for the residence at 720 South River Street, Apt B, Newberg, and evidence was seized. During the investigation, detectives said they discovered that a 14-year-old girl also may have been a victim. During her interview, detectives said they learned Daily also engaged in sexual activity with her. The girl reported Daily had taken photographs during the sexual activity, which included occasions when she was tied up, occasions involving sexual intercourse with his dog, and occasions of group sex resulting from Daily posting a Craigslist advertisement inviting other adults to engage in sexual activity with the minor. A second search warrant was executed and Daily's computer was seized, as well as other media storage devices. The Newberg-Dundee Police Department Computer Forensics detectives analyzed the computer and located many photographs of the 14 year old engaged in sexual activity with multiple adults as well as images of the minor engaging in sexual intercourse with the dog. Images of a four year old being sexually abused also were found. Detectives were able to locate three adult males who responded to the Craigslist advertisement to engage in sexual activity with the 14 year old, as well as one adult female who engaged in sexual activity with one of the minor females. The three adult males arrested were: 43-year-old Patricio Moreno of Forest Grove, 34-year-old Robert Thompson of Portland and 41-year-old David Garcia of McMinnville. The adult female, Alisa Nice of McMinnville, has not been located for arrest at the time of this release. Detectives were able to locate and interview the four year old in the images found on Daily's computer. The four year old disclosed being sexually abused by Daily and is currently being cared for with the assistance of Juliette's House Child Abuse Assessment Center in McMinnville. Newberg-Dundee police credit their ability to analyze Daily's computer and retrieve the digital evidence in a timely manner with being able to locate, identify and apprehend those involved in the case. Darrin Vaughn Daily is being held in the Yamhill County Jail on $1 million security and is charged with: Using Child in Display of Sexually Explicit Conduct (6 counts - Measure 11) Sexual Abuse in the First Degree (2 counts - Measure 11) Sexual Assault of an Animal (2 counts) Delivery of a Controlled Substance (Marijuana) to a Minor (3 counts) Online Sexual Corruption of a Child in the First Degree Encouraging Child Sexual Abuse in the First Degree Rape in the Third Degree (18 counts) Sodomy in the Third Degree (5 counts of oral-to-genital contact with a minor) Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree (6 counts) Endangering the Welfare of a Minor (3 counts) Sexual Abuse in the Third Degree. Robert Dwain Thompson is being held in the Yamhill County Jail on $750,000 security and is charged with: Using Child in Display of Sexually Explicit Conduct (3 counts - Measure 11) Rape in the Third Degree (3 counts) Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree (5 counts). David Garcia was being held in the Yamhill County Jail on $100,000 security but has posted bond. He is charged with: Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree (4 counts) Rape in the Third Degree (2 counts). Patricio Moreno is being held in the Yamhill County Jail on $15,000 security; he will be arraigned sometime Wednesday. He is charged with: Sexual Abuse in the Second Degree (4 counts) Rape in the Third Degree (2 counts) Sodomy in the Third Degree (2 counts).
East London, South Africa
Vasile Oaches, 26, Gheorghe Mihali, 22, and Vasile Maris, 29, all from Meanley Road in Manor Park. A 19-year-old girl who was also arrested during the operation has been bailed to return to an East London police station in December, pending further police enquiries.
Mississauga, York area, Canada
The man will be the first person to be charged with human trafficking by York Regional Police after he allegedly forced his so-called girlfriend to strip. The police announced that he will be charged with a long list of charges several charges including trafficking in persons, material benefit, kidnapping, forcible confinement, assault, choking and theft. according to Toronto Sun.
Cook county, IL, United States
The women told police they left Thailand three weeks ago and were told a limo would be waiting outside a New York airport, the release said. The driver had instructions to take them to a nearby motel. The same scenario was then repeated in each city. Vice officers worked with the sheriff's Women's Justice Services to interview the women, the release said.
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
According to Captain Bin Hadibah, the major human trafficking case handled by Dubai Police this year was the escape of four Bangladeshi victims in their early twenties who were severely abused, both physically and sexually.The four victims were brought into the country at different periods with most of them forced into prostitution for two months before making their escape during May of this year. They were beaten and repeatedly sexually assaulted by a gang composed of five men and a woman, as an extreme measure to coerce them into prostitution. The suspects were recently arrested — bar one, as he is still on the run. Most convicted traffickers in Dubai as well as their victims are Asian, with some from Eastern Europe, and their ages range from 18 to 26 years old.
Long Island/NYC, United States
Jodi went to the FBI in 2003. On March 5, 2007, Marcus was convicted of forced labor and sex trafficking, but cleared of obscenity. In a 42-page ruling, U.S. v. Marcus, 05-CR-457, Eastern District of New York Judge Allyne R. Ross upheld the conviction. Ross stated that there was a difference between consent and abuse in such relationships. She also ruled that the federal Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 could be interpreted to apply to domestic relationships. On September 7, 2007, Marcus was sentenced to 9 years in prison. On August 14, 2008, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals overturned Marcus' conviction and ordered a retrial because the 2000 Trafficking Victims Protection Act was used to prosecute him for events before the law was in place. In July 2009 the Department of Justice Appealed the 2nd circuit courts ruling to the Supreme Court and in October 2009 the Supreme Court agreed to review the prosecutions appeal. Arguments will be held early in 2010.
Charlotte, North Carolina, United States
Jorge Flores Rojas, 45, was a notorious sex trafficking operator in Charlotte. Local and federal authorities say Flores' ring brought in hundreds of young women each year to work as prostitutes. Flores, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, picked up vans full of eight to 10 young women each week outside the McDonald's on West Sugar Creek Road near Interstate 85, where other traffickers had brought them. Others, he smuggled in directly from Latin America. Authorities say he brought customers to his apartment off Sharon Amity Road near Eastland Mall, but mostly took the girls to hotels and brothels set up around the city. In November 2007, court documents say, he "sold" at least two teenagers from Mexico to Yaneth Martinez, a D.C. madam, who advertised her services with cards offering "Hair Cuts for Men Only." Martinez worked the girls in the capital city and gave Flores a cut of the profits. A month later, she returned them to him. Their business relationship worked like this for more than a year, federal authorities said.
Uttar Pradesh, India
Three Nepali women who were being allegedly trafficked to the Gulf have been arrested in Uttar Pradesh while they were headed to New Delhi to take a flight, police said. A fourth Nepali woman who was allegedly part of a human trafficking gang was also taken into custody Saturday evening from the Gorakhpur railway station. Gorakhpur district borders Nepal. Dilmaya, the trafficker, said all of them had relatives in Muscat and she was taking the women to get them jobs there.
near Sudbury Rd Charlotte North Carolina, United States
Jorge Flores Rojas created a shrine to the patron saint of death, said to protect pimps and other criminasl. Each day he prayed to Santa Muerte, joined by the teenaged girls whom he forced to have sex with as many as 20 men a day.
King County, United States
Investigators believe members of a gang called the Westside Street Mobb forced 12 women and girls to perform sex acts for money, beat them and took the money they earned over several months last year, according to charges filed in King County Superior Court. The names of the gang members are as follows: *DeShawn Clark- 18-year-old who also goes by "Cash" or "Cash Money". Was charged in November with promoting prostitution and other charges. Prosecutors added the charge of second-degree human trafficking. *Thomas L. Foster- 19, was also charged in November *Shawn S. Clark, 20 *Gerald Jackson, 21 *Mycah Johnson, 19 *Desmond Manago, 20 Investigators say the gang, which is affiliated with the Bloods, has 20 to 30 members involved in robbery, drug sales, weapon possession and aggravated assaults, according to charging papers. The women claimed they were forced to work at a hotel in Portland, hotels in Seattle and Tukwila and at a basement apartment in the 10400 block of Des Moines Memorial Drive South, charging papers said.
Kenhorst, Pennsylvania, United States
The investigator, who requested anonymity, said the local sex slave operations were controlled by South Korean organized crime rings operating out of the Flushing section of Queens, N.Y.
Charlotte, United States
ICE was invloved in the case. here is link to the latest article:http://www.charlotteobserver.com/597/story/983851.html?storylink=omni_popular
Paris, France, France
French Culture Minister Refuses to Resign Over Paid Sex Trysts Print By KATRIN BENNHOLD Published: October 8, 2009 PARIS — When he took the post of culture minister of France last June, Frédéric Mitterrand probably did not think that a four-year-old tell-all book could come back to haunt him. Skip to next paragraph Enlarge This Image Stephane De Sakutin/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images An admission that he paid for sex with “young boys” in Thailand has led to a growing campaign to oust Frédéric Mitterrand from his position as French culture minister. Readers' Comments Readers shared their thoughts on this article. Read All Comments (30) » But this week his admission in a 2005 autobiography that he paid for sex with “boys” in Thailand became the subject of a campaign to oust him from the cabinet of President Nicolas Sarkozy. The reason for the sudden interest in Mr. Mitterrand’s prose was his quick and energetic defense last month of the film director Roman Polanski, who is fighting extradition to the United States from Switzerland over a charge resulting from his having sex with a 13-year-old girl in 1977. On Monday, Marine Le Pen, daughter of the founder of the far-right National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, produced Mr. Mitterrand’s autobiography, “The Bad Life,” during a late-night television show and began reading excerpts before calling for his resignation. Then, on Wednesday, the spokesman of the Socialist Party, Benoît Hamon, seized on the issue: “As a minister of culture he has drawn attention to himself by defending a filmmaker accused of raping a child, and he has written a book where he said he took advantage of sex tourism. At the very least I find this shocking.” By Thursday the pressure had become so intense that Mr. Mitterrand, 62, a nephew of former President François Mitterrand and a longtime television celebrity, scheduled an appearance on prime-time television to defend himself. “Yes, I had relations with boys,” a visibly shaken Mr. Mitterrand told the interviewer on the TF1 network when he was asked about the passage in his book that talks about seeking out male prostitutes in Southeast Asia. But he insisted that all his sexual partners had been consenting adults about his age at the time. Mr. Mitterrand had referred to the male prostitutes sometimes as “garçons,” or boys, and sometimes as “gosses,” or kids, injecting some ambiguity about age into the debate. Had he committed an error? “An error, yes. A crime, no,” the minister said Thursday, ruling out his resignation. Mr. Polanski’s case has a special resonance in France because the 76-year-old director was born in France. He fled the United States in 1978 and had been living in France before being arrested in Switzerland on Sept. 26.
Benin City, Nigeria, Nigeria
A Nigerian high chief was arrested for allegedly sending a young woman abroad without her consent for purposes of commercial sexual exploitation. The girl was being sent to Italy, but was currently trapped in Libya. The chief claims it was actually a sister who requested him to recruit the girl to work in her beer parlor in Italy, but the sister denies this. The family has been able to speak briefly to the girl by phone, but she did not seem free to talk, answering only yes or no, and her captor is demanding 500 Euros for her freedom. At other times Libyan officials have claimed that the sea through which the girl must travel to Italy is not yet safe. The trafficker calls itself a “sponsor” and lures young people with the offer of living abroad. Their lure has captured virtually every family in the Edo State, but most are unaware their children have been trafficked, knowing only that they are “living abroad”. The two most common destination countries are Spain and Italy. Victims also pass through an intermediary country—Libya for Italy and Morocco for Spain. They normally spend months in that transit country, and many of them die there. While there, they are taken to a juju (voodoo) priest, who performs rituals to ensure that they never reveal the secrets of the trafficking trade. They are wrapped in a wrapper that has been removed from a corpse, and are sometimes made to drink water from a dead body, while swearing to different gods. One of the juju priests admitted that there are three major oaths they administer to the girls being trafficked : One is ,if she gets to that place, she should not run away with any body they ask her to stay with. The other one is; if she gets there, she should not arrest her sponsor with the police. And the third is: any thing she knows that can kill her sponsor without alerting her, she will be punished too. And at the end of the day, if she does not violate any of the oaths, she will get whatever she wants in her life. These are the claims made by the juju priests. The traffickers are believed to have residency permits in Europe, and use people in Nigeria as their messengers. Those who are sent to Libya become sex slaves of the security guards tending them. More information: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/09/18/benin-herbalistschiefs-caught-for-human-trafficking/
Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, Nigeria
In September 2009, over 500 girls were returned to Nigeria who had been held in underground jails in Libya as sex slaves for nearly a year. This group told police that over 2,000 others had died in Libyan jails since January 2009, most of them killed in the desert by the security forces. The trafficker calls itself a “sponsor” and lures young people with the offer of living abroad. Their lure has captured virtually every family in the Edo State, but most are unaware their children have been trafficked, knowing only that they are “living abroad”. The two most common destination countries are Spain and Italy. Victims also pass through an intermediary country—Libya for Italy and Morocco for Spain. They normally spend months in that transit country, and many of them die there. While there, they are taken to a juju (voodoo) priest, who performs rituals to ensure that they never reveal the secrets of the trafficking trade. They are wrapped in a wrapper that has been removed from a corpse. More information: http://www.vanguardngr.com/2009/09/18/benin-herbalistschiefs-caught-for-human-trafficking/
East Lliff Avenue, Aurora, United States
police followed the victim, a minor, to a location where she meet her pimp. he along with the motel manager were arrested.
Edmonton, Canada
atlest three victims were found. One form Beijing and two from Fiji, all three had their identifaction papers taken from them and forced to eat, sleep, and work in the same location 24 hours a day. They all had responded to ads for a jod in massage.
St. Albert, Canada
Mei Fang Chen, 33 Xiu Zheng Chen, 32 facing two charges each of human trafficking, living off the avails of prostitutuion, exercising control, director of influence of a person for the purpose of prostitiution, and one each of keeping a common bawdy-house, and possesion of the proceeds of crime over $5000.00. Qui Wang, 41 faces two charges each of living off the avails of prosititution, exercise and control, direction or influence over a person for the purposes of prostitution, and one count of keeping a common bawdy house, possesion of the proceeds of crime over $5000.00 and assault with a weapon causing bodily harm. To appear in court September 21, 2009.
West 38th Street, New York, NY, United States
The madam was a senior citizen and the prostitute was just a kid. Vice cops raided a grimy midtown brothel called Episodes, where a 64-year-old hustler oversaw a stable of women - the youngest just 15 - giving "sex massages," police sources said. The W. 38th St. whorehouse was decidedly low-rent - mattresses on the floor of tiny rooms and a sign advertising $1 bottles of water, sources said. "I know things are tough, but $1 isn't going to break anyone," read the sign in the fourth-floor sex pad. Cloth butterflies and small "Phantom of the Opera" masks were the only decor in stark contrast to the majestic West End building where alleged madam Noreen Williams lived. Cops said Williams had been hustling prostitutes since at least 1997, which was news to her neighbors. "She was just a normal, polite old woman. She's always walking her two dogs. She doesn't dress flashy," said a stunned West End resident. When cops raided Episodes on Thursday afternoon, Williams was booking clients, and a 15-year-old hooker was getting ready to turn a trick in one of the back rooms, sources said. Williams told cops she had no idea the young Hispanic girl was only a high school student, sources said. Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/08/15/2009-08-15_brothel_offered_teen_sex_cops_say_madam_64_ran_grimy_midtown_biz.html#ixzz0Que2LfQk
Canada, Canada
Detective Assistant Superintendent Selebatso Mokgosi from Interpol confirmed to the Sunday Standard that a Motswana woman who had been trafficked to work in a Canadian brothel was recently arrested in Canada without work and resident permits. Detective Assistant Superintendent Mokgosi would not disclose details on the case, saying, “It is too early to reveal the identity of the suspect.”
Weehawken, New Jersey, United States
A pair of aspiring models were turned into sex slaves after two fiendish pimps responded to their Craigslist ads, lured them to a Midtown hotel and forced them to have sex with up to 60 men, authorities said. Two savvy pimps, Jason Breska, 38, of Brooklyn, and Sabina Rabinovich, 36, of Florida, responded to the ads while trolling the Internet for potential sex victims, cops said. One of the women had posted an ad looking for a "position in pornography." The thugs, who are childhood friends, promised the women modeling careers with health benefits and dates with clients, police said. They even paid for their travel expenses from Ridgewood, NJ, and Sun Valley, Calif., police said. The women -- ages 21 and 27 -- ended up at the La Quinta Hotel at 17 West 32nd Street, where they were allegedly forced into the sex industry. Using the name "Joey," Breska oversaw the operation and collect all the money - never giving a penny to the victims, cops said. Rabinovich, who went by the name "Charlie," would set up the sexual liaisons by calling the victims to inform them she was sending over a client, police said On June 7, Breska allegedly raped the 27-year-old woman in a room at the hotel. Between, June 8 and June 15, the same victim was forced to have sex with up to 60 men and kept at the hotel through "scare tactics," such as threats to tell their families. At the same time, the 21-year-old victim was kept in a room while having sex with a constant stream of Johns for two straight days.
Northeast Philadelphia, United States
Police arrested two men at the scene on charges of kidnapping, rape, and possession of narcotics, says cbs3.com. Police took three women into custody for on suspicion of prostitution. The prostitution ring may be part of a much larger operation, say investigators.
Accra, Ghana, Ghana
With a monthly income of GH¢150 in Ghana, a bread baker’s dream of earning more money in Russia as a nanny turned sour when she found herself lured into prostitution. Desperate to travel, she abandoned baking and was trafficked. On her arrival in Russia, where she thought she would be working as a nanny, she was housed with some Ghanaians and Nigerians for two weeks after which her passport was seized and she was given a cell phone, taxi fare, and an address at where she was to start work. It was not until she arrived at the address that she found out that she was to work as a prostitute, and had to on the spot sexually satisfy three men. Mr Eric Peasah, Counter-Trafficking Field Manager of the International Organisation of Migration narrated the ordeal of the bread baker at a media forum on human trafficking in Accra.
Botswana (unknown), Botswana
Botswana police are investigating a human trafficking ring thought to be responsible for trafficking more than 1000 Batswana from the country and selling them for cheap labour, sexual exploitation, servitude and debt bondage in Europe. Police investigations are focusing on Business Consultants who are believed to be spiders in the extensive web that is believed to have trafficked at least 1000 Batswana. A source close to the investigation believes that it is more. So far, eight business consultants and six other suspects believed to be part of the human trafficking ring are already in police custody.
West 38th Street New York, United States
law enforcement thought they were going to close down a illegial hotel operation but found something very different instead.
Thrift Travel Inn, Salisbury, Maryland, United States
Ishwarlai Kalidas Patel, 72, one of three managers at the Thrift Travel Inn,was indicted by a grand jury on prostitution, human trafficking and conspiracy charges after allegedly arranging sexual services for an undercover police officer. Ramanbhai Patel, 59, and Dakshaben Patel, 55, were also charged but have not yet been indicted. The State Attorney commented "They're profiting financially from arranging appointments between individuals for the purposes of prostotution and/or demanding compensation from the (women.)"
Washington Park, Illinois, United States
Terrence A. Yarbrough (a.k.a. "T-Rex"). A 34 year old male. "he women, referred to only as "Jane Doe 1 and 2" in court documents, were being rented out against their will to men who responded to online ads on Craigslist and backpage.com, court documents and testimony show. They were forced into the business by Terrence A. Yarbrough, FBI Special Agent Cynthia Dockery wrote in a court affidavit unsealed Monday." From http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/laworder/story/8F87FBF0F9C6CCE9862576240001A191?OpenDocument
Burkina Faso, Burkina Faso
A recruiter approached a young woman in Nigeria, offering her an opportunity to travel abroad, to Burkina Faso, for a better life. She showed her a passport and assured her she would not need to pay a dime. The offered seemed good, so she traveled to Burkina Faso. On arrival, the recruiter handed them over to a woman who seized their passports, then took her and other girls to a hotel and informed them that they must prostitute themselves in order to survive.
Banjul, Gambia, Gambia
Gambian authorities questioned 63 Ghanaian children ages 12 to 18 who were trafficked into the country as sex slaves and domestic workers for a group of Ghanaian fishermen living off the coast of Gambia, known as "Ghana Town." They were smuggled into Gambia without official papers to satisfy the sexual desires of older men. They were also forced to work long hours smoking fish and selling gari. Some were crowded into rooms with 12 girls to a room. Some boys were also forced to work as fishermen. The masters forbade the slave children to contact their parents at home. More information: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=48765
Benin City, Nigeria, Nigeria
A 22 year old girl was recruited by a family friend, telling her mother he would "help" her "travel out." The poor mother, who sold snails at a local market to eek out a meager living, thought her daughter was obtaining a good job. Instead she was sent to Spain where she was forced to work as a prostitute for ten months, until she was deported. The girl was charged for the cost of her trip, putting her into debt bondage. She paid her "madam" 25,000 Euros in 10 months, but was told she must work until the madam was "satisfied." Others familiar with sex trafficking between Nigeria and Spain say it is not uncommon for girls to have to pay back $50,000. Her pimps forced her to have sex with them and beat her into submission. Further, on the day of her departure, her intimate hairs and nails were shaved and given to her captor so that he could "curse" her in case she decided to escape.
mississauga, ontario, Canada
http://www.thestar.com/article/602988 Mississauga man charged with human trafficking Crime Stoppers Mar 16, 2009 10:13 AM Bob Mitchell Staff Reporter A 25-year-old Mississauga man has been charged with human trafficking in connection with luring two young women to the city on the pretence they would begin modelling careers. Instead, police allege the women aged 17 and 22, were forced into the sex trade and ordered to turn over all their earnings. Peel Police believe the younger of the two was lured from a northern Ontario town through a social networking connection. The young woman believed she would be hired as a model in a music video, but when she arrived in Mississauga she was put to work as an exotic dancer in various strip clubs in Mississauga and Brampton. The second victim had also never worked as a stripper before meeting the accused, police said. But she was allegedly forced to work at various strip clubs for six months. Enoch Johnson, 25, of Mississauga has been charged with human trafficking, receiving material benefit from the crime and exercise control for the purpose of prostitution and living off the avails of prostitution. He remains in custody.
