Long Beach Sex Offender Indicted For Attempted Child Sex Trafficking And Using The Internet To Entice A Minor

LOS ANGELES – A convicted sex offender from Long Beach has been indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of attempted sex trafficking of a child for allegedly responding to an online advertisement that offered sex with a 15-year-old girl in exchange for $200.

Victor James Sporman, 46, who previously resided in Bellflower, was named in a two-count indictment returned Tuesday afternoon by a federal grand jury. The indictment charges Sporman with attempted sex trafficking of a child and using the internet to induce a minor to engage in criminal sexual activity. Both of the charges in the indictment carry a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in federal prison and statutory maximum sentence of life.

 U.S. Immigrations And Customs Enforcement ICE reports

19 Women Victims Of St. Lucie Human, Sex Trafficking Ring, Police Say

Two men — Airial Johnson (left) and Curtis Travis, both 31 — suspected of human and sex trafficking were arrested Wednesday in St. Lucie County, records show.
 

FORT PIERCE
 

For seven months, police watched two men organize a human and sex trafficking ring in the city that relied on befriending women working as prostitutes and getting them addicted to heroin.

That’s how at least 19 women ended up in the human and sex trafficking ring concentrated along Okeechobee Road between Interstate 95 and Florida’s Turnpike, city police said Thursday.

Read more from PalmBeachPost

India Currency Note Ban Sparks ‘dramatic Fall’ In Sex Trafficking

Fewer women and girls reportedly entering shelters, but financial hardship is forcing younger girls into sex work and forcing some women to work for free.

India’s rupee recall appears to have had “a massive impact” on the country’s human trafficking industry, according to advocacy and rescue