Santa Clara County, United States
Timothy Richardson and Robert Hendricks pleaded guilty on Aug. 7 to two counts of human trafficking. Under the plea bargain, Richardson will be sentenced to six years and four months in state prison, and Hendricks will be sentenced to three years. Richardson's attorney, Deputy Public Defender Ross McMahon, declined to comment. Hendricks' attorney, Eben Kurtzman, could not be reached for comment. Sentencing will occur on Aug. 28. The Santa Clara Police Department, the FBI, and Santa Clara County prosecutors worked together on this case. The traffickers were charged under state law, which is unique as typically these cases are tried under federal law rather than state law (enacted in California 3 years previously).
Orange County, CA, United States
The State Attorney's office and Orange county sheriff's office resulted in both traffickers being charged
Holbrook, New York, United States
The charges were announced by Benton J. Campbell, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York; John Morton, Assistant Secretary, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), New York; Richard Dormer, Suffolk County Police Commissioner; Joseph M. Demarest, Jr., Assistant Director-in-Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), New York Field Office; and Patricia J. Haynes, Special Agent-in-Charge, Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Criminal Investigation, New York. The joint investigation revealed that Antonio Rivera, a Registered Sex Offender, and his sister Jasmin Rivera owned and operated the Sonidos de la Frontera bar, located in Lake Ronkonkoma, and the La Hija del Mariachi bar, located in Farmingville. Whaley was employed as a manager in both bars. From September 2007 through the present, the Riveras and Whaley allegedly lured young women, primarily Central American illegal immigrants, to work in the bars as waitresses and hostesses. Some of the women were as young as 17 years of age. As set forth in the complaint, after the women began working in the bars, the defendants forced them to engage in sex acts with bar patrons in exchange for money, with the defendants keeping half of the proceeds. When the women refused or resisted, the defendants used physical force, including rape and assaults, and threatened to report the women to immigration authorities. The defendants also controlled the movement of the women between the bars and other locations in Hempstead, Huntington, and Brentwood, transporting them in vehicles registered to the Riveras and Whaley. The complaint also charges the defendants with conspiring to harbor illegal aliens by concealing the women’s true identities and immigration status from state licensing agencies and law enforcement authorities. Suffolk County Police Commissioner Dormer stated, “These serious crimes against young women will not be tolerated in Suffolk County. This Department values its role as the local law enforcement component of the Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force for Long Island. This case demonstrates the effectiveness of the task force paradigm, which coordinates the efforts of local and federal law enforcement agencies, as well as community service agencies, support groups, and educational entities. We hope these arrests will put others on notice that sex trafficking and similar crimes will continue to be a high priority for this Department.” The details of the investigation cannot be found yet, but one article reports: While dozens of women have been working in the bars, the raids are based on evidence provided by four of them who have been cooperating with investigators, according to court papers and sources. One of the women told investigators that she entered the country illegally and was recruited by the operators of the ring as a waitress when she was 17, the court papers said. She said she was repeatedly raped by one of the operators, according to court papers. To stop the rapes, she said she created an imaginary boyfriend. But her attacker told her "Boyfriend! Watch what I'm going to do to you. Your boyfriend will never want to touch you again." Shortly after, a security guard at the club bashed "her head into the pavement of the parking lot" breaking several teeth and causing black eyes, bruises and lacerations, the papers said. Several of the women said that they had been recruited to work as waitresses through ads on Spanish-language Internet sites and newspapers, promising pay of $40 a day plus tips, and half of the price of the $20 shots of tequila they sold to the undocumented clientele, according to papers. Brookhaven Town Supervisor Mark Lesko said the town had been cooperating with the police and federal investigation.
Jersey City, NJ, United States
Allen Brown Jr. of Jersey City, NJ, along with his mother and niece, were holding women in "stable" like conditions for the past 19 years. Mr. Brown's girlfriend was head of the "stables" and made sure the girls were transported to various locations in Jersey City and NYC, along with keeping track of the money the women made. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were saved by Mr. Brown and placed in family members bank accounts. All those involved in the prostitution ring face up to 20 years in prison, and $200,000 fines.
Crossroads Hotel, Harlow Rd. Springfield, OR, United States
FBI Special Agent Augustus Fennerty and several Eugene police detectives met on April 7th at Springfield's Crossroads Hotel following a call from the 17-year-old victim's mother to discover Milton and the above mentioned girl in a hotel room with another victim. She was 14. Eugene police detective Curtis Newell interviewed the older girl to discover that Milton had been "prostituting out" both girls by telling them how much to charge and what to tell johns when they called. The girls were to charge $250/client, with $100 going to Milton and another $100 going to another pimp involved in the operation. The girls received only $50/client.
treasure island, florida, United States
Authorities say this is the first case in the area, perhaps in the state, where the victims are local residents, recruited and held hostage. The first discovered victim was raped, assaulted, threatened with bodily harm or death if she fled and was forced to work as a prostitute. She was also forced to dance at the Vegas Showgirls nightclub in St. Petersburg. Officials say there are more victims being discovered. and that they are aware of drugs being involved. They brought women to the $600,000 home in Treasure Island with promises of prosperity, deputies say, then took their phones and identification and began a cycle of sexual and mental torture and mind control until the girls felt like they had nowhere else to go. They brought the women to strip clubs, where they were forced to dance and sell themselves while trailed by "handlers." The girls were also forced to recruit other girls. Sources: http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article999813.ece http://www.tampabay.com/news/publicsafety/crime/article1000126.ece
Aloha, Oregon, United States
Los Angeles Police received a call from Cherise's mother after she called her mother when she was stuck in a hotel room with Green. The case was investigated by the Beaverton police force as well. The Oregon Trafficking Task Force, a group of federal and local agencies also took part in the investigation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Scott Kerin. U.S. District Court Judge Garr M. King was responsible for the sentencing of Green to six years in federal prison and three years of heavy surveillance following the prison sentence.
Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, Canada
"Police said today the 18-year-old girl arrived in Hamilton May 28, 2009 and had already been reported missing from a Burlington residence to Halton police. They say she met McCarthy downtown while walking in the core area and he “immediately started to engage her in conversation which turned to the discussion of prostitution and how she could make money for sex,” said Sergeant Terri-Lynn Collings. The conversation continued and, eventually, the girl was allegedly instructed by McCarthy to engage in prostitution and told the money she received was to be turned over to him. She “was escorted into a downtown business where she engaged in a sex act for money,” Collings said. Hamilton police located the girl with McCarthy a short time after she left the premises. She was returned to her residence in Burlington." Source for all data (thespec.com): http://www.thespec.com/News/Local/article/603309
St. Louis, Missouri, United States
"US District Court Judge Carol E. Jackson sentenced Wallace on July 22, 2009 to 20 years in prison and five years of supervised release for a federal civil rights charge of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion for compelling a young St. Lois woman to commit acts of prostitution." http://news.prnewswire.com/DisplayReleaseContent.aspx?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/07-22-2009/0005064605&EDATE=
Daegu, Korea, Republic of
Mr. Seo (40)was licensed to own a adult entertainment restaurant for foreigners, but illegally sold sexual services to patrons.
Super 8 motel, Brown Avenue, Manchester, NH, United States
Uche Ifedikwa, 28, of Hyde Park was prostituting females out of the Super 8 on Brown Avenue in Manchester, NH using craigslist.org. Police said Ifedikwa was using hotels in Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachussetts. They are certain that an 18 year old female was being prostituted, and suspect that a girl as young as 12 was also being prostituted.
Los Angeles, CA, United States
On April 11, 2006, after a multi-agency investigation by ICE, the IRS Criminal Investigation Division, and the LA County Sheriff’s Department, agents conducted a raid of eight locations, including the brothels and homes of the suspects. Mao, Lutt, and Johnson were arrested on April 11, 2006, on a 40-count indictment. Fields remained a fugitive, but was found and arrested on a later date. On August 2, 2007, Mao pleaded guilty to two felony counts--conspiring to use interstate commerce to promote prostitution, and using the proceeds from the brothels to purchase real estate, including four motocross tracks for her motocross company, MX Oasis. Mao will serve 18 months in federal prison and forfeit $10 million worth of real estate. Fields pleaded guilty to two felony counts—conspiring to use interstate commerce to promote prostitution, and conspiring to engage in money laundering. Johnson pleaded guilty to one felony count of money laundering.
Vlore, Albania, Albania
First, trafficker lured her in with an engagement ring and promise of a better life abroad. It started with a speedboat trip from Vlore, Albania to Italia, then finally to brothels in London and Antwerp, Belgium where she was forced to work as a prostitute for five years. (The ban on speedboats by the Albanian government three years ago, which greatly reduced human trafficking, has recently been reversed because of protests by fishermen and people in tourist industry) "It was only after her trafficker sealed her mouth with electrical tape, drugged her and threatened to kill her family that the childlike woman, now 27, says she realized that the man she had planned to marry had seduced her with a terrible lie." The victim reports that "the man who abducted her had gained her trust over months, then locked her in a room and took her passport and cellphone. She said he beat her and cut her with a penknife, a warning of what he would do if she tried to escape." Victim also reported that trafficker had contacts in each city they visited. She said the trafficker also employed a forger, who provided fake documents. "She thought she would finally be freed when her trafficker was arrested in London in 2006 and deported to Albania. Instead, she said, his brothers and their wives, who were in London, put her back to work in the sex trade."
athens, greece, Greece
Four Greek police officers as well as 25 other people were arrested under the suspicion of trafficking approximately 300 women from all over Eastern Europe to Athens. The women were placed in nightclubs and strip clubs, private homes and unlicensed brothels. The police officers allegedly helped supply these women with false identification documents and tipped off nightclub owners about planned police vice raids.
moncton, nb, Canada
A police raid took place around 4:30 am July 7th, 2009. 14 suspects ranging from 15-60 have been arrested with charges varying from drugs, to weapons and prostitution. Court dates to take place in late August 2009.
San Rafael, Argentina, Argentina
Gave permission to the victim to return to Paraguay after victim escaped from bondage. Since the victims escaped the trafficker has not been tracked down.
San Rafael, Argentina, Argentina
Gave permission to the victim to return to Paraguay after victim escaped from bondage. Since the victims escaped the trafficker has not been tracked down.
Mar de Plata, Argentina, Argentina
Victim was picked up by a man claiming to be her "cousin". Then sent to a brothel.
San Rafael, Argentina, Argentina
Gave permission to the victim to return to Paraguay after victim escaped from bondage. Since the victims escaped the trafficker has not been tracked down.
San Rafael, Argentina, Argentina
Gave permission to the victim to return to Paraguay after victim escaped from bondage. Since the victims escaped the trafficker has not been tracked down.
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from a different Argentine province).
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from Columbia).
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from a different Argentine province).
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from a different Argentine province).
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from a different Argentine province).
San Rafael, Argentina
The owner of a bar (El Cerrito) in San Rafael. Other individuals are also likely involved in the trafficking of the victim (trafficked from a different Argentine province).
Metropolitan Parkway Atlanta, GA, United States
A Fulton County jury convicted a 26-year-old Atlanta man Thursday of transporting his 16-year-old first cousin to Metropolitan Parkway for prostitution. Zaccheus Obie, arrested in January, will be sentenced Wednesday for one count of pimping a minor, which could get him as much as 20 years in prison. According to testimony, police learned of Obie after the girl was arrested in May 2008 but he could have been running his operation for as long as four years. He bought her clothes and paid to have her hair done before she was sent to stroll Metropolitan Parkway. Obie took her money, according to testimony. While the case involving his 16-year-old cousin has been resolved, he also is charged with raping the girl’s younger sister, also Obie’s first cousin. That case has not been taken to trial.
Madrid, Spain, Spain
23 suspects are charged with human trafficking. Women were brought over from Nigeria to Spain. Forced them into prostitution with threats of Voodoo curses.
Roma, Italy, Italy
A group of 34 suspects, mainly Nigerian citizens accused of trafficking women for sex. Two Italian doctors conducting forced abortions. http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE55N0FK20090624 http://www.agi.it/italy/news/200906240942-cro-ren0006-human_trafficking_police_blitz_30_arrested_2_doctors
Honolulu, HI, United States
Police arrested Felix Thaxton, of Honolulu, Tuesday on two counts of first-degree sexual assault, two counts of third-degree sex assault, two counts of promoting prostitution and one count of criminal solicitation.
united kingdom, United Kingdom
6 traffickers involved...Ali Arslan, Edward Facuna, Roman Pacan, Mesut Aslan, Kosovan Martin, Valmin Gjetja. They were aged between 26-54 years old and were expected to have sold approximately 50 eastern european women.
Seoul Tourist Hotel (Ssang Moon Dong), Korea, Republic of
Trafficker: Mr. Kim (49) Buyers: Mr. Choi (49) and 4 other men 3 brokers who originally convinced the women from Uzbekistan, China, and Thailand, saying that they could make easy money in Korea. Once they arrived in Korea, the trafficker took their passport and locked them in.
Portland, OR, United States
Donnico T. Johnson, 37., and co-defendent Lisa Miles, 30. Portlanders. Johnson is being charged with sex trafficking, trasportation of a minor and coercion, and enticement of the girl.
Portland, OR, United States
The case was brought on by the Oregon Human Trafficking Task Force. It was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Tigard Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Kemp L. Strickland is prosecuting the case for the U.S. Attorney Office of Oregon. Jackson was arrested 5/11 and a jury trial is set for 8/11/09.
Taiwan, Hong Kong, China, United States, Taiwan, Province of China
The China Post reports that "a Chinese man with the surname Wang was the mastermind. A Taiwanese accomplice surnamed Yang was allegedly responsible for swindling local young girls' ID documents from their parents, mainly in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County." Also involved was a travel agency manager named Liao who helped get passports and U.S. visas for the girls involved.There were also 30 Taiwanese women who were employed to travel with the girls, although they claim they had no knowledge of the scheme.
Minnesota (City unknown), United States
An Eden Prairie resident helped Tatiana escape to a battered women shelter. She eventually got connected with Civil Society.
Pound Ridge, New York, United States
65 year old Author of "The International Who's Who of Chefs 2004-2005" Joseph Yannai surrendered himself to police authorities may 18, 2009 after allegations of human trafficking and sexual abuse. He promissed to pay the girls $2000.00 a month to work for him, and have housing elsewhere, also receiving $20,000.00 at the end of the year. The girls realized very quickly something was not right. Their e-mails were monitered, they did not get any spending money, and there were pictures of Joseph having sex with other women up to six or seven who are believed to be victims. There are allegations that these women were forced to do manual labour for Joseph as well as being forced into sexual acts with Joseph.
Marietta, Georgia, United States
Police investigation led to the intervention and arrests. From the article: "TBO.com Published: May 28, 2009 Pinellas County sheriff's detectives continue to investigate a human trafficking ring and on Thursday announced the arrest of Roosevelt James "Pudgie" Wade, 31, 1910 Cobb Drive in Marietta, Ga., Wade was charged with one count of human trafficking and remained in the Cobb County Jail in Georgia on Thursday, according to local authorities. Since the initial arrests of three men on May 10, detectives say they have talked to additional victims and witnesses and more charges may be filed. In all, six men have been charged. This week, prosecutors dismissed nudity charges against two dancers at the Vegas Showgirls nightclub because they might be victims of the human trafficking ring, they said. The women had been charged with violating a law that prohibits nudity in an establishment that serves alcohol. The Tribune is not using their names because they are alleged to be the victims of sex crimes. Court documents say female victims were transported from a house in Treasure Island to nude dance clubs - including Vegas Showgirls at 10570 Gandy Blvd. - where one woman was forced to have sex with men, documents say.
Mounds View, Minnesota, United States
The Minnesota Human Trafficking Task Force began watching the Jian Kang Massage Center. They also set up a surveillance camera and used agents to act as massage patrons. The video showed a man driving women back and forth from the business to the owners Li and Wang’s apartment. Authorities were finally able to arrest owners Xiu Ju Li and Chun Ming Wang after an undercover investigator said a therapist performed sexual acts on him. The search warrant issued stated that Li and Wang where suspected of illegally coerced foreign women to the U.S. and trapped them into prostitution.
Chula Vista, CA, United States
Darren Hilton, 28, was sentenced February 27th of 2008 to 77 years and four months to life for sexually assaulting four teenagers he had targeted to work for him on the streets. Hilton was convicted in Chula Vista Superior Court in January of forcible rape, forcible oral copulation, committing lewd acts on a child aged 14 or 15, pandering and kidnapping. A 20-year-old woman who prosecutors said was Hilton's accomplice, Ch'keil Nailon, pleaded guilty last year to pimping and pandering charges and faces three to 12 years in prison
aiea hawaii, United States
A 19-year-old man charged with "pimping" the services of a 16-year-old girl on the popular Craigslist Web site and forcing her to have sex with him made his initial court appearance yesterday. Advertisement Marcus X. Arrington of Halawa is charged with first-degree promotion of prostitution and second-degree sexual assault. His bail was set at $50,000 and he is scheduled to appear at a preliminary hearing tomorrow. Also charged with Arrington are Anthony Fuller and Brad Y.K. Young. Both also are charged with promoting prostitution, while Fuller was charged with third-degree promotion of a dangerous drug and Young with third-degree promotion of a detrimental drug.
accra, Ghana, Ghana
Accra, June 23, GNA - A Circuit Court in Accra on Monday found three Chinese who were busted for transporting and trafficking 10 Chinese girls to engage in the sex trade in Ghana, guilty and handed down various jail terms on them.
Accra, Ghana, Ghana
James was sentenced to 17 years imprisonment, while Chou and Sam were sentenced to 12 years imprisonment each. James was sentenced to two years imprisonment on the charge of conspiracy and 15 years on the charge of human trafficking, while his wife was sentenced to two years imprisonment and 10 years imprisonment on the charges of conspiracy and human trafficking, respectively. Sam was jailed two years for conspiracy and 10 years for abetment. Their sentences are to run consecutively. The court ordered the deportation of the convicts after serving their terms. It also ordered that the $14,560 which was found in James’s house on February 14, 2009, the day of the arrest, must be paid into the human trafficking fund and part must be used to pay the amounts James owed the victims.
Oak Hill, Tennessee, United States
Timothy Lee, 42, and son Charles Lee, 24 of Arizona were arrested at a hotel south of downtown Nashville and charged with trafficking women in sexual servitude .The victims were a 20 year old from Texas,who was picked up at a bus station and held against her will, a 22 year old woman from Las Vegas and two sisters, ages 22 and 18, from Denver. Detectives later found three of the women advertised in the erotic services sections of three Internet sites. One of the women told police that she had been traveling with the men for the past few years and was not allowed to leave them. The Texas woman was approached with a job offer at a bus station.The women were sold for prostitution in Colorado, California and Idaho as well as Tennessee.
Gaborone, Botswana
One local NGO received reports from Batswana women that they were forced to provide sexual services to tourists at some safari lodges; however, no complaints have been lodged with law enforcement officials. No other information is known about either the trafficker, the victims, or the specific location of the safari lodge/s.
Springfield, OR, United States
From the Register Guard on June 11, 2009 (http://www.registerguard.com/csp/cms/sites/web/news/cityregion/15291266-41/story.csp): A Springfield businessman was sentenced Wednesday to 240 days in jail after pleading guilty to seven felony sex charges relating to his hiring of underage girls as prostitutes. Prasath Boudavong, who owned Far Man restaurant for four years, pleaded guilty to three counts of third-degree rape and five counts of third-degree sodomy for sex acts with girls as young as 14 between November 2007 and April of this year. Beginning about two years ago, she said, Boudavong “repeatedly sought out children to have sexual activity with, and regularly used the same person” to arrange the activity. That person is still under investigation, she said. Eugene police Sgt. Kevin McCarthy said an investigation by the department’s vice detectives showed that Boudavong was just “a prolific customer,” not a pimp. Boudavong, a small man with thinning black hair, answered “yes, sir” or “yes, sir, I did” every time Billings asked him if he committed each of the seven felony charges. His attorney, Brian Barnes, told Billings that his client committed the offenses after becoming involved with other men who were “prostituting young girls.” “They were prostitutes when Mr. Boudavong made their acquaintance,” he said of the girls, none of whom could legally consent to sex because they were under the age of 16. “It doesn’t mitigate the fact that he had sex with them, but he was not involved in any way with their original corruption … though he could be said to have contributed to their further delinquency.” Billings agreed with the latter point, and lamented the fact that the girls probably were victims of “grossly dysfunctional homes,” early exposure to substance, physical or sexual abuse that led them to “victimize themselves by taking advantage of the predations of older men.” “I hope, somehow, they can break that cycle,” the judge said. Oregon Corporation Commission records show that Keo Boudavong replaced Prasath Boudavong as president of the Gateway area Chinese restaurant this week. Prasath Boudavong is no longer an owner, according to Eugene attorney Jill Featherstonhaugh, authorized agent for the business.
Tampa, Florida, United States
Deputies arrested Kenyatta Cornelous, 38, Edward Jones, 47, and Corinna Shaffer, 24, all of Treasure Island, this weekend. Cornelous, being held without bail, is charged with sexual battery, and all three are charged with human trafficking. Deputies also are looking for Colin Anthony Dyer, 36, in connection with the case.
Fayetteville, NC, United States
Woman charged with prostituting a 14-year-old girl to support her drug habit. "20-year-old Sandra Panecka coerced the girl to run away from home in 2007 and then introduced her to drugs. They say Panecka eventually encouraged the girl to begin prostituting herself so they could both continue to buy cocaine. The victim says she was physically and sexually assaulted and was infected with sexually-transmitted diseases." http://news14.com/Default.aspx?ArID=607111
adult entertainment club at 5343 N.C. 87 South. graham NC, United States
Based on this information, the department started an undercover operation on Feb. 12.09 From that date through May 29, two undercover officers, who carried audio and video surveillance equipment, visited the club once a week to gather information. During that time, the affidavit said, the undercover officers documented about 288 violations of the county ordinance that regulates sexually oriented businesses, at least 349 violations of conduct in a licensed premise, and 17 drug violations.
Vista, California, United States
"VISTA -- Authorities shut down nine businesses and arrested 22 women during an undercover prostitution sting Wednesday afternoon in Vista, officials said. The operation targeted Asian day spas and acupuncturists suspected of plying the illegal trade. Some of the businesses appeared to have living and eating quarters for the women, according to authorities. The bust followed prostitution complaints by the public and several months of investigation by the Sheriff's Department and Vista officials. View the slideshow of Sheriff's Department photos "The city is determined to stop this," said Vista City Attorney Darold Pieper, adding that a spike in massage therapist permit applications helped spur the investigation. "We don't want this here," added Vista sheriff's Capt. Tim Curran, calling investigator's efforts "aggressive." Many of the 22 women arrested are Chinese citizens and some are in the country illegally, the captain said. The women face misdemeanor charges for prostitution, illegal touching and various city health and safety violations stemming from the presence of living and eating quarters inside the businesses. The following businesses were shut down: Touch of Asian Day Spa, Seren Acu-Care, Melrose Spa, Vista Town Spa, Bright Acupuncture, JW Acupuncture, Li Jun Acupuncture I, Li Jun Acupuncture II and Vista Health Center, sheriff's officials said. In photos of the sting released by authorities, several women are shown with their hands restrained and heads down. One photo shows clothing strewn on a bed, a large plastic tub filled with blankets and what appears to be a family photograph framed and sitting at the front of the bed. Authorities had not determined Wednesday whether some of the women owned or operated the establishments. Owners and operators could face charges of felony conspiracy to promote prostitution, officials said. County prosecutors will determine whether to pursue additional charges. Call staff writer Chris Nichols at 760-740-5426." Article from the North County Times
Edmonton, Canada
Undercover police officer acted as a 19 year old girl whom Juneja attempted to recruit into his brothel Four sex workers testified against Juneja Found guilty of 7 out of 8 charges on April 17, 1009 (two counts of keeping a common bawdy house and three counts of living on the avails of prostitution, two counts related to procuring women to become prostitutes. One count of procuring a woman to become a prostitute was dismissed because there was not enough evidence against Juneja) Juneja's lawyer is applying for a stay relating to that charge on the basis that it involved entrapment. The judge will hear those arguments on May 28. In September, a court upheld Alberta Transportation's decision to suspend Juneja's licence to operate the Alberta Defensive Driving School.
KAMBAH ACT AUSTRALIA, Australia
A Canberra woman will face the ACT Magistrates court on sex slavery charges. Australian Federal Police raided a house in the southern Canberra suburb of Kambah at the weekend. It is alleged the 42-year-old woman illegally brought in sex workers to Australia to work in exploitative conditions. The woman is charged with possessing a slave, debt bondage and operating an illegal brothel. A 55-year-old man will also face court.
Lexington,Ky, United States
The alleged perpetrator kidnapped an underage minor from Guatemala where she was held captive for 20+ years. At some point during her captivity the victim was brought to the United States and then moved to Kentucky. The perpetrator fathered two children with the victim during her time in captivity.
Temple Terrace, Florida, United States
A two month investigation led to the arrests of 38-year-old Kenyatta Cornelous, 47-year-old Edward Jones and 24-year-old Corinna Shaffer, all of Treasure Island. All have been charged with human trafficking, a 2nd degree felony. Kenyatta Cornelous, 38, Edward Jones, 47, and Corinna Shaffer, 24, all listed their address as the home at 10214 Tarpon Drive. Cornelous is charged with sexual battery, human trafficking and deriving proceeds from prostitution, the sheriff's office said. He was being held without bail on the sexual battery charge. His bail on the other charges totals $60,000. Jones is charged with human trafficking and was being held on $50,000 bail. Shaffer is charged with human trafficking and deriving proceeds from prostitution and was being held on bail totaling $60,000.
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, Canada
Police noticed and followed activity of young women in the bawdy house. Their English language skills were weak. Edmonton Police Services were not able to gain many details about the owners / mangers of the massage parlour. A Canada Immigration Officer entered the premises, asked the young women for immigration status. No visas were on them. The girls were arrested.
Lexington,KY, United States
This trafficker allegedly kidnapped his victim from Guatemala and forced her to live and work for him for 20 years. They moved to Lexington, KY about 5 years ago. He disappeared 2 years ago and his current whereabouts are unknown. The trafficker is also the father of his victims 2 adult children.
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Honolulu police, the U.S. Immigrations and Custom Enforcement and the state Department of Public Safety conducted a human trafficking investigation at massage parlors in Honolulu from Feb. 18 to March 3, police said. They arrested a 27 year old man who came after a 24-year-old woman. She came forward and said she was coerced into working as a prostitute for the man who used a firearm to threaten her.
Medina, Tennessee, United States
Mark Burns, 48 was indicted by the Carroll County Grand Jury on two more counts of Aggravated Rape in addition to his previous charges of 10 counts of Aggravated Statutory Rape, 5 counts of Rape, 4 counts of Aggravated Rape, 2 counts of Possession of a Controlled Substance with Intent to Deliver, 1 count of Trafficking for Sexual Servitude and 1 count of Evading Arrest. He also previously violated his parole on three counts of Attempted Murder. Burns’ girlfriend, Lindsey Marie Tutor, 26, of Lexington, TN was also involved in abusing the victim with Burns. She was charged with 6 counts of Statutory Rape, 6 counts of Rape and 4 counts of Aggravated Rape. The charges stemmed from one victim who was repeatedly abused in 2008, but additional victims came forward after TBI arrested Burns in January 2009.
Atlanta, Georgia, United States
According to United States Attorney Nahmias, the charges and other information presented in court: On February 21, 2009, local law enforcement officers, working in conjunction with the FBI, arrested PRUITT and HARRIS at a hotel in the Atlanta, Georgia, area, after agents arrived at the hotel to investigate possible illegal activity involving underage girls recruited to work as prostitutes. At the hotel, the agents encountered the 17-year old victim, whose photographs the agents had previously seen on an internet website advertising erotic services. The FBI believed that the victim, whose advertisement listed her age as 19 years, was a juvenile. While at the hotel the victim agreed to cooperate with agents and explained that PRUITT and HARRIS brought her to the hotel to work as a prostitute. The victim further explained that, after meeting PRUITT and HARRIS on February 20, 2009, HARRIS took nude photographs of the victim at a hotel that HARRIS then uploaded onto the “Craigslist” internet website. Within approximately 25 minutes, HARRIS began receiving telephone calls regarding the victim’s advertisement. Subsequently, PRUITT and HARRIS allegedly caused the victim to engage in commercial sex acts with approximately 13 men between February 20, 2009, and February 21, 2009. The defendants knew that the victim was 17 years old, but cautioned her to state that she was 19 years old. The defendants kept all of the money earned by the victim. The indictment charges PRUITT and HARRIS with one count of conspiring to commit sex trafficking of a minor, and a second count charging PRUITT with the substantive offense of sex trafficking of a minor. Count One of the indictment carries a maximum sentence of 5 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Count Two carries a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison, a maximum sentence of life in prison, and a fine of up to $250,000.
Pooler, GA, United States
Police had received reports from neighboring businesses, legitimate masseuses, and a local woman about the J Spa. It featured Asian women in bikini tops and miniskirts offering full-body rub-downs and a range of sexual services for $100-130. The employees lived at the massage parlor, and it was open till 2am. It was noted that local men, aged 40-85, were visiting the spa around the clock. The police set up a bust, but the spa was empty. One "employee" was charged with prostitution. She was taken to jail and released on cash bond the next day.
Savannah, GA, United States
Police had received reports from neighboring businesses, legitimate masseuses, and a local woman about the VIP Spa. It featured Asian women in bikini tops and miniskirts offering full-body rub-downs and a range of sexual services for $100-130. The employees were living at the massage parlor, and it stayed open till 2am. It was noted that local men, aged 40-85, were visiting the spa around the clock. The police set up a bust, but the spa was empty. They arrested two of the "employees." One was charged with prostitution and the other was charged with masturbation for hire. They were taken to jail and released on cash bond the next day.
West Seattle, WA - 14500 block of Aurora Avenue North, United States
A Renton man, Tyrone A. Bellinger, 24, pleaded guilty to attempted commercial sexual abuse of a minor girl, 13. Prosecutors asserted he lured the girl into his car and, after showing her his pistol, forced her to sell herself in August, 2007. According to court documents, the girl's first prospective clients were two undercover King County Sheriff's Office detectives. They arrested the girl on suspiciion of prostitution. Bellinger faces 21-35 months in prison.
Vacaville, CA 95687, United States
[Click to zoom.] Click to enlarge (File) AP 1 of 1 Close numSlides of totalImages A man is arrested and accused of holding a woman hostage and forcing her into prostitution. Police say the woman was held against her will on and off since December of 2007. Authorities say if she didn't follow the suspect's rules, she was beaten. "It's our understanding that she was beaten and forced to go to a certain part of the home and remain there. If she attempted to leave or to get food or go to the bathroom, she would be beaten," police say. Vacaville police say that a 23-year-old woman was held against her will, off an on for more than a year and forced into prostitution. Officers showed up to a Vacaville apartment complex on a disturbance call yesterday, and when they arrived they say 24-year-old Sean Grant didn't cooperate with detectives. nstead, Grant tried to escape out a second story window. Police caught him, which sparked an investigation which led them to a badly beaten woman. "He would beat her with it as an instrument to inflict pain to gain her compliance," detectives tell CBS13. Police say Grant also put her on Craigslist, selling sex, and forced her to prostitute herself on the streets locally in and around the Bay Area. "She started keeping a tally sheet so when she would go to the authorities its our understanding that he located the tally sheet, he destroyed the tally sheet and she was beaten as a result of doing that," say authorities. It started back in October of 2007, when police say the two started dating. The woman tried to get away, but she couldn't. "He had threatened her family with harm if she did not return. When she returned to save her family at that point she was beaten severely as to be taught a lesson that she was not to try and leave," police tell CBS13. Grant is charged with false imprisonment, human trafficking and criminal threats. Detectives say while this woman has been through so much she is doing well and she is safe.
Montréal, Canada
Feb. 7 2009 Hrudey Youance was arraigned on 12 counts of pimping, three counts of human trafficking and two counts of assault causing bodily harm.
Montreal, Canada
Mark was arrested by Montréal police. In November 2008 we was found guilty of human trafficking and sentenced to two years. He served only a single week in prison after being convicted because he was given a 2 for 1 credit for his one year of pre-trial custody.
Seattle, WA, United States
A nationwide "Operation Cross Country III" of police and federal agents arrested 35 people in Western Washington as part of a nationwide sweep aimed at curbing the sexual exploitation of children. 48 child prostitutes were rescued; 10 were from Washington State. 571 people were arrested for investigation of state and federal charges involving the domestic trafficking of children for sex.
Chesterton, IN, United States
Justin Cephus, 31, Stanton Cephus, 28, and Jovan Stewart, 30, all of Hammond, Haneef Jackson-Bey, 20, of East Chicago, and Delbert Patterson, 19, of Steger, Ill., have been charged with conspiring to commit and committing sex trafficking and prostitution violations involving 16 minor and young-adult females. From approximately February 2006 until January 2009, the defendants, led by Justin Cephus, who is charged in each of the 21 counts, ran a prostitution business out of his home and various other locations in and around Hammond,” the statement said. “The business, which advertised in the Yellow Pages in Illinois and Indiana under the names ‘Beauty Escorts,’ ‘Beautiful Entertainment,’ and ‘The Finest and the Best,’ provided sexual services to callers from Northwest Indiana and the Chicago, Ill., area.” “Defendants used a variety of tactics to recruit girls and keep them working for the business, according to the indictment, including handing out business cards to pretty girls at retail outlets and telling them that the business involved ‘promotions,’ ‘modeling,’ ‘house cleaning,’ ‘private dancing,’ or ‘massage therapy,’” the statement said. * Source: http://chestertontribune.com/PoliceFireEmergency/7893%20fbi_seeks_info_in_sex_traffickin.htm (Retrieved 7/20/09)
Jeonju, Korea, Korea, Republic of
The trafficker was sentenced to 8-months in "prison for business owners" for operating an illegal business and extortion. The trafficker ran a brothel where he held prostituted women for 30 days each. Each act the woman was forced to perform cost the john 60,000 KRW, all paid to the trafficker. The trafficker made 3,402,000 KRW off of each woman/month. It is unclear by the article just how many women were enslaved.
Seoul, South Korea, Korea, Republic of
The 16 yr old victim was forced into prostitution by 3 older classmates. For over 20 days starting on July 2nd she earned millions of won from over 50 acts of prostitution, and all of the money was stolen from her. After meeting a man through internet chatting and choosing a meeting place Park would be taken to the spot to have sex with him, for which she was paid from 100,000 to 200,000 won. They would accompany her to and from the motel. Park told investigators that she wanted to escape from prostitution was unable to leave because of her terror over the beatings she sometimes received from Kang and the others. The 3 traffickers were arrested for forced prostitution of a minor. Police have said they will continue their investigation to find all of the men who paid to have sex, and will do so by using their phone numbers.
Denison, Iowa, United States
“Prosecutors said [the trafficker] who has used addresses in Sioux City and Omaha, Neb., recruited and harbored two Nebraska girls [in 2007] for commercial sexual activity, including prostitution and performing at strip clubs. They said the girls, ages 15 and 16, were runaways.” (Fox News) “[The trafficker] took the girls to Davenport and Rockford, IL, and back to Denison, IA, over several days, and had them engage in prostitution and perform at strip clubs, including Big Earl’s Key Club in Denison.” (Iowa Attorney General) “An anonymous tip led police to rescue one of the girls at Big Earl's [a strip club in Denison]. The other was put on a bus to Washington, D.C., to meet with Russell's cousin and learn to solicit sex. Police in Washington rescued her there.” “The girls testified that they engaged in prostitution and performed at strip clubs including Big Earl's Key Club in Denison. They said they had to give the money they earned to Russell and Ryan in exchange for food, shelter, transportation and clothing. The teens testified they were ashamed with what they were doing, but they felt they had nowhere else to go. One of the teens was with Russell for eight days, the other for 10 days, officials said. “[The suspect] was found guilty of two counts of human trafficking, two counts of pandering and a count of ongoing criminal conduct during a September trial in Crawford County. [He] was sentenced [December 22, 2008] in Crawford County District Court to 25 years on the ongoing criminal conduct charge, and 10 years on each of the other four charges — with all the sentences to be served concurrently. He was also fined $5,000.” (Fox News)
Jacinto City, Texas, United States
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.
Berlin Kreuzberg, Jaysons bar, Germany
male, 40 years old male, 42 years old owners of the bar "Jaysons" had agentur for modeling in Berlin Kreuzberg asked boys to model for them made them drunk sold them to other man
Iceland, Iceland
The young woman had been imprisoned for many months in Lithuania before being sent here. She had been kept in one apartment, doped up, and sold into prostitution to as many as five men a day. At one point she had managed to escape her captors, but since she was not given adequate protection they managed to find her and abduct her again. Finally a man showed up at the apartment who “befriended” her and whom she came to trust. He told her she would be sent to Iceland to start a new life. Her hair was cut and dyed, and she was supplied with forged travelling papers. The woman – who was only 19 – had thrown a fit on board the plane and needed to be restrained. She was arrested on arrival in Keflavík and taken into police custody. She turned out to be heavily drugged and was confused and irrational. After questioning, she was taken to a Red Cross hostel, from which she disappeared – hence the missing person report. There were concerns that she had been abducted and might come to serious harm. A few days later, the woman re-appeared and couldn’t really account for where she had been. However, an investigation had already been launched, and the woman was once again taken into police custody — allegedly for her own safety. As it continued, the investigation grew larger and more extensive in scope. All sorts of people – both Icelandic and Lithuanian – were implicated in a wide range of criminal activity, including human trafficking. Some had been involved in serious crimes in other countries, including murder. It became evident that a well-organized mafia was operating in Iceland. The investigation finally led to those convictions.
Helsinki, Finland, Finland
Helsinki's Court of Appeals has convicted two Estonian men of human trafficking. The convicts were found guilty of forcing a developmentally disabled woman to prostitute herself. The court found that the men kept the woman in an apartment in Helsinki and sold her to more than a hundred men over the course of three weeks. The crimes took place in the summer of 2008. Source: http://yle.fi/uutiset/teksti/news/2009/12/two_men_convicted_of_human_trafficking_in_helsinki_1325203.html Source: http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Prosecutor+calls+for+prison+sentences+in+human+trafficking+case/1135240997757
Blue Springs, Missouri, United States
Todd B. Barkau, with the assistance of the victim’s mother, obtained control of the then-12-year-old girl in 2000. With her mother’s knowledge and consent, Barkau sexually groomed and trained the child to become a BDSM (bondage-domination-sadism-masochism) sexual dominatrix. He did so by engaging in BDSM activities with the child himself, forcing her to engage in sexual activities with other men while he watched, and using BDSM pornography over the Internet to teach her techniques and skills to use as a dominatrix. Barkau resided in the same home as the child and her mother, who allowed Barkau to engage in BDSM activities with the child and teach the child techniques to become a sexual dominatrix. When the child was 14 years old, Barkau created a business out of the home where he advertised the child over the Internet as a 19-to-20-year-old BDSM dominatrix, “Mistress Alisha,” on a website that he created called www.EvilMistressAlisha.com. The victim’s mother suggested the name “Alisha” for the child because it was her own former stripper name. For two years, Barkau sold the child, as “Mistress Alisha,” to sexually dominate men during online web sessions and in-person BDSM activities. This included, among other things, bondage, beatings, burning, and genital mutilation. The customers paid for the sexual services via PayPal cash transfers and with “tributes,” which were products that served in lieu of cash payment; for example, a DVD player, a cappuccino machin,e and other electronics. The victim’s mother knew the child was performing as “Mistress Alisha” on the Internet and in her home and witnessed some of the sessions herself. In committing the offenses, Barkau utilized the victim’s mother to assist and encourage the child to serve as the dominatrix for Barkau’s illegal BDSM business. The victim’s mother accepted financial benefits from Barkau in exchange for her cooperation and support of the child’s BDSM activities. http://kansascity.fbi.gov/dojpressrel/pressrel10/kc050510a.htm
Lake Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL, United States
Elodia Capilla Diego, Sergio Gonzalez Ramos, Marcelino Berdou-Lopez
Amsterdam, Netherlands, Netherlands
Saban Baran 38,and Hasan Baran 43, born in Turkey. Convicted in 2008 of leading a gang forcing more than 100 women into prostitution, tattooing some of them to mark them as the gang's property
St. Albans, Queens, New York, United States
The District Attorney said that, according to trial testimony, in August 2008, the 19-year-old victim was “sold” to Brown by an ex-girlfriend who was an acquaintance of the victim’s for $2,000. The defendant told the victim that she would be his “bitch” and that she would work as a prostitute in order to earn him money. Brown also told her that she was not allowed to talk to her family or friends or leave his apartment without him or else he would beat her and cut up her body to make sure that no one would know she was dead. Whenever Brown left the location, he would have someone watch the victim to make sure that she didn’t leave. Trial testimony also revealed that Brown took nude photographs of the victim in various poses and posted the photographs on Craigslist to advertise her services as a prostitute. Testimony showed that during a 12-day period in August the victim engaged in sexual acts with approximately thirty men in exchange for cash – ranging from $60 to $200 – which she turned over to Brown. Finally, on August 23, 2008, the victim managed to escape from Brown’s residence when left alone. However, the next morning, Brown and an unapprehended male found her at a location on Lefferts Avenue near Far Rockaway. Brown and the unapprehended male who was holding a gun approached her and Brown grabbed her by the wrist and said that she had to come back with him to earn him money as a prostitute before forcing her into a car. District Attorney Brown said that Brown and a co-defendant, Nino Isakadze, 21, were originally arrested on August 24, 2008, on charges of raping the victim and forcing her into prostitution. At their arraignments, bail was set at $200,000 for Brown and $50,000 for Isakadze. When the case was about to be presented to a grand jury, authorities learned that the victim had run away. Unable to locate the victim and proceed with the case in a timely fashion, the Court was forced to release the defendants without bail pursuant to Criminal Procedure Law 180.80. The victim was subsequently found on September 23, 2008, when she was arrested on a charge of loitering for the purposes of prostitution. A joint investigation by the New York City Police Department and the Queens District Attorney’s Office revealed that Brown’s brother, Devon Gordon, 27, of 656 Grassmere Terrace in Queens, had paid the victim not to testify and then hid her. Gordon has since pleaded guilty to tampering with a witness and was sentenced to a conditional discharge. Isakadze, who has been indicted on charges of first-degree rape and fourth-degree promoting prostitution, is a fugitive.
Vista, CA, United States
The news article below details the offenses and the initial arrest, By EDWARD SIFUENTES - esifuentes@nctimes.com | Posted: November 25, 2009 8:55 pm SAN DIEGO ---- Two men accused of helping to run a prostitution ring that served migrant camps in North County pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court. The men, Eduardo Aguila-Tecuapacho and Carlos Tzompantzi-Serrano, stood expressionless in a federal courtroom as Judge Louisa Porter read the charge back to them. Both men said in Spanish that they were guilty of harboring illegal immigrants for the purposes of prostitution. Each man faces up to 10 years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced in January. Both are illegal immigrants from Mexico and will likely be deported once they have completed their sentences, Porter said. A third man involved in the case, Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, is facing several charges that he brought women across the U.S.-Mexico border to use them in the sex trade. His trial is set to begin next month. Aguila-Tecuapacho helped Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez by renting an apartment in Vista where one of the prostitutes lived, according to court documents. Aguila-Tecuapacho also allowed Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, who is his cousin, to use his name for cell phone accounts and vehicle registrations for cars that were used to transport the women. Tzompantzi-Serrano acted as a driver taking the women to various North County spots where the women allegedly worked in outdoor brothels, according to federal prosecutors. Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly befriended at least two women and then forced them into lives of prostitution. In May 2008, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly paid a smuggler to bring Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez, one of the prostitutes, illegally into the U.S. His relatives sheltered her in an apartment on West Los Angeles Drive in Vista. She later relocated to a nearby home at 311 Weston Circle. Once in North County, Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez allegedly took de la Cruz-Ramirez to meet clients in ranches, canyons and apartments, according to court records. He paid her rent, cell phone bills and bought her supplies, such as condoms. Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, de la Cruz-Ramirez and another woman were arrested on Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff's deputies stopped the vehicle they were in, in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couzer Canyon, a place authorities say is often used by sex traffickers to set up makeshift prostitution camps. Activists say prostitution is common in North County's migrant camps, where men live in makeshift shanties while working as farm hands and day laborers throughout the region. In recent years, authorities have busted several prostitution rings in the area, but officials say the cases are often difficult to prosecute because the women are often too scared to testify against their pimps.
Reisterstown, Maryland, United States
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.
Scotland, United Kingdom
Raid occurred freeing 59 women from trafficking in Scotland.
Dublin, Ireland, Ireland
T.J. Carroll, age 49, Irish citizen living in Wales. Shamiela Clark, age 32, wife of T.J. Carroll, originally from South Africa and a former prostitute. Toma Carroll, 25, Irish citizen, daughter of T.J. Carroll from previous marriage and former law student. Women and girls from many countries were brought into Ireland for purposes of sex work. Some brought in from Nigeria had been forced to participate in a voodoo ritual with a witch doctor that would supposedly curse those who tried to leave or who tried to tell the authorities of the work they were doing. Many of the women were beaten if they fell short of complying with the brothel's rules, and in some cases, their family members were actually beaten and then forced to phone the women, describing to them what had happened. Many of the women had been told they were going to Ireland for educational opportunities, but were instead forced to work 15-hour shifts in the brothels to pay back a debt that in some cases reached 60,000 euros.
Settle Inn, I-435 Corridor, Overland Park KS, United States
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".
United kingdom, United Kingdom
Thomas John Carroll, his daughter Toma Carroll, and Shaemial Clark. They have all denied joint charges of human trafficking into the UK, out of the UK, and controlling prostitution and money laundering.
Buffalo, NY, United States
Multiple arrests were made, with 4 convictions to date: *Ronald H. Tills (18 months in prison) *John Trowbridge (two years probation after) *Michael R. Stebick (probation for two years, ordered to pay a $5,000 fine and directed to provide 250 hours of community service) *Len Wah Chong (six years in prison, five years supervised release)
Bordentown, New Jersey, United States
47 year old man nicknamed " Prince" and 49 year old women nicknamed "China" both from the New Jersey area. They used heorin and beatings to mantain control over the many victims.
Aflao, Ghana, Togo
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. The NGO Every Child Ministries Ghana negotiated with the Sovigbenor shrine community 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 126 of its trokosi slaves on December 9, 2005. 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 79 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved there since she was about one year old.
Fouke, Arkansas, United States
74 year old Bernie Hoffman, more commonly known as Tony Alamo, started the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries in the late 1990s. The Tony Alamo Christian MInistries have compounds in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and New Jersey. The Arkansas compound started had 100 followers, and Alamo "preached that young girls made the best wives." Alamo transported five underage girls across state lines for sex. Three out of the five girls openly said Alamo sexually abused them. Among these criminal accounts, since the 1970s Alamo was alleged of "kidnapping, brainwashing, child abuse.."
somerville, Mass., United States
A detective later called a sex-for-sale advertisement and posed as a prospective client to arrange an appointment for later that day. Investigators arrested Graham after police found a 31-year-old woman set up in a prostitution scheme inside La Quinta Inn in Somerville. The woman allegedly admitted Graham forced her to have sex with clients for money and threatened her with bodily harm if she did not perform, according to reports. Detectives said when they arrived at the hotel about 8 p.m. to meet the victim, Graham and a second man were spotted leaving the hotel and going outside to sit in a blue Ford Escape in the hotel parking lot. Inside the hotel room, the victim was reluctant to speak with police, according to the report. Somerville Police said the woman was nervous and concerned about identifying her pimp and the details of the prostitution scheme. Police reported the victim described to investigators her history with the pimp, who allegedly used manipulation, extreme control and fear to dominate her.
kuala lumpur, Malaysia
the victim came under Punitha's care after she was sweet-talked by agents in India that she could get a job as a maid in Malaysia. During her confinement, the victim was forced to provide sexual services to 20 to 25 men daily and her earnings were taken by Punitha. She was also threatened by Punitha that if she refused, her family in India would be killed by gangsters there. the victim managed to escape to the Indian High Commission before making a police report. Source: http://www.hindustantimes.com/StoryPage/StoryPage.aspx?sectionName=ViewsColumnsSectionPage&id=1f20bf9b-b476-4e7f-be7e-94714041a61e&Headline=Indian+woman+gets+8+yrs+for+forced+prostitution
Fremont, IN, United States
An undercover officer met with Mr. Stump in the Freemont area and had a fairly lengthy discussion on the sale of the child. The terms of it, and the amount involved. Stump paid the officer $500 dollars and arranged to pick up the child later in the day. Officers pulled Stump over on his way home and took him into custody. He told police he intended to take the girl out of state and marry her.
broad st., columbus, ohio, United States
Ashley was arrested for prostitution, and then emancipated.
Richmond, IN, United States
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.
Overland Park, Kansas, United States
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.
South Hill, Virginia, United States
The King County Prosecutor's office last week charged DeShawn "Cash Money" Clark with the crime as part of an ongoing case it launched in November against several defendants reputedly associated with a gang called the "West Side Street Mobb." Clark is alleged to have preyed upon his longtime relationship with an on-again, off-again girlfriend. According to the court papers, he and his buddies promised to take care of her if she became a prostitute and gave them the proceeds. They stashed her at various hotels, where she would keep her sex earnings in the rooms' bibles, and advertised her services on Craigslist. Clark used her for sex, and sometimes would act nice. At other times, he would beat her, like when she wasn't making enough money for him. The West Side Street Mob used other women the same way, according to the court papers. Investigators believe members of a gang called the Westside Street Mobb forced 12 women and girls to perform sex acts for money, beat them and took the money they earned over several months last year, according to charges filed in King County Superior Court
Logansport, Indiana, United States
A 22 year old Burmese male, not a U.S. citizen, and a 23 year old white male have been charged with forced labor and trafficking with respect to forced labor. The 2 men tricked a 16 year old girl, a naturalized citizen, from Buffalo, New York into traveling to Fort Wayne, Indiana with them. The men invited the girl to a party in Fort Wayne and the girl agree to go with them, believing Fort Wayne to be a nearby community. She fell asleep in the car and woke up to see signs for Pennsylvania and Ohio. She screamed at the driver to turn around and let her use his cell phone. He refused. Upon arrival in Fort Wayne, the men pulled into a park and one of the trafficker climbed into the back seat and beat the girl while the other prevented her escape. After 3 weeks in an unknown location, the trio re-located to an apartment in Autumn Woods, at 6011 Salisbury Drive, Fort Wayne, Indiana. They were joined by one of the traffickers' wife and children. They later moved to Logansport. During the time the girl was held in captivity, she was forced to cook, do housework, and watch the children for no pay. At one point, she was locked in a room for 2 days without food by the wife. She was also beaten repeatedly. After the move to Logansport, the 22 year old trafficker began raping her. The girl became pregnant after she was raped in August, but was no longer pregnant by the time she was rescued. A witness reports that she was hit in the stomach by one of the men. While in Fort Wayne, the girl was not allowed out of sight of the two men, who spoke only in Burmese so she could not understand them. The girl was eventually taken out in public by the two men and was forced to use an alias. She was told that she would be arrested as a runaway if she tried to return to Buffalo, N.Y. and was told that it was dangerous to go outside. Her identification documents were taken from her, and her naturalization paper was torn up. http://www.fortwayne.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/JG/20081113/LOCAL03/811130304 http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/buffaloerie/story/506337.html http://www.wlfi.com/dpp/news/local_wlfi_logansport_teen_held_as_sex_slave_200811131040
Steeles Ave & Bathurst St. Toronto, Ontario, Canada
A woman from Eastern Europe stumbled into the police station at Dundas St. W. and University Ave. She said she was a sex slave.
Chesterland, Ohio, United States
Four women were arrested in connection with a prostitution ring. The women, who were not identified, are in Geauga County Safety Center awaiting a Korean interpreter. Geauga Sheriff Dan McClelland said they are awaiting the interpreter to get the women's names, citizenship status and charges sorted out. One woman was taken to University Hospital's Geauga Health Center for treatment after she suffered an anxiety attack. Sheriff officials launched an undercover investigation after learning that the spa, 8386 Mayfield Road, offered more than massages.
White Horse Road, Greenville, SC, United States
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.
Lima, Peru, Peru
The child is not considered a citizen because she does not have a birth certificate and therefore, cannot seek the assistance of law enforcement.
Westside of Seattle, United States
DeShawn Clark, 18, who goes by "Cash" or "Cash Money" was charged in November of 2008 with promoting prostitution and other charges. Prosecutors added the charge of second-degree human trafficking on Friday, March 20, 2009. This is the first time King County has charged anyone under the 2003 law that was passed that criminalized human trafficking. Charges agains DeShawn Clark now include second-degree human trafficking, first-degree promoting prostitution, two counts of promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor, second degree assault, unlawful imprisonment and drug possession. Thomas I. Foster, 19, was also charged in Movember and several other members were charged with various related counts Friday, including Shawn S. Clark, 20; Gerald Jackson, 21; Mycah Johnson, 19, and Desmond Manago, 20. Investigators say the gang, which is affiliated with the Bloods, has 20-30 members involved in robbery, drug sales, weapon possession and aggravated assaults, according to charging papers.
Miracle Spa, 3312 S. 192nd in Sea-Tac; Royal Spa, 16407 Lake Hills Blvd. in Bellevue; Chada Thai Bodyworks, 10448 NE 29th in Bellevue; Lisa Thai Massage, 1942 Market Stree in Kirkland, United States
Four message parlors were raided. King County authorities say they were tipped off by federal immigration officials, who believed some of the young girls working as prostitutes may have been part of a human trafficking operation. Police arrested 4 women who ranged in age from 28-51. They were booked on various charges, including promoting prostitution and money laundering. The article did not say if the women were managers or the actual prostitutes who worked in the massage parlors. No men were arrested, but the article said that detectives seized the business records and customers who can be identified from the records will be contacted by detectives and police say charges are possible.
Gatineau, Canada
Emerson, aged 28, was charged in connection with crimes involving several victims between the ages of 15 and 20. Emerson worked with co-accused, Gordon John Kingsbury, who has been charged with sexual assault, forcible confinement and living on the avails of prostitution Emerson has been charged with several charges including living off the avails of an underage prostitute; extortion and exercising control; attempting to procure someone under the age of 18 for prostitution; and procuring someone under 18 for prostitution. She has been charged in both Gatineau and Ottawa. The human trafficking charge is in Gatineau.
South Seattle, WA, United States
Yong Kang, Kasheng Zhu, Rujing Jiang and Zhenhua Liu and five other people were srrested in conjunction with their alleged involvement in an international sex-trafficking rign that recruited prostitutes from several Asian countries and rotated them between brothels throughout the U.S. The arrests were made during early morning raids at 5 locations. Two were alleged brothels and one was an escort service run out of a private residence. The other locations were the homes of two defendants. Wiretaps employed from May 31 indicate that at least 40 Asian prostitutes worked brief stints at the Seattle-area brothels. Investigators said the women came from at least 9 different countries, including China, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. Some of the women came to the U>S> on legitimate visas and never left; some were transported in shipping containers. Some Korean women arrived in British Columbia illegally, and then were smuggled into the U.S.. Others came to the U.S. in forged visas. All nine defendants were charged in U.S. District Court in Seattle with conspiracy to transport individuals in furtherance of prostitution. Eight defendants were charged with conspiracy to transport and harbor illegal aliens, and four were charged with money laundering. The trafficked women traveled between Seattle and at least 15 other cities.
Everett, WA, United States
Jerome Todd of Everett, Washington, is arrest and sentenced to 26 years in prison for pimping. The federal judge ordered Todd to pay nearly $70,000 to 3 women who worked for him as prostitutes. A jury in May had convicted Todd, 29, of numerous federal sex-for-sale crimes, including sex trafficking. Jurors were convinced Todd forced women to sell their bodies as part of an Internet-based prostitution ring.
Mississauga, Canada
On November 11, 2008, Vilutis arrested in Mississauga. He was charged with human trafficking, exercising control of a prostitute, living off the avails of prostitution, assault, two counts of uttering threats to cause bodily harm or death and possession of a controlled substance.
Lynwood and Everett, WA, United States
Lynwood police arrested 15 people in a prostitution sting centered on escorts who advertised on the Craigslist Internet site. Detectives from Lynwood and Everett joined I.C.E. agents in making the arrests. Those arrested included 10 women, aged 17-47 and five men. Two of the women were underage. The females were from cities in the Puget Sound area, including Edmonds, Everett, Kirkland, Mukilteo, Renton, and Seattle.
Martha Lake, Washington, United States
Detectives had been investigating for 8 months. They had watched male customers going in and out, followed the presumed manager and associates and shadowed the person they believed to be the manager, a 45 year old woman referred to as Coco, as she took bags of cash to the bank. Once in November and again in January, an undercover detective posed as a customer and was offered a sex act inside the Red Dragon Spa. One of the women told an undercover detective that she was from China and had been in the U.S. for two years. Authorities were suspicious as to whether she and the others were immigrants forced to work as prostitutes by organized crime groups to repay the costs of the trip, court documents say. Authorities arrested one of the women on immigration violation but were not considering it a trafficking case, according to a spokeswoman for I.C.E. The investigation was buttressed by complaints to the Kirkland Police Department. One woman filed a police report after discovering that her boyfriend had visited the Kirkland spa three times and paid for sex acts. A man also tipped police, saying his ex-girlfriend, the manager, was providing sexual services inside the parlor, court documents say. I.C.E. also received a tip that the spa manager had a friend who is an immigration lay attorney, who would help Chinese women obtain papers to come to the U.S. where they would work as prostitutes. The tipster said the girls obtained fake credentials as nurses or teachers before coming to the U.S. and that the spa owner frequently picks up new employees at the airport.
Everett, WA - Honey's Strip Club, Highway 99 near Gibson Road, United States
Honey's, a strip club in Everett, and several other Puget Sound area clubs owned by the Calacurcio family are the focus of a federal investigation into organized crime. Honey,s, Snohomish County's only strip club, according to federal investigators, is a haven for prostituttion, with dancers blatantly offering sex for money and the clubs owners taking kickbacks from the illegal activities. Federal agents and local police raided the clubs owned by Frank Colacurcio Sr. and his son, Frank Colacurcio Jr. Monday morning. No charges have been filed. Instead a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against the clubs' owners prohibiting them from selling off the clubs or their assets. The freeze is part of a ongoing rackateering investigation that alleges the clubs were run by a criminal enterprise according to court papers.
SeaTac, Washington State, United States
A Thai woman, Chomphoonut Dongrid, was arrested for operating brothels in Kirkland, Bellevue and SeaTac, Washington. I.C.E. arrested her on a charge of conspiracy to transport individuals in furterance of prostitution. She is accused of arranging sham marriages for the purpose of bringing Asian women to work in the sex industry. Dongrid ran brothels at 1942 Market St., Kirkland, 16407 Lake Hills Blvd., Bellevue, and 3312 S. 192 St., SeaTac. To staff the brothels, she is accused or recruiting women in Bangkok, Thailand. On one occasion in 2006, Dongrid sent a co-conspirator to Thailand to marry a womanb through a sham arrangement so she could gain entrance to the U.S., court documents say. When the woman arrived in Seattle, Dongrid told her she owed a debt of about $25,000 for her immigration papers and for travel to the U.S. A month later, she began working for Dongrid, as a masseuse and was required to provide sexual services. In June, 2006, a second woman answered a newspaper ad to work as a masseuse and traveled to Seattle from California, where she too, performed sexual services for money. In June 2002, a third woman traveled from Bangkok to Seattle and worked for Dongrid as a household servant and prostitute. If found guilty, Dongrid faces 5 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. She is a citizen of Thailand and a legal, permanent resident of the U.S.
Waikiki Princess Kaiulani Hotel, United States
An Oahu grand jury has indicted two men on charges stemming from an alleged attempt to force a 20-year-old woman into prostitution. Johnathan Payne was indicted Wednesday on charges of first-degree promotion of prostitution, kidnapping and two counts of being an accomplice to sexual assault. Also indicted was La Shawn R. Adams on charges of kidnapping and third-degree assault. The woman alleged she had gone to meet a friend at the Princess Kaiulani Hotel in Waikiki, and was held against her will in a hotel room Jan. 9-11 by three men. The woman said the men wanted her to be a prostitute, according to a police affidavit. Police said the woman refused and asked the men to leave the room, but they held her captive instead. While being held, the woman was sexually assaulted, a spokesman for the prosecutor's office said.
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, Canada
Tyrel Henwood is charged with assault, unlawful confinement and uttering threats, procuring a minor, living off the avails of prostitution of a person under the age of 18, compelling a teenager to engage in prostitution and threatening violence, intimidating and coercion. His trial date has been set for April 14-24, 2009 in the Victoria Provincial Court. He has elected to be trial by judge alone. Police recommended that Henwood be charged with trafficking in persons, but as of March 2009, Crown prosecutors had not laid this more serious charge.
Knight Arnold and Ridgeway, Memphis, Tennessee, United States
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.
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States
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.
Anchorage, AK, United States
Don Arthur Webster Jr., aka "Jerry Starr," age 51
Washington DC, United States
A couple, Franklin Macedo and Yaneth Martinez, were arrested for human trafficking and prostituting women from Mexico and Honduras. To get clients, the couple handed out business cards in the Hispanic neighborhood that said “hair cuts for men only”, or “flowers home delivery”. These cards were code language for prostitution.
Grand Junction, Colorado, United States
She is charged with racketeering (class 2 felony), pimping (class 3 felony), tax evasion (class 5 felony), keeping a place of prostitution (class 2 misdemeanor), and promoting sexual immorality (class 2 misdemeanor). She was booked into the Mesa County Jail on a $250,000 bond.
Mead Valley, United States
CBS News Article 12/13/08 (can be found here: http://cbs2.com/local/Riverside.Mead.Valley.2.886528.html): Man Gets 965 Years For Sex Assaults On Disabled RIVERSIDE A Mead Valley man who sexually assaulted at least nine women he brought to his home and kept some of them tied up as sex slaves, was sentenced Friday to 965 years in prison. The district attorney said all of Peter Frances Milosavjevic's victims were mentally impaired. Between 2001 and 2005, Milosavjevic, 57, brought at least nine women to his Rios Road duplex, according to trial testimony. The victims, who he met cruising the streets, were offered shelter in exchange for housework and sexual favors. Most of the women, whose ages ranged from 30 to 59, were developmentally disabled and homeless, and some had worked as prostitutes. Authorities used photographs the defendant -- who lived next door to his mother in the duplex, had taken to identify his victims. "I doubt I'll ever see a case as despicable as this one in the years to come," said Riverside Superior Court Judge Mac Fisher as he announced his sentence. Fisher addes, "This sentence is appropriate for the destruction you have caused the victims." A Riverside woman testified that Milosavjevic tied her to his bed and violated her with a vibrator coated with a burning substance that caused intense pain. Investigators said he also used drugs and alcohol to subdue some of his victims. Another woman testified during the trial that Milosavjevic promised he would kill her and her family if she left him. She was repeatedly raped, sodomized and forced to give oral sex during her six-month ordeal, said Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Chirco. Some of the women were freed after Milosavjevic tired of them, while others found ways to escape, she said. Milosavjevic testified the women were his lovers. He said he felt sorry for them and took them home to get them off the streets. His attorney, Chris Jensen, said in October that Milosavjevic operates on the "same mental plane as the mentally challenged women who testified against him." Milosavjevic had previous convictions in 1983 and 1995 for assaulting women. One of his victims was raped and beaten so badly she was in a coma for several days.
La Plata, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina, Argentina
Law Enforcement has only been involved in a way that permits the sex industry and benefits from it.
Renton, Washington, United States
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.
Lotus Acupressure Spa, 225 East Avenue, Lockport, NY 14094, United States
Len Wah Chong, also know as Lisa Tsui, was arrested along with her husband, Che Ngan Tqui, also known as Allen Tsui, and her brother, Kim Poh Chong and Wei Shang. They were charged with operating massage parlors or acupressure spa establishments as fronts for prostitution and human trafficking. Between August 2004 and Ocober 2007, Len Wah Chong, 43 years old, trafficked at least 11 women to exchange sexual favors for money. Chong pleaded guilty in April 2008 to sex trafficking of persons by force, fraud, and coercion. She and her family operated four massages in the greater Buffalo region: Lotus Acupressure Spa in Lockport; Golden Acupressure and Lucky J Fortune Teller, 3571 Niagara Falls Blvd. in Wheatfield, NY; Lotus Acupressure, 2302 Niagara Falls Blvd. in Tonawanda, NY; and the Lotus Spa in Niagara Falls, NY. Chong's plea agreement with the U.S. District Attorney's Office requires her to pay $350,000 in restitution to 11 former "employees" and an additional $350,000 in forfeiture to the federal government. She was sentenced to six years in prison and five years supervised release. As part of the plea, Chong agreed to cooperate with the U.S. Attorney's Office in the ongoing investigation into human trafficking in northern New York massage parlors. U.S. Attorney Terrance Flynn is quoted in the Niagara Gazette (4/17/08): "She [Chong] admitted to being the person to coerce these women to the area, many of them not knowing - they thought they were coming here to be legitimate massage therapists, but once they got here they realized what they were really here for and did not have the ability to leave." The Chongs (Tsuis) and her brother are naturalized US citizens, and Zhang has permanent residence status. They are originally from China, as were nearly all of their trafficking victims. The criminal complaint says that the women were treated as sex slaves, expected to work off their passage to the USA that had been financed by the traffickers. As a side note, on March 20, 2008, retired Lockport Police Captain John Trowbridge, 60, pleaded guilty in federal court to transporting a local massage parlor worker (undocumented) from one of Chong's spas to Kentucky for the purposes of prostitution. The arrest occurred on October 28, 2005, for a meeting of the Royal Order of Jesters, an international fraternal society. That ties into a whole series of corruption angles to the case. Despite opposition from block clubs and local business owners, the Chongs were able to gain Zoning Board approval for their Lotus Acupressure Spa in Niagara Falls thanks to the ardent support of then-Mayor Vincenzo Anello, according to the Niagara Falls Reporter (12/18/07). Mayor Anello convinced the board that the spa and acupressure were legitimate. Assemblyman Robin Schimminger wrote a letter supporting Chong saying that her spa "be a welcome addition to your business community." The Niagara Falls Development Corp even offered a $10,000 grant for Lotus Spa to help them get started. The 77-page criminal complaint filed by the US District Attorney's Office refers to customers known as "the judge," "the police captain," "the sheriff," and one survivor she offered regular free services to "an immigration officer" in order to get his help in bringing her son into the United States. "The judge" is even quoted in the criminal complaint as giving Chong advice on how to run the club and how his referrals (friends) should be treated.
Nashville, Tennesee, United States
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.
Denison, Iowa, United States
Leonard Russell recruited two girls from Nebraska to engage in commercial sexual activity, including prostitution, and to perform at strip clubs. The two victims, ages 15 and 16, were runaways and were harbored by Russell. The victims testified that they met Russell in Omaha, Nebraska on August 20, 2007 after they ran away from a juvenile home located in Fremont, Nebraska. They were recruited to help at 19-year old prostitute, named Marcia Ryan. The victims were then transported to Davenport, Iowa, then Rockford, Illinois, and finally back to Denison, Iowa. They were forced to engage in prostitution and perform at strip clubs, one of which was Big Earl’s Key Club in Denison, Iowa. They were forced to give their earnings to Russell and Ryan to pay for their food, shelter, transportation, and clothes. One victim was with Russell for eight days, and the other for 10 days. Investigations showed that they had been advertised on the internet as prostitutes.
London, UK, United Kingdom
Oriental Gems was an "online brothel", which specialized in girls from the South East Asia. A gallery on the site showed photographs of more than 60 naked and semi-naked women. Many of them were effectively commodities who had been traded and invested in by "bondholders". Southwark Crown Court heard that Oriental Gems was run by Pongpoj Pitayatanakul, his brother Bordee, and Pongpoj's girlfriend Monthira Duangthip, all from Guildford, Surrey. They employed four men as drivers and assistants: Panya Peakaew, from Paddington, west London, Nopharat Charoenying, and Graipich Vudto, from Bayswater, central London, and Thatri Pornpaditkong, from central London. One specific case is of a woman - advertised on the website as "Helen" – who had been "bought" from her traffickers by a syndicate of two women and a man for £11,000 and then told she would have to pay her "bondholders" £30,000 to win her own freedom. Brian O'Neill, prosecuting, said she effectively had to sleep with 300 men, at £100 a time, to buy herself out of a modern-day form of slavery. The "bondholders", who effectively owned several of the women and expected them to pay off their £30,000 debt, were two women, Jirapha Sriwicha, of Hendon, north London and Sutima Khongpon, and Phanusak Kaewbenjarkarn, both from Streatham, south London. Metropolitan Police’s Chief Superintendent Ian Dyson, in charge of the Clubs and Vice Unit has said, “What is notable about this gang is the level of exploitation that the women had to work under - their debt bondages are the highest we have ever come across - in the region of £28,000.”
Kirkland, Bellevue and SeaTac, United States
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.
Jennings, Missouri, United States
"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)
Belgium, Belgium
Komitov was originally sentenced to six years in prison, however on October 15, 2008, the Belgium Appellate Court increased his sentence to eight years because of the human rights violations and violence used against victims.
Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
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.
Lynnwood, WA and Everett, WA, United States
In early 2007, Jerome Eugene Todd, 28, recruited a female victim to work as a prostitute in Lynnwood, Washington. TODD and an indicted co-defendant photographed the woman and posted her pictures on the internet through Craigslist offering commercial sex acts. TODD set the prices for the sex acts, and provided the female victim with cell phones so he could manage her activities. He told the victim that she needed to follow his rules, and threatened to beat her. On three occasions he beat the woman and grabbed her by the throat. Also in 2007, he trafficked the woman to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he had her work as a prostitute. In July 2007, TODD recruited a second victim to work as a prostitute, also in Lynnwood, Washington. He controlled all of her activities, set strict rules, and threatened her repeatedly. He directed her to respond to prostitution calls, and to hand over all of the money to him. He did not allow the second woman to contact family or friends. On two occasions, he assaulted her when she attempted to disobey his rules and to escape. In September 2007, TODD enticed a third victim to work as a prostitute. Similar to the first and second victims, he had this woman’s photograph posted on Craigslist, advertising services for sex. TODD again imposed harsh rules that the woman had to abide by, and would assault her when he believed that she was intending, or did, violate his rules. He also physically blocked her from leaving him by requiring this woman to place all of their assets and financial debts in her name to compel her to work for him. TODD used the proceeds from these three women to rent rooms at motels and apartments, purchase condoms, lubricants, cell phones, airplane tickets, and lingerie, and placed ads in Seattle Weekly. He also used the criminal proceeds to support a lavish lifestyle, and purchased high-end jewelry and clothing. Todd may have used some of the profits to make back child support payments. He owes more than $70,000 to seven different women for his kids, all under the age of 7, according to court records filed in Snohomish County Superior Court. Records show that Todd made payments during the months he allegedly ran the prostitution ring. Some of those payments were as little as $5. One woman told detectives Todd stashed his money in boxes at home, afraid if he used a bank the state would seize his earnings to pay off his back child support. Todd also faces additional charges for allegations that he violated the conditions of his federal probation. Todd was convicted of bank fraud in 2004 and has been under federal supervision since then. Todd also has a warrant for his arrest for failing to make complete child support payments. Todd describes himself as a "private caregiver" who sometimes has trouble collecting from his clients. He doesn't have any employment history. His probation officer noted that Todd often arrives in lavish vehicles driven by different women and always has money on him, according the search warrant. Two of the women who worked for Todd believe he may have earned up to $300,000 during the past two years.
Sydney, Australia, Australia
Four Australians and one South Korean woman were arrested and charged with offences relating to running a sex trafficking business. The business was estimated to be making 3 million Australian dollars a year (about $2.8 million US dollars). Police raided a Sydney brothel and rescued 10 South Korean women. The victims were recruited in South Korea with offers of jobs and organized work visas. Once they arrived in Australia the traffickers took their passports and made the victims work in a brothel for up to 20 hours a day.
bangkok, thailand, Thailand
Nikki, who is from Central Asia, was desperate to find a job after her husband died of a heart attack. A friend told her that she could make a lot of money in Bangkok serving as a "companion" for wealthy clients at exclusive hotels. So she left her two children in her home country to try out the new job in Bangkok. She didn't realize until her first night in Bangkok that she would be prostituting herself, and she did not realize it would turn into three years of hell. But by then it was too late. The owners of the hotel intimidated and threatened her into submission.
El Paso, Texas, United States
Sardar Gasanov, and his wife Nadira Gasanov recruited women from their hometown of Tashkent, Uzbekistan to come to the US with the promise of modeling jobs and the ability to bring their family to the US after them. Sargar is was a research assistant in the Biological Science Department at the University of Texas at El Paso. The couple got J-1 visas for the victims, which stated they were scientists who would be doing research for the University of Texas at El Paso. Once the women arrived, their immigration documents and passports were taken by the Gasanovs, and they were forced to work seven days a week at strip clubs in El Paso. They were forced to work through threats of deportation and threats against their families, which enticed the women to work hard and give all their earnings to the Gasanovs. It is estimated the couple made over $700,000 from their business from 1998-2001.
Brooklyn, NY, United States
Alex Babaev and Asker Memmedov recruited women to come to the US from Azerbajaijan to work as prostitutes. From March 2003 to March 2004 women were forced to work through violence and verbal threats. The victims were told they could keep half of the earning from working, but received none of it, and had their passports taken.
Berwyn, PA, United States
William Strunk, Chun Yong Madden, and John Evans Jr. operated a prostitution business located in Berwyn, PA on Lancaster Ave. called “Swan Day Spa.” From April 2005 to January 2008 Evans recruited women from China to come to the spa to provide sexual services to clients. Victims believed they would have legitimate jobs as masseuses. When the victims refused to work, they were told they could not leave and were threatened that immigration authorities would be called. The women were available to customers 12 hours a day, six days a week. The victims were give $15 for each customer, of the $60 to $65 fee they were charged. Total profits from the business totaled $195,000.
Brighton, Massachusetts, United States
In 2004, Roman Valdma was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years supervised release for charges of importation of aliens for immoral purposes, transportation for illegal sexual activity, persuading and enticing illegal sexual activity, encouraging and inducing aliens to come to the US in violation of the law, brining na alien to the US without official authorization for commercial advantage, and visa fraud. Valdma was also ordered to pay a $75,000 fine, and to forfeit $80,000 in cash, a car, and a condo to the government.
Monroe, North Carolina, United States
Three arrests were made total, including Jarkowsky and two employees*. *These employees are the victims. See below. These two were bonded out of jail but are scheduled to appear in court in September 2008. The Island Spa was shut down.
Flushing, NY, United States
Wun and Kyongja Kang promised victims from Seoul a better life in the U.S. and work in their bar “Renaissance Bar & Room Café” in Flushing. The women were told they would have respectable jobs keeping customers company at the bar and pouring drinks. After arrival, the victims were told they each owed Kang a $10,000 smuggling debt and for their rent. The victims were never paid for their work, and their passports were taken. The victims were told they could work of their debt faster if they preformed sex acts for customers. When they tried to escape they were caught and sexually assaulted.
Norcross, Georgia, United States
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.
Jamaica, New York, United States
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.
Hyattsville, Maryland, United States
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.
Brooklyn, NY, United States
Chai Hock Ng trafficked three women from Indonesia to work in brothels first in Connecticut then in Brooklyn. The victims knew the man as Johnny, who recruited them, saying that for $3,000 the women would receive a falsified visa, a plane ticket, and a restaurant job in New York. After arriving, the women were told they would be working as prostitutes, and threatened with being shot by Ng and several of his friends. The victims were forced to have sex with men, who were charged $140 for 45 minutes, and told that they now owed Ng $30,000 and that he would make arrangements to sell them to brothels in order to collect his money.
Los Angeles, CA, United States
Alena Okhotina (a Russian national) paid for her 18-year-old niece to fly to Los Angeles from Russia. Upon arrival, Okhotina took her niece's passport and declared she would have to work as a prostitute and told her she would be arrested for her illegal status in the U.S. if she went to the police. The teenager engaged in prostitution in California and in Las Vegas, Nevada. Okhotina took the money the teen earned.
Cartersville, GA, United States
The trafficker is Harrison "Hardbody" Norris, a former professional wrestler. He has two residences in Cartersville, GA. It is known that he has been running prostitution rings in Atlanta, GA since 2001. Norris, with several partners, operated a scheme where they recruited vulnerable women and promised them that they could train to be professional wrestlers. Instead, the women were held captive, physically abused, held in debt, and forced to perform numerous sexual acts against their will. Norris also had several of the women perform domestic work on his house such as painting and laying sod.
San Francisco, CA, United States
-SF operation allegedly run by Young Joon Yang, who lived in Beverly Hills. Allegedly used YJY Travel and Tour, a travel agency in the city (3001 Geary Blvd), to bring in women from Korea, and Yang's Taxi, a cab company, to transport them. Prostitutes were also flown to work in Las Vegas, Dallas, New York, and Boston. -Other major players: Wu Sang Nah (aka Kang Nah), Sung Yong Kim (aka Nam Kim), Myong Su Ahn (Paula Lee), Nam Young Lee. -Some evidence that ringleaders for SF and Southern California were communicating with each other and sharing girls. -Targeted women from impoverished areas of South Korea, offering them jobs as waitresses & bar hostesses in America, and charging them fees that they would then have to pay off. -King's Massage Parlor (315 Jessie Street, SF) Allegedly ran by Fred A. Frazier. Building owned by Ahdi M. Nashashibi, who was also charged. This was a major outpost in the operations; many prostitutes arrived there first before being moved elsewhere. -Golden Flower Steam & Sauna Spa (215 Second Street, SF) Allegedly ran by Anthony Gar Lau, who pleaded guilty in 2007 and was sentenced to one year in prison. Also ordered to forfeit $1M in profits from the spa and two years of supervised release after his prison term. -House on Knollwood Drive, Saratoga Operated by Keun Sung Lee. -Sun Spa (Geary Blvd, SF) and Acucare Oriental Spa (Emeryville) also involved
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, United States
The trafficker imported Asian women for the use of forced prostitution in the Coure de Lane area.
San Rafael, CA, United States
The victim was a 16-year-old girl who ran away from her home in Washington. She arrived in the Bay Area on August 3, 2007. She had met the suspect in MySpace and came to the Bay Area to meet him, but there was no mention of prostitution until after she had arrived. Upon her arrival, the suspect told the victim that she must prostitute herself. According to San Rafael police spokesperson Margo Rohrbacher, "[The suspect] told her that he wanted her to prostitute herself, or his friends would look up her family and hurt them … She would give all her money to him, and he would give her money for food and clothing. She was staying with him at some location in the East Bay." Police found the girl on the street, where she appeared to be looking for sexual customers. They stopped to question her, and she told them her situation. Under their direction, she called the suspect, saying she had a customer waiting and asking how much to charge. The suspect gave her instructions and said he would meet her at the Canal area Burger King to collect the money. Police arrested the suspect when he drove up to the restaurant. Police also found marijuana in his car, which was impounded. The suspect was arraigned on 8/10/2007 on charges of “soliciting for a prostitute, pandering, unlawful sex by fraud or fear, sale or transportation of marijuana and driving with a suspended or revoked license”
GwangJu, Korea, Republic of
3 adults forced a 14-yr old runaway into prostitution, forcing her to have sex with over 800 males. The child was locked in a hotel room for 6 months and forced to perform sexual acts on more than 5 males a day. The traffickers charged 100,000 to 200,000 KRW to each male, making over 120 milion KRW from the child The child did not get any of the money. The three people beat her up and burned the back of her hand with cigarettes whenever she begged them to let her go home, according to the police. The police were able to arrest the perpetrators when they tried to kidnap the victim after she escaped her captors.
Edina/Richfield/Minneapolis/Austin, Minnesota, United States
This case is the result of an investigation by ICE, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the St. Paul Police Department, with the assistance of the police departments from Minneapolis, Richfield, Austin and West St. Paul. The investigation was also aided by the Gerald D. Vick Human Trafficking Task Force. Hisep-Roman was sentenced to 28 months in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of conspiracy to commit an offense against the U.S.
Minneapolis, MN, United States
Daniel McNeal, A 36-year-old Minneapolis man, who also goes by the names of “Diamond” and “Daddy,” has a long criminal history, including assault, aggravated robbery and prostitution-related offenses. He is also recognized as a criminal sex offender in connection with a 2001 conviction in Texas for enticement to travel in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution. Trafficked individual across several state lines, including Iowa, Texas and South Carolina. McNeal was sentenced to 293 months in federal prison.
Burnsville, Minnesota, United States
Justine Alex Reisdorf, a 19-year-old Burnsville woman. Her indictment alleges that between November 2006 and March 2007, Reisdorf operated a prostitution ring. Court documents stated that Reisdorf knowingly employed female students under the age of 18 from Minnesota School District 191 to serve as prostitutes for that business. Reisdorf’s operation was advertised on the Internet, specifically through listings on Craigslist.com. Those listings advertised both adult and minor prostitution services and displayed photographs of the females, along with available services and prices.
Las Vegas, NV, United States
Federal agents and Las Vegas police officers arrested six persons believed to have been illegally operating bordellos in Clark County. Officials seized 3,500 tabs of Ecstasy, $20,000 in cash, and detained 25 mostly non-English speaking Asian females during the raid. Agents and officers are investigating whether any of the female detainees are underage or if they were forced into prostitution.
Gaithersburg, MD, United States
Lloyd Mack Royal III, also known as “Blyss”, “B”, and “Furious” is a 29 year old male who, "preyed upon vulnerable minors and prostituted them by a variety of deplorable means for his own benefit” (Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force). He was convicted on March 24, 2010 of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking of a minor; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; possession of a firearm in furtherance of a crime of violence; conspiracy to distribute drugs; and distribution of drugs to persons under 21, related to a scheme to prostitute three minor females.
Canal area of San Rafael, CA, United States
After San Rafael police arrested Parker, he was charged in Marin Superior Court but the case was dismissed in favor of federal prosecution for Sex Trafficking of a Minor, which resulted in a 130 month sentence (June 2008). US DOJ press release: http://www.justice.gov/usao/can/press/2008/2008_06_18_parker.sentenced.press.html Marin IJ story: http://www.marinij.com/ci_7069141?IADID=Search-www.marinij.com-www.marinij.com
Boston, MA, United States
Vanessa Cristina Guedes Lopes, of Miami, Florida, was sentenced to 20 months in prison for bringing aliens to the U.S. illegally, bringing individuals in interstate commerce for prostitution, sex trafficking, and conspiracy. In addition, she has been convicted for making false statements in immigration documents—she will be deported after serving her sentence. Lopes recruited women, advertised them online, and sent them to various cities in Massachusetts. She coerced the women into staying through the use of threats, such as the deportation.
Kolkata, India, India
the perpetrators were arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department on 2/16/07. On May 3, 2010 the two men and one woman traffickers were sentenced to 10 years in prison for t he trafficking and commercial sexual exploitation of three minor girls. The girls who were 12, 14 and 16 years of age had been lured by the traffickers from their rural villages in Nepal and W. Bengal with the prospect of legitimate work in Kilkata. Instead they were sold to the traffickers who forced them into having sex with as many as 12 customers per day.
Johannesburg, South Africa, South Africa
Police intervened."This comes after a complainant opened a case of abduction earlier in the day. It is alleged that the couple abducted a 19-year-old female who was brought to South Africa from Zimbabwe about a week ago under the pretext that she was going to be employed," said Xaba. The couple then demanded R1800 ransom money from the woman's brother. "An arrangement was made with the suspects to meet at a nearby shopping centre where a ransom was to be paid," said Xaba. But the police pounced on the couple and arrested them.
Seattle, WA, United States
Trafficker was indicted on June 21, 2007 for leading a human-smuggling ring that trafficked South Koreans into the United States through Canada. He pleaded guilty on April 7, 2008, and admitted that he smuggled between 25 and 99 Koreans into the United States. In July 2009, he was sentenced in a Seattle court to two years in federal prison, but had already served that time while he awaited the outcome of his case in the U.S. District Court. He was also sentenced to two years of supervised release for conspiracy to smuggle and transport aliens into the United States. Prosecutors said they sought an unusually light sentence for Sohn because he cooperated with authorities who were investigating other similar smuggling operations. After Sohn was indicted, he helped agents crack other smuggling rings that had been using the same safe houses as Sohn’s group.
Oakland, CA, United States
In the plea agreement, pled guilty in United States District Court yesterday to two counts of transporting a minor for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2423(a) and one count of transporting a person for purposes of prostitution under 18 U.S.C. § 2421. Mr. Bryant has agreed to serve a prison term of 96 months, with a subsequent term of supervised release of eight years. In addition, Mr. Bryant will be required to register as a sex offender. The prosecution, part of the Justice Department’s Project Safe Childhood, is the result of the combined efforts of the Union City Police Department, the Mesa, Arizona Police Department, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office - Fremont Branch, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Project Safe Childhood is a national initiative launched last year by the U.S. Department of Justice aimed at combining federal, state and local law enforcement resources in order to bring more Internet-related child exploitation prosecutions, and to educate the public about the dangers that the Internet poses to children. Michelle Morgan-Kelly, the District’s Project Safe Childhood Coordinator, is the Assistant U.S. Attorney who is prosecuting the case, with the assistance of legal assistant Cynthia Daniel.
canal area, San Rafael, CA, United States
From Marin Independant Journal, article by Gary Klien http://www.masscops.com/forums/cyber-crime/38889-feds-hit-myspace-pimp-suspect-child-sex-trafficking-charge.html "A 32-year-old man accused of pimping a teenage girl in San Rafael after meeting her through MySpace.com is now facing a federal sex trafficking charge. Melvin Parker Jr., a convicted felon from Richmond, could face 10 years to life in prison if convicted of the federal charge of sex trafficking of children, according to a complaint by the FBI. The federal government has an interest in the case because Parker allegedly enticed the victim, a 16-year-old runaway from Washington state, across state lines through MySpace, a social networking site. Federal law prohibits using "force, fraud or coercion" to get a minor across state or national boundaries to engage in a "commercial sex act." Parker, who was arrested in August, has already been charged in Marin Superior Court with soliciting for a prostitute, pandering, unlawful sex, sale or transportation of marijuana and driving without a license. He has pleaded not guilty." "Authorities said Parker put the girl up at the Economy Inn in San Pablo while making her work as a prostitute in Richmond, Concord and San Rafael." According to SF Chonicle, Parker picked up two girls for the purpose of sexual exploitation. http://www.sfgate.com/flat/archive/2007/10/12/chronicle/archive/2007/10/12/BAHISOPNC.html
Colma, California, United States
Sept. 2007: Police announced that two women had been arrested for allegedly offering prostitution services out of a massage therapy business, A-Care Health Center in Pacifica. Pacifica Police worked with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency and the Broadmoor Police Department to execute a search warrant after neighborhood complaints about lewd acts committed at the business surfaced, police reported. Jing Wang was arrested on prostitution charges, and Yu Fen Wang was detained by immigration enforcement officers and charged with immigration violations For original article, see: http://cbs5.com/crime/A.Care.Health.2.459643.html
Oakland, San Francisco, Alamdea County, San Jose, Cambell, United States
Law Enforcement from around Oakland, San Francisco, San Jose, and Alameda county, FBI, and the DOJ consulted and constructed the operation Strikeout. Undercover work took place and 131 arrests were made.
Edmonton, Canada
Tonya made a decision to quit cocaine on her own. We are not sure whether the presence of caring friends at church which she attended or simply a growing awareness through the new associations she was making led her to quit. She says she wanted to do what God wanted her to do. She has said that she wants to become an Orthodox Christian. Tonya has fetal alcohol syndrome with some brain damage. He ability to follow through is limited.
Amherst, Baffalo, NY, United States
Yan Liu, 48 Ms.Liu spoke by telephone with an Asian woman then in California on several occasions in August, 2007 and persuaded the woman to purchase an airline ticket and travel to Buffalo for the purpose of working in a massage parlor owned or operated by the defendant. She owned or operated Asian Greenday Spa in West Seneca, New York and Rainbow Spa in Amherst, New York. The woman who traveled from California worked in Asian Greenday Spa and performed numerous sexual acts for customers and was paid in "tips" for these services while the parlor's base massage fee was paid over to Ms. Liu.
Surrey Hills Sydney Australia, Australia
Melbourne film maker Luigi Acquisto helped 'Ning' lodge her claim, finding her whilst researching for a human trafficking documentary. He then enlisted the help of human rights lawyer Fiona McLeod who in turn helped Ning to lodge her claim
Accra, Ghana, Ghana
Police stopped the bus Mahad was being held captive and transported in, found her chained under the seats and released her. Differing media accounts regarding the cause of her attempted enslavement led to little if any action pursuing her captor and her would-be owner. Mahad is now recovering with the aid of a women's help group in Accra.
Mississauga, Canada
According to Court records, the female victim met Mr. St. Vil while participating in an album cover photo shoot for his employer in Montreal. She and Mr. St. Vil started a relationship shortly after meeting and then moved from Montreal to Mississauga, Ontario, where she started working as an exotic dancer and, later, as a prostitute. Mr. St. Vil was violent toward her and she was too frightened to contact police for three months. During this time, the victim gave $20,000 earned from prostitution in Ontario and the United States to Mr. St. Vil. While visiting Montreal around April 22, 2007, the victim contacted the police and Mr. St. Vil was arrested upon his arrival in the city.
Everett, WA, United States
The man's arrest was part of an ongoing effort of Everett police to combat prostitution. One officer was quoted, "We're attacking it from all angles - from the johns to the prostitutes to the pimps." Undercover officers had set up several sting operations to arrest people selling and buying sex. They've also used Craigslist to nab customers and prostitutes. The man arrested came to the detectives attention in March after a woman reported seeing her daughter's picture in Craigslist and an advertisement that indicated that she was selling sex. The mother said her daughter was being "pimped out and tht the man assaulted her daughter and refused to let her visit with her family according to the search warrant. In July the police heard from another concerned mother who told them that her daughter was being held against her will in a south Everett apartment. Detectives found the woman, who told them the Everett man bought her for $250 and she worked for him as a prostitute at a Lynwood motel. She told them she gave the man all the money she made. Both women told police they were afraid of the man, who carried a pistol and beat and assaulted them. Everett police last month searched two apartments and seized computers, drug paraphenalia and about $2,000 in cash. They continue to investigate.
Everett, WA - Casino Road, United States
Seven women were arrested for prostitution in an undercover operation in Snohomish County. None of the pimps were arrested. Police noted that three of the girls arrested were from out of state and the others live in Seattle and Tacoma. Although no mention was made of any male arrests, the article said that earlier that month police had arrested several men in a "john" sting, targeting customers. In both cases no traffickers were found/arrested.
Peabody, MA, United States
Trevor Jones worked as a landscaper and telemarketer. He was recently prosecuted for his actions with two women whom he met at parties, gave drugs, and then forced them to pay back his "kindness" through prostitution. They had to make at least $150 per event, make at least $1000 per night, and give all the money to him.
Saipan, Northern Mariana Islands, Guam
The FBI investigated and prosecution was carried out by the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department. The jury convicted Wei Qin Sun and she was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment and 3 years of federal supervision after her release.
I-25 and Hampden Avenue, Denver, Colorado, United States
Police are aware of 8 massage parlors in and around the Denver Metro area. This particular store was closed and the couple are awaiting charges.
Brampton Ontario, Canada
According to the Court record, the human trafficking victim was 15 and homeless when Nakpangi forced her into prostitution. He received $360, 000 from her. He led a luxurious lifestyle from the money he made from his illegal activities. He is currently in prison.
Minneapolis, MN, United States
From April to December 2007, Craig Kraft and Liqing Liu operated a prostitution business. The location changed constantly which included motels in Bloomington, Golden Valley, Plymouth, and Minneapolis. The office for the business was located in St. Louis Park. Women were rotated to work in the brothel, and Liu arranged for the victims to travel to MN from California, New York, and Texas.
Columbia, South Carolina, United States
Jesus Perez-Laguna was sentenced in Federal Court to 14 years and forced to pay the victim $52,000. Upon serving his sentence Perez-Laguna will be deported back to Mexico and not granted reentry into the United States. Ciro Bustos-Rosales was sentenced to 70 months in prison, ordered to pay restitution, and ordered to comply with similar terms and conditions of release as those included in Perez-Laguna’s sentence.
San Mateo, CA, United States
Xiao Feng Shen, 35, of San Jose, Jia Jing Chu, 34, of San Jose, Ai-Ching Chang, 45, of Sunnyvale, Yan Song, 42, of San Jose, and Ming Sun, 32, of San Jose plead guilty to maintaining several residential brothels harboring Asian women who were being sold for sex.
Broadbeach, Queensland, Australia
Mr. Dobie tried to recruit 4 women under false pretenses from Thailand. 2 arrived in Australia, expecting to work in the sex industry,but upon arrival, both were forced to have sex with clients for whom Mr. Dobie received the money. Upon asking to leave this work, they were told they would be arrested if they left, as he was their vias sponsor. The police arrested him, He was charged with and later pleaded guilty to two counts of trafficking in persons (deceptive recruitment),4 counts of presenting false information to an immigration officer,and one count of dealing in the proceeds of crime.
Albania, Albania
Twoo people named Vanja and Damir. Damir was waiting for us.We followed Damir, who had our tickets and travel documents. He spoke with official and gave him something before we went into the ship and down many stairs. I thought we were near the engine - the smell of oil was very strong, also rotten food and the smell of clothes not washed in long time. He said for our safety he must lock the door but will return in the morning. Two of us had to share a bed, but only for one night and next day we shall come to Italy! The next morning we arrived in Bari. I asked him who they are, but the polite young man from my father's shop grab my arm and said something very bad in Albanian. He hit me on the face. I fell on the ground and he pulled me by hair into a room and hit me more than once until my face start bleeding. I did not understand what has happened. I heard other girls screaming. And then he raped me. Than the other men came in and did the same. After that event, each day the same men came again, and then the others, who paid money to be with us. If we said no, Damir would hit and kick us and gave us no food. He said THIS was modeling we must do for anyone they say. He paid for our passports and documents. They belong to him and to be without them in foreign country means going to prison if police find us. If we try escape, he and his friends will kill us and no one will ever know.
Honolulu, HI, United States
Per the Department of Justice news release: "Assistant Attorney General Perez and U.S. Attorney Nakakuni commended the FBI and the Honolulu Police Department for their work in investigating this case and rescuing some of the defendant’s victims. FBI Special Agents M.K. Itnyre and Kristin Lee investigated this case, and Trial Attorneys Edward Caspar and Kayla Bakshi of the Civil Rights Division and its Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit and Assistant U.S. Attorney Darren Ching prosecuted this case for the United States."
Junction City, Kansas, United States
Victim talked her way home and pressed charges. Law enforcement was little help.
Penang, Malaysia, Malaysia
Police officers in the Philippines arrested and questioned Rachel Sabal after receiving information from Edmonds and Howe. After questioning, Sabal was arrested and held in custody for investigation of human trafficking. Police in Malaysia performed a search of an apartment where Edmonds and Howe suspected Ejercito was being held. Though they found evidence that she had been there, there was no continuation of the investigation after that. When Ejercito turned up at the police station in Malaysia, she was interviewed while her captor, Kang, sat in the room with her, preventing her from speaking honestly about her situation. Howe suggested that Kang be removed from the room and once he was, Ejercito admitted that she was being held against her will. Though there is no evidence, both Edmonds and Howe believe that, based on the behavior of the police and Kang, that they had a preexisting relationship. Later, after Dr. Ng had arrived at the police station and Ejercito's passport had been returned, the police permitted both Kang and Dr. Ng to walk free and no trafficking charges are known to have been filed against them. However, in 2006, Philippine official organized an operation to rescue the 15 other victims that were being held captive by Dr. Ng and Kang.
After Dark Gentlemans' Club, South Africa
The Gauteng kingpin is said to have direct links to human trafficking syndicates in Thailand and usually receives new recruits from OR Tambo International Airport.The sources said that three kingpins - who were now in hiding - had been identified, two in KwaZulu-Natal and one in Gauteng, and warrants for their arrest had been issued. Unconfirmed reports state that the police, as part of their ongoing investigations, have uncovered a money trail between South African criminals and their Thai counterparts, running into millions of rands.
Linköping, Ghana
All 5 traffickers were sentenced in Swedish courts. Lalik got 3 yrs, Makulova 2.5 yrs, Osmanovic 2.5 yrs and one of the Idic brothers got 2 yrs and 8 months while the other brother got 4 months less. http://www.gp.se/content/1/c6/27/91/09/Manniskohandel.pdf http://www.gp.se/gp/road/Classic/shared/printArticle.jsp?d=113&a=278084
Charlotte, NC, United States
There were 31 arrests made, reported by the Associated Press on August 16, 2006, with no details regarding the traffickers, other than the fact that it was connected with a Korean couple in New York City. Some of the charges brought against the 31 suspects include "conspiracy to engage in human trafficking, prostitution, and conspiracy to transport illegal aliens."* *sourced: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,208838,00.html
Philadelphia PA, United States
A syndicate held girls as sex slaves by forcing them to work off tens of thousands of dollars of debt they had accrued for phony documents and transportation to the U.S., the feds said. Investigators said recruiters in Korea sought out women who wanted to make money to support their families. The recruiters took care of everything, supplying fake immigration documents, passports and visas, and transporting the women to the U.S. A network of transporters drove them to brothels along the East Coast. They were stripped of their identification and phony passports, thus cutting off any chance that they could flee the country. Besides, if they thought about running, the women were warned that they could be handed over to the police - or, worse yet, that their fhttp://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-16694466_ITMamilies in Korea could be killed.
Austin, Texas, United States
Juan Balderas-Orosco and Maria Camacho Teran are being charged for transportation for prostitution, importation of illegal aliens and conspiracy to smuggle, transport and harbor illegal aliens. The two were part of prostitution ring from November 2002 to June 2006. They sneaked hundreds of women mainly from Latin America in the U.S. to rotate them among brothels in Austin. Most of the women were illegal immigrants. Survivors claim that all of their earnings were kept.
Frankfurt, Germany, Germany
After three weeks of captivity and abuse, including multiple rapes, Lucy acted compliant to gain trafficker's trust, then asked to use a cell phone. She called a friend in Finland, who gave her the number of the German police hotline. She called and German police arrived and rescued her. The
Worthington, Ohio, United States
The Columbus Police and Franklin County sheriff's deputies executed a search warrant inside the massage parlor. According to Franklin Co. Chief Deputy, the business was a front for organized prostitution. They found bags of condoms and $15,000 in cash, wrapped in aluminum foil.
Madisonville, TX, United States
June was arrested in August of 2006 in Madisonville, TX, held in Houston on $150,000 bond. 40 count indictment handed over, pled guilty to two felony counts, $10 million in assets seized, sentenced by U.S. District Judge James V. Selna to 18 months in federal prison.
San Jose, CA, United States
Local law enforcement in San Mateo, FBI, ICE, and the IRS were all involved in this case. The investigation began when someone tried to bribe a San Mateo police officer in connection with a pimping charge. The investigation found that 24-99 women were brought to the United States, where they were employed as prostitutes. The women were rotated on a circuit from San Mateo, San Jose, Santa Clara, and Sunnyvale.
Colma, California, United States
The Pacifica Police Department reported that Kwor "Tommy" Chou, 29, of Colorado and Ri Luo, 41, of Oakland were arrested on suspicion of felony pimping, pandering and criminal conspiracy. According to the San Mateo district attorney's office, Luo ran an escort service that was actually a front for prostitution services involving women imported from Korea, China and other countries. Also arrested after an eight- month investigation by federal and state officials were Wai Chong Kong, 38, and his wife, Kit Chi Ho, 43, of Highlands Ranch, both identified as citizens of China. They are each charged with transporting people to engage in illegal sexual activity. The couple allegedly advertised the women's services online. The ads included pictures of nude or scantily clad women and listed prices of $140 for 30 minutes and $180 for one hour.
HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colorado, United States
Three people were involved with alleged international human trafficking. Traffickers were accused of charging Korean women thousands of dollars to enter the US. Hundreds of women were coerced into becoming prostitutes to pay off their debts. Sometimes they would be giving as much as $18,000 to the traffickers.
Alameda County CA, United States
When the victim's grandmother asked for her to be removed because she had run away from home so many times, she was placed in a group home. She continued her pattern of running away. After arrests from prostitution, drugs, and going AWOL from a group home, she was placed in Juvenile Hall. When going AWOl again, she was sent to MISSSEY in Oakland. She was subsequently arrested for being an accomplice to a murder, tried and found guilty. Presejtly she is serving time in prison. She did not identify her pimp's name, and he was not apprehended or tried for any involvement in the murder.
Lexington,KY, United States
Both the adult male and underage minor are facing charges. Details on the legal proceedings are still being researched.
Brooklyn, New York, United States
The case was investigated by ICE Special Agents from the New York Office of Investigations, with assistance provided by ICE Special Agents from the New Jersey and Mexico City offices, the New York City Police Department, the U.S. Department of State, officials at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, and officials of the Mexican Prosecutor General of the Republic.
Osoyoos, BC, Canada
In June 2006 the RCMP and US Border Patrol intercepted 8 female and 2 male Korean nationals attempting to walk across the border into the US. Several of the women indicated during preliminary questioning that they had to pay a debt for their crossing once they reached their destination. Some also mentioned that they were going to work in the US in jobs such as waitressing; however, there was evidence that they were destined to be forced to provide sexual services at massage parlours.
Renton, North Seattle, and Tukwila, WA, United States
Doanld Kerry Frey, 36, of South Lake Tahoe, Ca., and Nguyen Tran Nguyen, 26, were arrested on charges of conspiracy to transport prostitutes across state lines and money laundering after a two year investigation into several King County tanning salons. Prosecutors allege Frey, through a holding company called Crown Venture Capital, owned the now-closed Aloha Tanning Resort in Renton, the Avalon Spa on Aurora Avenue North in North Seattle, and the Mailbu Tanning Spa in Tukwila. They alleged the salons operated as brothels for itinerant prostitutes traveling a circuit between the West Coast and Texas. Nguyen Tran Nguyen, according to the indictment, had booked more than 70 airline tickets to bring prostitutes into Seattle since early 2007. Once here, they work at the spas for several weeks and then move on. The women, mostly Asians, would advertise on a variety of Web sites. Over the past two years, several undercover officers and informants have visited the spas and have been offered sex for money, acording to the indictment. The warrant says Fret and a business partner had been under investigation for prostitution in Southern California as well.
Dili, East Timor, Timor-Leste
Two East Timorese owners of a massage parlor forced nine victims from the Philippines, China, and Indonesia into sexual exploitation.
Hampton Inn: 14400 Nicollet Court, Burnsville, MN, United States
In December of 2006, Eagan Detective Kurt Bratulich, who worked as a Police Liaison at one of the victim's schools, learned about the case after a victim confided in him. The victim came forward about the prostitution ring operating out of a townhouse at the time. From the tip, investigators were able to execute a warrant of the townhouse. Unfortunately Reisdorf had already packed up and police were unable to find any useful information. After more interviews from victims, Detective Bratulich was able to build a strong case and by March of 2007, the FBI got involved. Because the internet and the soliciting of juveniles were involved, the investigation turned into a federal case. Reisdorf continued to post services on Craigslist. After more interviews from victims and tracing Reisdorf's ads to her computer, by June of 2007, investigators learned she was securing rooms for service at a Burnsville motel where she worked. Reisdorf was eventually arrested in June of 2007 at her Eagan home when a search warrant was executed.
"OK Spa," 2428 Wisconsin Ave., Washington, DC, United States
Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.
Los Angeles, California, United States
FBI and Human Trafficking Task Force in Los Angeles accused the defendants of crimes. U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement/ U.S. Department of Labor were also involved. Nine defendants have been arrested thus far. One a fugitive until recently arrested on September 15th, 2008. Intervention and investigations began into the ring after one of the trafficking drivers contacted authorities in October 2006.
"Hong Kong," 133-15 35th Avenue, Flushing, New York, United States
Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.
"Magic," 106 Reidville Dr., Waterbury, Connecticut, United States
Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.
"14K Spa," 14413 K St., Washington, DC, United States
Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.
"Seng Hee's, a/k/a "Cleveland Park Holistic Health," 3520 Connecticut Ave., NW, Washington, DC 20008, United States
Intercepted phone calls and the discovery of police bribes led to the demise of this trafficking ring. A wiretap of a cell phone used by Tae Hoon Kim, a Flushing-based middleman and transported, led to the discovery of the Korean owned brothels. Approximately 67 Korean women were taken into custody to be questioned on whether or not they knew they were being forced into prostitution.
The prostitution ring operated among eight brothels across the state of Minnesota. Five brothels were located in Minneapolis, one in West St. Paul, one in Richfield, and one in Austin., United States
Marisol Ramirez, a 37 year-old woman from the Dominican Republic, headed the prostitution ring with Roberto Rivera-Miranda, 31 who assisted her. Ramirez, who was deported from the U.S. in 1997 for operating prostitution services, recruited women chiefly from Mexico and Central America. Twenty-three other defendants have been accused of promoting the ring through the distribution of business cards advertising the services in Spanish, operating or working in brothels, transporting the victims, or supplying drugs or condoms. Eighty percent of the perpetrators were living in the U.S. illegally. The defendants allegedly lured both illegal immigrants as well as legal residents into the operation where they were forced to perform sexual services for the financial advantage of the defendants. All forms of the victims' documentation were taken. Heinous and crude conditions included two victims having to service 80 men in a single night. The prostitution ring was linked to activity in 30 other states.
Norwalk, Connecticut, United States
An international prostitution ring operated 19 brothels in the Northeast, from Rhode Island to Washington DC. The brothels were run out of “businesses” including massage parlors, health spas, and acupuncture clinics. Some of the known locations include: Crystal Spa on West Ave. in Norwalk, Connecticut and Cleveland Park Holistic Health on Connecticut Ave. in Washington DC. Several brothels were also found on West 26th St. and 59th St. in Manhattan. The brothels’ clients were generally Asian customers, who had learned of the establishment by word of mouth. The victims were recruited in Korea to come to the US, and travel with false documents or were smuggled across the Mexican or Canadian border. The victims’ identification and travel documents were taken, and she was threatened to be beaten or have her family in Korea harmed is she tried to leave. They were told they had to pay of tens of thousands of dollars in traveling debt from their trip.
Melbourne, Australia, Australia
Thai women were trafficked into Australia by a Thai woman DS and sent to work in brothels in Melbourne and Sydney. Five of these Thai women were sent to Ms Wei Tang's licensed brothel Club 417 in Fitzroy, Melbourne. The women were told they would be able to work legally in the sex trade and send money home to their families, once they had paid off their “debt”. However, they did not know the precise terms of their debt or their living or working conditions until they arrived in Australia. They were "owned" by “syndicates” with Tang taking 70% of their earnings and DS and her associates taking 30%. Each woman was bought by the syndicate from the "boss" in Thailand who recruited them for $AUD20,000. However, they were told their total "debt" to the syndicate was $45,000. The women were forced to work six days a week without any pay because all of the $110 charged to each client was divided between their owners, with $50 going toward paying off their $45,000 debt. The women were only allowed to keep that $50 per client on their seventh "free" day each week. Between August 2002 and May 2003 each woman was forced to serve up to 900 customers over 4-6 months. The women's passports and return airfares were taken from them and they were effectively restricted to the brothel premises because of their hours, nature of work, lack of payment and the fear of detection by immigration authorities, instilled in them by Tang and DS. The women lived in premises arranged by Tang. Two of the women ultimately paid off their debts, were given back their passports and were free to choose their hours of work and accommodation.
Fairfield, NSW, Australia, Australia
They were each found guilty last year of five counts of possessing a slave and five counts of using a slave - the first successful prosecution of its kind in NSW.
Apple Spa, Bellevue, WA, United States
The 21-month investigation used confidential informants, court approved wiretaps, and GPS tracking to identify those involved with the sex trafficking ring. Information about the criminal activity first surfaced in April 2004 when the Eastside Narcotics Task Force raided the Apple Spa in Bellevue after determining it was a front for prostitution. Both KANG, JIANG, and ZHU had been involved in the operation of the Apple Spa. ZHU was deported to China as an illegal alien, but quickly returned illegally to the United States. KANG and JIANG failed to show up for deportation hearings. In December 2004, FBI agents in Portland learned KANG had resurfaced there and was operating a brothel. In the midst of the investigation in May 2005, KANG returned to Seattle and opened a brothel. In various conversations with confidential sources or on wiretapped telephone calls, conspirators discussed how the Asian women had been smuggled into the United States. KANG told one confidential informant that women were being smuggled into the U.S. in shipping containers, paying fees to smugglers of as much as $50,000. The investigation determined that some of the women were smuggled into the U.S. by illegally crossing the border from Canada. The women had to pay off their debts to the smugglers by working in brothels in cities across the country. One of the conspirators was recorded in a phone conversation saying she had lost a lot of money when smuggled women fled without working off their debt. Law enforcement was able to track tens of thousands of dollars going from the U.S. to possible smuggling “agents” in China who arrange for the women to be smuggled into the country. The investigation determined women working in the brothels were citizens of China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Laos. The investigation is continuing into the brothel network in other U.S. cities.
Boulevard Park, Washington, United States
The 21-month investigation used confidential informants, court approved wiretaps, and GPS tracking to identify those involved with the sex trafficking ring. Information about the criminal activity first surfaced in April 2004 when the Eastside Narcotics Task Force raided the Apple Spa in Bellevue after determining it was a front for prostitution. Both KANG, JIANG, and ZHU had been involved in the operation of the Apple Spa. ZHU was deported to China as an illegal alien, but quickly returned illegally to the United States. KANG and JIANG failed to show up for deportation hearings. In December 2004, FBI agents in Portland learned KANG had resurfaced there and was operating a brothel. In the midst of the investigation in May 2005, KANG returned to Seattle and opened a brothel. In various conversations with confidential sources or on wiretapped telephone calls, conspirators discussed how the Asian women had been smuggled into the United States. KANG told one confidential informant that women were being smuggled into the U.S. in shipping containers, paying fees to smugglers of as much as $50,000. The investigation determined that some of the women were smuggled into the U.S. by illegally crossing the border from Canada. The women had to pay off their debts to the smugglers by working in brothels in cities across the country. One of the conspirators was recorded in a phone conversation saying she had lost a lot of money when smuggled women fled without working off their debt. Law enforcement was able to track tens of thousands of dollars going from the U.S. to possible smuggling “agents” in China who arrange for the women to be smuggled into the country. The investigation determined women working in the brothels were citizens of China, Korea, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan and Laos. The investigation is continuing into the brothel network in other U.S. cities.
Orlando, FL, United States
Yelena Aleksandrovna Telichenko met the victim, a Russian woman, in Philadelphia, where Telichenko convinced the victim to move to Orlando, FL. After arriving, the victim was forced to serve as a mistress to several men. If she objected, Telichenko would beat her. The victim was also forced to work cooking and cleaning the apartment. Telichenko is also known as Ella Schenkerberg, a court interpreter from Ukraine.
Hyde Park, MA, United States
Six men were accused in a federal indictment unsealed Thursday of forcing teenage girls as young as 15 to work as prostitutes, taking them to several states and Bermuda. The charges against Darryl Tavares, 24, of Revere, and two Boston men, Shaun Leoney, 26, and Ruben Porcher, 29, include sex trafficking of children and conspiracy to transport minors across state lines for prostitution. Trueheart Peeples, 30, of Portland, Maine; Eddie Jones, 25, of Boston; and Aaron Brooks, 23, of Quincy are charged with conspiracy to transport minors across state lines for prostitution and other crimes. Prosecutors say the Boston-based group operated from 2001 to 2005 in Massachusetts, Maine, New York, New Jersey, New Hampshire, Florida and Pennsylvania. One of the girls was 15 when Porcher took her to Bermuda for prostitution, according to the indictment. The indictment alleges some members of the group had ties to a network of sex traffickers and met with them in New York City in May 2005 for a "toss-up" event, where pimps trade prostitutes. Leoney and Brooks are accused of driving a teenager to Orlando, Fla., on Memorial Day weekend of 2005 for prostitution activity sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned by two convicted sex traffickers. The indictment alleges that that girl, who was 17, also had worked for Jones and Tavares, and was assaulted at different times when she angered the two men. In April 2005, the indictment alleges, when Tavares believed she had given some of her prostitution earnings to Jones, Tavares and an associate assaulted her. Tavares allegedly instructed the associate to rape her with a hair brush. In early May, she began working for Jones, who kicked in her teeth for talking on her "work" cell phone with a man who was not a prostitution client, according to the indictment. After he disfigured her mouth, the indictment said, Jones "gave" her back to Tavares.
Pitsmore, Sheffield, United Kingdom
3 Eastern European men from Kosovo, Albania & Lithuania trafficked 2 girls (18 & 19 years old) from Lithuania to Sheffield (one girl was further trafficked to London – this case can also be viewed on Slavery Map). On arrival at Gatwick airport, their passports were taken and they were auctioned to a group of men in the ‘Costa’ coffee bar. They were then taken to a flat in Sheffield to begin ‘working’ under threat of torture or death. They were told that they would be kept in baths of ice or shot dead if they refused to sleep with who they were told. The traffickers also threatened that if they disobeyed, they would be sold onto traffickers in London, who would lock them up and give them no food. Both girls were never left unattended and all calls were monitored.
Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Canada
"In 2005 Michael Ng was the first person to be arrested and charged under Canada’s human trafficking laws after two Chinese women escaped from his massage parlour in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and called the police claiming they had been brought from China and forced into prostitution. One of the women testified that she worked from 11:00am to 2:00am in order to meet her financial obligations to Ng. “In one year and five months I [made] him well over $100,000 plus the $50-an-hour he charged customers for a massage”. Ng was cleared of human trafficking, but found guilty of a number of related offences instead, including operating a common bawdy house, helping create false travel documents and procuring a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another. In April 2008 he was sentenced to 15 months in jail. The Chinese women returned to China at their request, but came back briefly to Canada to assist in Ng’s prosecution." http://www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/octip/identifying.htm
New Plymouth, Taranaki, North Island, New Zealand, New Zealand
A 60 yr old male New Zealand National and brothel-keeper (Michael Hastie), reportedly to have been involved in the escort industry for 26 years, coerced a 15 year old female New Zealand National to work as a prostitute in his home. The girl was deemed to be lured by the perpetrator after he admitted to booking and paying for the girl's bus ticket into the area. The perpetrator had sex with the victim before coercing her to work as a prostitute, from which he took a cut of the earnings. The perpetrator was charged but found not guilty to supplying cannabis to the victim.
Jamaica, New York, United States
With the arrest of two NYPD officers accused of accepting payoffs in cash, drinks, and prostitution services in exchange for raiding competing brothels, authorities are focusing on the extent of the brothel problem in Queens. Last week, the F.B.I., the police, the U.S. Attorney in Brooklyn, and Immigration and Customs agents announced the arrests of NYPD officers, Jerry Svoronos, and Dennis Kim who were assigned to the 109th Precinct, on charges of taking payoffs, both monetary and in trade, to allow the Asian brothel to flourish and protect the owners from competition. Officers Dennis Kim and Jerry Svoronos were arrested along with alleged brothel operators Gina Kim and Geeho Chae following a 10-month investigation. According to U.S. Assistant Attorney Steven H. Breslow, $800,000 in cash was found in the search of the homes and cars of Kim and Chae. On June 20, 2008, a judge delayed the sentencing of Kim after prosecutors dropped new allegations of police corruption in a Queens precinct. Ex-NYPD Officer Dennis Kim and his partner admitted accepting cash and sexual favors from a pimp in return for protecting a brothel in Flushing. Now, the churchgoing Kim could face significantly more jail time because of claims from an informant that he and other cops in the 109th Precinct planted drugs on suspects and stole cash during gambling raids.
Cow Pen, Belize, Belize
-Walter Swazo: 24 year old male/ Honduran national. Common law husband of Celia Garcia (Co-trafficker with sister of victim) -Celia Garcia: 21 year old female/ Belizean national. Sister of victim (Co-trafficker with Walter Swazo) -Juan Santos Martinez: Salvadoran national. Purchased victim as personal sex slave Both Garcia and Swazo "sold" the victim (younger sister of Garcia) to Salvadoran national Juan Santos Martinez for an undisclosed price in Northern Belize. Once purchased the victim was transported through Guatemala into El Salvador as a sex slave/teenage bride to Martinez.
Chernihiv (Ukraine), Ukraine
Victim's (Elena) neighbor spoke to her about a man who offered to pay her 1,000 Euros monthly, for a work as house keeper in Germany. After a prolonged and clandestine passage that included a trip in a luxury automobile to leave Ukraine, she was forced to cross a forest on foot at night and to cross a river in a weakened boat. Elena was finally in Germany, but not working as a house keeper, instead she found herself in a brothel next to her friend and being forced to maintain sexual relations with dozens of men.
Medway towns, Kent, England, United Kingdom
A Chinese man was found in the same flat as the woman and arrested on suspicion of being involved with trafficking women for prostitution.
Newington, Virginia, United States
Agni Lisa Brown (a.k.a. “Agni Lisa Graham,” “Michelle,” and “Lisa”) and her daughter Maria Antoinetta Mourizaki (a.k.a. “Tonia”) ran a brothel located in Springfield, Virginia between the years of 1997 and 2005. The brothel was open 6 days a week, from 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. The prostitutes were often illegal immigrants in the United States, some of whom had been trafficked into the country by human traffickers. Information on the traffickers is unknown since Brown and Mourizaki were uncooperative and did not divulge this information. The women were trafficked from multiple areas, including but not limited to Mexico and Thailand. Brown and Mourizaki hired women around the ages of 18-25, convinced them to engage in illegal prostitution, transported them over state boundaries, and housed many of them in the brothel. They had a diverse work force that included Asian, Hispanic, and American women. The exact number of women who worked in the brothel during its time of operation is unknown, but it is believed that a small number of women worked there for a long time. In the case of at least one of the trafficked victims, the woman paid a large sum to enter the United States; when she was sold to Brown, Brown assumed her debt, and so the women fell into a situation of debt bondage. Agni Lisa Brown split the money earned from the brothel into five bank accounts at Burke and Herbert Bank and 5 bank accounts at Suntrust Bank. She used that money to pay for the rent of the brothel from 2000-2005, to pay for the utilities and maintenance of the brothel from 2000-2005, and to pay for newspaper advertisements in both the “Adult Employment” and “Adult Services” sections of the Washington City Paper from January 2002-March 2005. Brown also laundered money from the brothel. During the time the brothel was open, she deposited $731,432 into bank accounts, purchased $633,504 in properties and cars, and kept $168,900 in her home.
Glendale, Arizona, United States
Gray was booked on suspicion of numerous sex-related charges, including sexual assault, kidnapping, 80 counts of receiving the earnings of a prostitute, 80 counts of pandering and 42 counts of operating a house of prostitution. Butler was booked on suspicion of child prostitution, kidnapping, 25 counts of receiving the earnings of a prostitute and 50 counts of pandering.
Tokyo, Japan, Japan
See above. In 2005, this was the first arrest under a new law which Japan introduced in June to combat human trafficking. The Metropolitan Police Department stated this case was only the tip of the iceburg and planned to use recent amendments to the Penal Code, which criminalized human trafficking, to tighten its crackdown on such brokers. At the time the MPD determined that at least 77 foreign women found in 2004 to have been forced into prostitution were victims of trafficking, 48 of whom were from Thailand. Police were only able to take action on 23 brokers who introduced girls to pimps.
Grandview Heights, Ohio, United States
Tamera "Danny" Flory, 40, was indicted on one count of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity and 142 counts of promoting prostitution. This is the largest indictment involving prostitution in Franklin County, covering a period of seven years and five business entities.
dublin-granville road, columbus, ohio, United States
Four women--Chae Sun Leonard, Kim Freeman, Sayjai Wilson and Han Son Yi--The sources say they placed ads in local papers. Customers paid $60 at the front door and once inside, they could shell out hundreds more for sex. They say rank-and-file workers, like Atchariya Poosara and Rayvadee Koumphkand, were flown in from locations around the country. Although sources say they came willingly, they were locked inside the businesses for weeks at a time, generating revenue and promoting illegal activity. Detectives are now working to find yet another woman believed to have played a critical role in financing the operation. They hope her arrest will shut this enterprise down for good. were arrested in the bust of two massage parlors--the Oasis Health Club is in another report, this report is on the bust of Jade Clinic. The women face charges of prostitution soliciting and promoting prostitution.
Bazhong, Sichuan Province, China, China
An outstanding student at a computer vocational school, Zhang, took her fellow classmates out for dinner while they were interning at a factory in Bazhong. Zhang then took the 10 girls to a town close by, Qiandong, and sold them over to Wang and Xie. Xie and Wang are notorious sex traffickers in Qiandong, where they operated a brothel in a residential area. They took all of the girls' money and possessions, coerced them into prostitution with violence and threats.
Honolulu, Hawaii, United States
Wan Yo Kang, 37, also known as "Hannah," was indicted by a federal grand jury Wednesday on 11 felony counts of traveling across state lines to promote or manage prostitution activity in February 2005, enticing women to travel interstate to engage in prostitution and harboring two immigrants here illegally at her business, 350 Ward Ave., suite 115.
San Francisco, California, United States
This international sex trafficking syndicate lured a young college student, You Mi, from her home in South Korea February 2003. She was promised a well paying hostess position at a restaurant so that she could pay off her $40,000 shopping debt back home. Instead, the traffickers took her to an illicit massage parlor in LA, where she was manipulated and used to pay off her $20,000 trafficking debt. She left the Massage parlor in July 2003 $0 richer and headed on a bus for San Francisco. She found that since she was an illegal immigrant, the only available work for her that was lucrative enough to pay off her debt was sex work. She wondered into the Sun Spa, where she was immediately handed off to the "masseuse" with the most seniority. For the next four months she endured a life that she had never imagined back in Korea. The Tenderloin is where the bulk of San Francisco's 90 illicit massage parlors are concentrated, identifiable by double metal security doors, surveillance cameras and windows that are blocked out with aluminum foil, plastic garbage bags or paint. She'd spend her waking hours at Sun Spa, having sex with more than a dozen men a day, six days a week, and scurrying into secret hideaways during police raids. Her share of the rent on her apartment was $300 per week. You Mi would also have to pay $50 a day for food, a $40 weekly tip to the cook, plus a $70 weekly tip to the Sun Spa manager. She also had to pay for her wardrobe, $100 per bikini top or bottom. Her tips from customers were typically $100. See Operation Gilded Cage post for more details about trafficker.
New York City, United States
Seven defendants pled guilty to forced labor and obstruction of justice charged. The Kang's received four counts of knowingly and intentionally holding their Jane Doe's as well as four counts of aggravated sexual abuse. A Federal Air Marshal and a Dept. of Homeland Security agent were charged with conspiracy to obstruct justice for attempting to force one of the victims to get on a flight to South Korea to keep her from testifying against the couple.
myrtle beach, south carolina, United States
The leaders of the prostitution ring, Martin Carbajal-Servin and Estella Aguilar-Ortiz, a husband and wife were living inside the United States illegally. They recruited a young woman from Mexico using the promise of a legitimate job in Myrtle Beach. They then forced her into prostitution and threatened to kill her if she did not comply.
Welcome, South Carolina, United States
Fricman Alexander Ramirez (24) Carlos Castillo Rodriguez (37) German Garcia (43) Maria Adelfa Letrado (57) (madam of the ring) Aztlan Jaimes Santana Rolando Hernandez *both Santana and Hernandez told the judge in their hearing that they did not understand that their actions were wrong. The judge said that he could possibly have understood this if they had only been in America for a couple of months. They had been here over 7 years.
Bearwood, Birmingham, UK, United Kingdom
Carl Pritchett owned Cuddles Massage Parlous in Bearwood, and ran the establishment with two associates: Susan Richards, who managed the brothel, and Nathan Langston, who worked maintenance. The victims were held at a nearby house during the day, and taken to Cuddles each evening. The massage parlor is located on Hagley Road, near the center of Birmingham. The victims had their passports and other travel documents taken from them. Cuddles had 12 rooms, an electric fence at the back of the building, and several of the windows were boarded.
Houston, Tx, United States
Maximino "Chimino" Mondragon and 8 other traffickers worked with Walter Alexander Corea and his son Kerin Silva to smuggle over 120 women, mostly from Central America, into the Houston area and force them to work in brothels. Lorenza Reyes-Nunez, aka "La Comadre," was involved in the trafficking and forced abortions upon women who became pregnant. The others involved include Maximino Mondragon's brother Oscar Mondragon, half brother Victor Omar Lopez and the wives or ex-wives of the Mondragon brothers, Olga Mondragon and Maria Fuentes. They are from El Salvador and Honduras.
Union City, NJ, United States
In total, 10 people were charged with violations of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), for counts of conspiracy to commit forced labor, forced labor, alien smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens. The leader, Medrano, was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit forced labor, eight counts of forced labor, one count of alien smuggling, and eight counts of harboring illegal aliens. The bars owned by Medrano where the victims worked are: El Paisano Bar and Nightclub at 509 22nd St. Union City, El Puerto del la Union I at 6710 Bergenline Ave. Guttenberg, and El Puerto de la Union II at 3806 Bergenline Ave. Union City. Lourdes Rosales Martinez, Zenia Zunilda Martinez, and Nancy Floridalma Rosales Martinez recruited the victims in Honduras, and were charged with counts of conspiracy, forced labor, alien smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens. Jose Arnaldo Isuala-Meza and Elsa Consuelo Isuala-Meza smuggled the victims to the US, and were charged with conspiracy, alien smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens. Noris Elvira Rosales Martinez, Ana Luz Rosales Martinez, Jose Dimas Magana, and Rosalba Ortiz were charged with conspiracy, forced labor, alien smuggling, and harboring illegal aliens.
Detroit, MI, United States
Nine people worked to traffic Eastern European women to work as exotic dancers in Detroit-area strip clubs. Michail Aronov is believed to be the leader of the operation. The group used the business Beauty Search, Inc. as a cover to recruit women. The victims were then smuggled into the U.S. and forced to work as dancers in the clubs. The business partners referred to their plan for intimidation as “The System.” This involved taking the victims’ passports, imposing debts and monetary penalties, enforcing strict rules, and physical and verbal violence and threats. They also threatened to expose the victims as illegal immigrants. An escaped victim’s car was firebombed and used as a threat to others as the consequences of escape.
Camp Red Cloud, South Korea, Korea, Republic of
One woman ran away, and the club owners contacted her mother, asking her to "pay for damages" and threatening to prosecute the girl for breach of contract. The mother contacted the Filipino Migrants Catholic Church in Seoul, which helped her complain to the South Korean police. That night, the police raided the clubs.
Bellevue, WA, United States
Prostitution ring busted By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times Eastside bureau Chinese army deserters, frequent-flier sex workers, massage-parlor madams and even a customer with diplomatic immunity were among the players swept up in a Bellevue prostitution bust, which could lead officials to similar rings in cities across the country. Bellevue police released details of the prostitution investigation yesterday, more than three months after the first of two Bellevue massage parlors was raided. Nine people — three men and six women — were arrested on suspicion of prostitution, money laundering and forgery. The investigation by Eastside detectives and federal agents was kept quiet until now to give officials time to investigate connections with other cities, said Bellevue police spokesman Michael Chiu. In December, Bellevue police and a host of state and federal agencies began receiving phone calls and letters from legitimate massage therapists who complained of strangers coming to them and requesting sex acts in exchange for generous "tips," Chiu said. The complaints prompted detectives with the Eastside Narcotics Task Force and agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to launch an undercover investigation. Two businesses — Dragon Springs, at 13251 N.E. 20th St., and Heaven & Earth Massage, at 10224 N.E. 10th St. — were put under surveillance and police followed the business operators to their homes, Chiu said. After a three-week undercover investigation, detectives raided Dragon Springs on March 11, arresting two female workers, both illegal immigrants from mainland China, along with the owner and madam, Chiu said. Six weeks after the Dragon Springs bust, Eastside detectives raided Heaven & Earth Massage on April 22 and arrested five people, including two men who apparently had deserted China's People's Liberation Army, Chiu said. So far, one man, the 35-year-old owner of Heaven & Earth Massage, has been deported to China, said Leigh Winchell, special agent in charge for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Seattle. Immigration proceedings are under way against a 33-year-old Portland man and a 44-year-old Bellevue woman, but Winchell declined to comment on the status of their cases, except to say both have "bonded out" of custody. Except for two women who were arrested and released, the other people who were arrested were booked into the King County Jail and later posted bail. Two of the nine people arrested are U.S. citizens, Chiu said. Three women were arrested on suspicion of prostitution, a misdemeanor charge; the others could face multiple felony charges, including permitting prostitution, promoting prostitution, money laundering and forgery, he said. No charges have yet been filed. Police not only raided the businesses but searched the main players' homes and seized bank accounts, netting close to $90,000, Chiu said. Expensive cars and boats, thousands of dollars in cash, and so-called "little black books" containing phone numbers of contacts around the country were also seized, he said. Officers also found evidence that the people in charge wired significant amounts of money overseas, Chiu said. In both cases, detectives discovered that sex workers were flown to Seattle and immediately shuttled to the massage parlors; the women would perform sex work for two or three weeks before flying to a new location, Chiu said. The women, who had to pay their own airfare, weren't allowed to leave the parlors and, at Dragon Springs, they were even locked in, Chiu said. Both parlors operated in the same way: When a customer arrived, the customer would pay a $60 massage fee to the "house" and then "tip" the female worker — usually between $40 and $100 — in exchange for sex acts, Chiu said. Immigration officials are still trying to determine how a number of the people arrested arrived in the U.S. in the first place, said Winchell, the ICE special agent. "Human trafficking in the sex trade is alive and vibrant, particularly in the Northwest," Winchell said. Investigators don't believe the female workers busted in Bellevue were sex slaves. Their participation in the sex ring was more akin to "voluntary indentured servitude," he said. As for the men who frequented Dragon Springs and Heaven & Earth Massage, Chiu said they're not off the hook for their conduct. That is, he said, with one exception: Police don't have authority to arrest one man, who has diplomatic immunity. Chiu didn't know what country the man is from. "The customers of these massage parlors might possibly be contacted by police later on — they should be looking over their shoulders," Chiu said. http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=20040618&slug=prostitution18e
springdale, ohio, United States
His name is Angel "Skinny" Batista, he was forty years old at the time of his arrest. He is from the Dominican Republic, speaks no English, and was found guilty on charges of murder and promoting prostitution after he killed a customer in his brothel. He used rotating girls, and advertised with business cards in spanish, placed in cash checking stores and restaurants.
Louisville, KY, United States
120 women were arrested....and there were 127 cases. Only 24 of the 120 women identified themselves to police as full-time Kentucky residents. Defendants in 65 of the 127 cases gave police out of state addresses suggesting that the women are perhaps being moved by managers and owners. Details about their intervention has not been released of the safety of the victims.
Weldrick Road West, Richmond Hill., Canada
On Tuesday, March 2, 2004, York Regional Police responded to a break and enter in progress at a residence on Weldrick Road West, in the Town of Richmond Hill. What they found upon their arrival, however, had little to do with a break-in. At approximately 12:30 p.m., investigating officers found a woman inside the home, who revealed she and two other females were being held against their will. The three had arrived separately from Russia in the fall of 2003 and began working for Toronto escort services. They would meet numerous clients in various hotels throughout the GTA and provide sexual services. During the month of February, two of the victims, aged 19 and 23, attended a hotel on separate occasions, for what they assumed was a regular meeting with a client. However, upon their arrival, the victims were forcibly removed from the hotel and taken to a residence in Richmond Hill. The third 20-year-old victim was removed from the home she shared with the 19-year-old victim. Their documents and cell phones were taken from them and although they were allowed a certain level of freedom, they were threatened and told their families in Russia were at risk. The victims were driven to and from the Arther’s Spa on Finch Avenue on a daily basis, forced to provide sexual services and turn over their earnings to the owners.
Newton, Kansas, United States
Arlan Kaufman, 69, and his wife Linda Kaufman, 62, for over 24 years have operated the Kaufman house in Newton, Kansas. The house was a home for mentally ill patients. Arlan, a licensed social worker, and Linda, a registered nurse, routinely forced and coerced his patients to engage in nude “therapy” sessions. Arlan documented these sessions capturing himself directing the victims to perform sexually explicit acts in front of other patients. In some of the tapes Arlan can be seen sexually assaulting victims. Victims would constantly be forced to do nude labor, where they would tear down a barn, repair barbed wire fences and unload cement bricks from a pickup. The Kaufmans controlled virtually every aspect of the lives of the residents, determining which rooms they would sleep in, what furniture they would be allowed to have, when they would eat, what recreational activities they could engage in, when they could be downstairs and who could enter and leave the house. A “climate of fear” was present with the patients preventing them from contacting friends and family because afraid of consequence.
Strathfield, Parramatta and Penrith, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Australia
Mr Johan Sieders and his wife Ms Yotchomchin Somsri owned and managed four brothels in Sydney. One brothel in Strathfield and two in Parramatta were owned by Somsri and one in Penrith was owned by Sieders and Somsri. Five Thai women who had been trafficked into the brothels gave evidence against the traffickers. Four of the women were recruited in Thailand by a Thai woman known as Montha or Pat and sent to Australia on false tourist visas to undertake sex work in Australia. They were informed that they would have to repay a ‘contract’ sum of $45,000 before they could earn money themselves. One of the women and the brother of another woman (‘BB’) also entered written agreements in Thailand for lesser amounts. BB’s brother signed an agreement as guarantor for his sister’s debt of $15,000 which he was told she would pay off after three months’ work. The women handed over their passports and return airfares to Sieders and Somsri and were sent directly to work at the brothels on arrival in Australia. They did not receive any money and were not free until they had worked off their ‘contract’ sum. The only exception was that very occasionally a client might give them a tip of between $5 and $20 which they were allowed to keep. They were required to perform up to 563 one hour services or 1500 fifteen minute services to pay off their debt. Four of the women were able to pay off their debt in periods between 2 months 20 days and 7 months. After that they continued to work at brothels but were paid for their services and free to choose where to work. The fifth woman ‘BB’ was still working to pay off her debt when she was rescued by Department of Immigration officials. She had previously asked her cousin who worked as a prostitute in Australia to report her to police so that she could be sent home.
Trenton, NJ, United States
Domingo Gonzalez-Garcia, Evodio Gonzalez-Garcia, and Oscar Romero Gonzalez smuggled Domingo’s wife from Mexico to the US in order to force her to engage in prostitution in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania.
Vista, CA, United States
In May 2005, Guillermo Romero-Flores and Guadalupe Ventura were convicted of two counts of harboring aliens and two counts of harboring aliens for purposes of prostitution. Ventura was also convicted of bringing in an alien for financial gain and transporting an alien for purposes of prostitution. Romero-Flores was sentenced to 27 months of custody, and Ventura to 41 months.
Napranum, Far North Queensland Australia, Australia
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.
Burnaby, BC Canada, Canada
a 59 yrs old man from Burnaby, BC, Canada, The charges stem from acts between December 1998 and March 2002. Mr. Klassen initially faced trial on 35 counts but pleaded guilty in May to 15 counts involving girls in Cambodia and Colombia, as well as the child pornography charge. Klassen, the father of three lived in Colombia for 20 years before returning to Canada. His lawyers argued he didn't travel there for sex, but became complacent to the age of girls in a place that doesn't have the same stringent laws. Mr. Klassen's lawyers had argued the Burnaby man was merely a “customer” of willing participants after he pleaded guilty to 14 offences of sexual interference and one count of importing child pornography
Ghana, Ghana
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 Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement negotiated with the Aklidokpo shrine community 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 22, 2004. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and their children and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 27 year old woman was freed who had spent most of her life in slavery. After liberation, she chose to become a Christian and attend church, but this brought a rift with her family who felt that former slaves could not choose the Christian faith, even though the Ghana Constitution guarantees freedom of religion to its citizens.
Adidome, Volta Region, Ghana, Ghana
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 Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement negotiated with the Aklidokpo shrine owners 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 22, 2004. 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 20 year old woman was liberated who had been held within the shrine for 15 years. During that time she was raped and gave birth to the priest's child without medical care or any care for the child. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process. She was one of 94 slaves who were liberated that day.
Stockton, California, United States
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”
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Canada
The facts in this case arose before November 2005 when human trafficking became a Criminal Code offence. The alleged female trafficker was sentenced to two years imprisonment for three prostitution-related charges and deported to Thailand. The alleged male trafficker had all charges withdrawn against him due to an "equipment malfunction" on key wire tap evidence. He pled guilty in March 2006 to keeping a common bawdy house and sentenced to pay a $10,000 fine.
McAllen, Texas, United States
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.
Edinburg, Texas, United States
February 2003, local law enforcement encountered two women who had been raped and left for dead as punishment following their attempted escape from the defendants. Federal law enforcement agents identified two additional female victims and rescued them. A joint Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Federal Bureau of Investigation initiative dismantled the trafficking operation and arrested the defendants. In 2003, four defendants pled guilty to transporting aliens; two defendants pled guilty to involuntary servitude charges; and one defendant pled guilty to conspiracy to commit involuntary servitude. I n M a r c h 2 0 0 3 , A g e n t S e r r a p e r s o n a l l y l i b e r a t e d t w o w o m e n f r o m t h e t r a i l e r s i n w h i c h t h e y w e r e b e i n g h e l d . H e l e d h i s m u l t i - a g e n c y i n v e s t i g a t i v e t e a m f r o m I C E , F B I , a n d t h e H i ≠ d a l g o C o u n t y S h e r i f f ' s O f f i c e t o b r i n g t h e c a s e u n d e r t h e T r a f f i c k i n g V i c t i m s P r o t e c t i o n A c t
Auburn, Sydney, NSW, Australia, Australia
Daniel Sweeseang Kwok, Jenny Lai Chin Ong, Raymond Aik Tong, Hosea Panyud Saputra Yoe deceptively recruited three Indonesian women to travel to Australia to work in the catering or public relations industries. They were only informed upon arrival in Australia that they were in fact to be engaged in sex work. Only then were they told that they would have to perform 800 sexual acts for no payment to repay a ‘contract debt’ of which they had no prior knowledge. The women decided that they were not prepared to undertake that sex work and managed to escape from the apartment of Ong and Tan in Auburn on 14 June 2003.
Oslo, Norway, Norway
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.
Santa Rosa Avenue, Santa Rosa, CA, United States
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.
Ghana, Ghana
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.
Ghana, Ghana
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.
Agave, Ghana, Ghana
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.
Ghana, Ghana
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.
Ghana, Ghana
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).
Agave area, Volta Region, Ghana, Ghana
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.
Agave area, Volta Region, Ghana, Ghana
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.
Agave area, Volta Region, Ghana, Ghana
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.
Sunnyvale, California, United States
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."
Pittsburgh, PA, United States
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.
Fort Worth, Texas, United States
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.
Seattle, Washington, United States
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.
Washington DC, United States
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.
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
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.
Ghana, Ghana
Gborble traditional shrine priestess and shrine owners enslaved young virgin girls in a practice commonly called trokosi. The government of Ghana calls it ritual or customary servitude. The practice involves both sexual abuse and manual labor and the movement of the girls was strictly controlled by the shrine. The Gborble shrine priest and owners liberated their trokosi slaves on January 31, 2009 and signed a public agreement that the practice of slavery was ended in that place and that they would take in no more slaves. The shrine is located in a group of mud and thatch houses, where the girls were kept in crowded quarters with nothing but a floor to lie on. In this case a 26 year old woman was freed who had been taken into slavery when she was only three years old, left in the care of the older slaves at the shrine. When the victim’ss father and other members of the family died, they inquired at the shrine as to the cause. The priestess informed them that the grandfather had sex with another trokosi slave, and that to make atonement for that misdeed, a young virgin girl would be required from the family to become a shrine slave. She was held at the shrine for five years before she was even permitted to visit home. Her duties included sweeping the compound, gathering heavy firewood from the forest, and ploughing the fields for the priest’s farm with a short-handled hoe. As a trokosi slave, she was forced to go barefoot and was denied education. She often cried when she was other girls wearing normal clothing and going to school.
Agave area, Volta Region, Ghana, Ghana
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.
Ghana, Ghana
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 50 year old woman was freed who had been slaved for 43 years, since was was seven years old. She was later told her captivity was because her father had sex with another shrine slave. The victim remembers that during her initiation she was dipped into cold water containing smelly herbs, her head was shaved, she was given a rope that she had to wear around her neck to show she belonged to the shrine, and she had to go through a ritual dance. 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.
Ghana, Ghana
Gborble traditional shrine priestess and shrine owners enslaved young virgin girls in a practice commonly called trokosi. The government of Ghana calls it ritual or customary servitude. The practice involves both sexual abuse and manual labor and the movement of the girls was strictly controlled by the shrine. The Gborble shrine priest and owners liberated their trokosi slaves on January 31, 2009 and signed a public agreement that the practice of slavery was ended in that place and that they would take in no more slaves. The shrine is located in a group of mud and thatch houses, where the girls were kept in crowded quarters with nothing but a floor to lie on. In this case a 25 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved by the Gborble shrine since she was six years old—a total of 19 years. She later learned she was there because her grandfather had quarreled over a piece of land and the other party cursed the family at the shrine. When family members later died, it was blamed on this curse. The only way to lift the curse, it was thought, was to give a virgin girl of the family to serve as a shrine slave. At the shrine, she had to keep a big clay waterpot full by carrying water from the river. If it was ever found not full, she would receive no food that day. The victim was very lonely since her family never visited her. She had to work even when she was sick, and felt that no one cared about her. She says it is such a joy to be able to make her own choices now that she has come out of such a cruel system.
Ghana, Ghana
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).
Houston, TX, United States
Jermaine Carlos Diaz, 23, trafficked young girls from his hometown of Fort Smith,AR to Houston, TX for the purpose of prostitution.
Newark, NJ, United States
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
Anchorage, Alaska, United States
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).
Berkeley, California, United States
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.
Camden, NJ, United States
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.
Lexington,ky, United States
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.
Sydney, Australia, Australia
Gary Glazner ran topless bars in Melbourne before branching out into brothels. He recruited 20- 40 women in Thailand and brought them to Sydney. He forced them to perform up to 500 "jobs" before they had "paid him back," and then kept them under contract for a further 12 months. He kept them locked in the brothel and kept their passports so they did not have a chance of escaping.
Gos, Sudan, Sudan
The young woman victim was visiting her younger sister's home near Warawar when she was captured. It during the dry season. The soldiers came early in the morning. Everyone was asleep. Her sister and her woke up with the sound of gunfire. They ran out of her tukul hut as fast as they could. But they did not get very far. They were surrounded. There were a lot of Arab soldiers all around them. Some wore uniforms, others wore jellabeyas. They had come at night on camels and horses. Six soldiers grabbed the victim. She struggled with them and tried to get away. But they beat her with a big stick. She had to submit. Scars on her back are still visible from the wound she received during the beating. They tied her hands together with a rope and led her away to the bush. They raped her in the bush, one after the other, all six of them. After that, she had to walk beyond the River Kiir with the other slaves. Her hands were tied to a long rope. Her sister was tied to it too. Along the way they were beaten and raped. They walked for four days. Then they reached a place where the soldiers divided them and the cows and goats amongst themselves. She was given to a slavmaster, and her sister was given to another. The victim's slavemaster was a good friend of the leader of the raiders. He had a body guard and was responsible for distributing slaves and cattle amongst the PDF. This meant that he was away from home a lot. He took the victim to his home in Gos, Sudan, where she had to do housework for his wife, an Arab woman who frequently hit the victim with a big stick, even when she was ill, and made her sleep outside in the courtyard, where there was no shelter over her head. Only when it rained did she let the victim sleep in the covered cattle pen. Sometimes the slavemaster would come to the victim at night, and take me to the cattle pen for sex. Whenever the wife discovered that her husband was missing at night, she would give the victim a good beating on the next day because her husband had come to her. The victim gave birth to the slavemaster's baby, who was seven months old at the time of her liberation. The slave master called him Ahmed, a very common Arab name, but the mother called him another name. The worst part about being with the slavemaster and his wife were their threats to kill the victim. Whenever they told her to get water from a far place, or do some other hard labor, they would say that they would cut her throat if I didn't obey. The master would threaten her like this when he wanted to have sex with her. The victim's sister's throat was cut by her master. The master's children told the victim they saw her sister's body when they were going to the well. They said she had tried to escape, but was caught. The victim was so afraid, she thought she had to get away from there. She knew that the master loved his child by her and would never let him go, so she wanted to escape with him. One day, she was told by a woman who was cultivating in the fields that a trader was looking for slaves to return to their homes. She decided to escape and ran with the child to the forest. There she came across a Dinka man who took care of her and helped her get home again. She likes hearing her own name again. She also like it because no one calls her 'abid' (slave) or 'jongei' (nigger) anymore.
Aliet, Sudan, South Sudan
Abuk Acueri Yei was kidnapped from her village along with her daughter. The two were split up and Abuk was taken to live with Mohammed. The slave owners tried to make Abuk into a Muslim, going so far as to performing ritual mutilation on Abuk's genitals in the process. At Mohammed and Howeya's home, Abuk was saddled with a host of intensive labor positions including housework and cultivation. She was forced to sleep outside with the livestock. Despite his marriage to Howeya, Mohammed would rape Abuk on many nights, beating her severely if she resisted his amorous behavior. Note: All of the above information is a synopsis of the passages related to this slave in the book "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Book published 2008 by Cornell University Press.
Seattle, Washington, United States
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.
Mt. Prospect, IL, United States
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.
Chicago, IL, United States
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.
Kennedy Road, Toronto, Canada, Canada
Isra, originally from Thailand, was a victim of sex trafficking and debt peonage, having been sold to a Toronto massage parlor owner for between $16,000 and $25,000 Canadian. Before any of the girls could start making a wage, they had to repay what amounted to nearly double their purchase fee - the reality of which is that most victims would have to service more than 500 men to just pay off their debts to the slave owners. Isra had a considerable debt to repay and was sold and bought multiple times by brothel owners in Toronto proper, Sheppard and Mississauga. She was forced to work a great deal but did not feel she had a way out because she owed her owners so much money. She was forced to take on many customers each day. Note: All of the above information is a synopsis of the passages related to this slave in the book "To Plead Our Own Cause" by Kevin Bales and Zoe Trodd. Book published 2008 by Cornell University Press.
San Mateo, CA, United States
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.
Vista, San Diego County, United States
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.
Bellevue, Washington, United States
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.
Serbia, Serbia
The traffickers involved in the following case are a part of a ring of trafficking in the "Balkan Trail." These smugglers are Albanian Mafiosi who use the Adriatic Sea to transport drugs, weapons, and human cargo illegally across borders. Nadia was initially recruited to work in a restaurant in Italy to make some extra money to send back to her family for the education of her son. She was identified as a worthy candidate for enforced prostitution and was forced to perform in various countries for various pimps. She and the fellow victims were raped repeatedly, in some cases even by local law enforcement. As a fluke event, while she was being transported to a new owner traveling to Italy, her boat capsized and she was able to get away from her captors.
Vandeleur Street Cape Town, South Africa, South Africa
Julienne’s sister, Antoinette and her sister’s fiancé Joseph Davis.
Davenport, CA, United States
The 24-year-old female allegedly needed some more money to pay her rent, so she and the 18 and 15 year old females drove into Santa Cruz to pick up some girls. They found a 14-year-old and a 15-year-old, and lured them into the car with promises of a party. Instead, they took the two girls to seven different farm labor camps in Davenport, where they were sold for sex for $25 to men living in the camps. The girls were forced to have sex with at least 20 men in five hours. Sometime after midnight, the group returned to Santa Cruz and stopped at a liquor store. One of the girls was able to escape and asked a store clerk to call the police. The car drove off without her. The other girl was released a short time later. Another 15-year-old girl had been lured into the car earlier the same night. She managed to escape, and her father phoned the police.
Azusa, California, United States
Yes, due to the murder of Mr. Covarrubias. He was brutally beaten to death with a table leg by Rene (Pedro) Soto, as Felipa Soto and Maria Suarez watched. Suarez eventually called the police after cleaning and hiding the weapon and this instigated the investigation. The general story is quite complicated. Details from numerous Los Angeles Times articles from 1982 (Questions Linger in ‘Voodoo’ Slaying, Voodoo Looms as Murder Trial Issue, Voodoo Power Cited in Murder Case Appeal) do not correspond with information published in the Christian Science Monitor in 2007 (http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0322/p13s01-usju.html?page=1) or an AP story written by Amy Taxin on August 12, 2009. This is due, likely, in no small measure to the lack of understanding of trafficking at the time of the investigation in the 80’s. Multiple jurors felt uneasy with the later conviction of Suarez for first-degree murder, and were instructed not to account in their deliberations for the psychological manipulation of Suarez by Covarrubias. Here is the basic narrative. In 1976, Suarez (16 at the time) immigrated legally into the US. Some accounts report she came to the US with her father, others report she came to live with her sister, Rita, who was already a resident of Los Angeles. She knew little to no English and had only completed 6 years of schooling. One day a woman, speaking Spanish, offered Suarez a job cleaning homes and answering phones. This woman persuaded Suarez to leave immediately to visit the house where she would work. The drive was over one hour. Upon arriving, Covarrubia allowed her to call her sister to notify her that she had found work and would come home later. The phone was then locked, she was informed of her purchase for $200 to the man 52 years her senior, shown to a tiny room and raped by him. Covarrubia was known as a witch-doctor (warloc). He practiced voodoo and used this to frighten and intimidate Suarez. He stole a pair of her underwear and after performing some form of spell buried the underwear in the cement in front of the house. This meant she could never leave and would always return to the house. She believed he hexed her father and later, ultimately, caused his death. Once he allowed her, for immigration issues, to return to Mexico but she, at one point, felt pins and needles throughout her body and knew she must return home. Covarrubia would belittle Suarez to his voodoo clients, openly taunting her about his sexual exploitation of her. She reported that he threatened her with guns and a machete if she tried to return home. For a time she worked at an electronics assembly factory, but believed that he watched her through his crystal ball as she worked, taking all her income from the work. In her trial, her defense team tried to bring all this to the jurors, but they were told not to allow psychological coercion or allegations thereof as part of their deliberation. The defense attorney tried to plead that due to the numerous spells on Maria, she could not allow herself to even intend to kill Covarrubia, thus negating to possibility of any first-degree charges. Rene and Felipa Soto were neighbors to Covarrubia. He owned the house the Sotos lived in and reportedly also had them under his control through spells and a voodoo doll. Both reported that he could cause them to argue at will. Like Suarez, they only attended school for 6 years before legally immigrating to the US and feared his witchcraft. They believed they could only emancipate themselves from his control by killing him. The prosecution charged that the three killed Covarrubia for monetary reward. The Soto’s were to profit with free rent, Suarez by the sale of Covarrubia’s home and the emptying of his bank accounts. Covarrubia had, years before, deeded the title of this home over to Suarez as a way to avoid its loss during the divorce from his then wife. He had asked her to deed the house back to himself, but this never occurred. Around the time of Covarrubia’s death and police investigation, Suarez turned the title of the house over to her brother, Epifanio, as well as took up to $54,000 from Covarrubia’s accounts. She claimed this was for her defense. How much the ex-wife or Covarrubia’s two children knew of her servitude is not clear. The children claimed in a civil suit against Suarez that she had manipulated their father and had promised to take care of him for the rest of his life. The jury foreman for her trial for murder stated that he did not believe she killed him for financial gain, but rather to free herself from Covarrubia’s control.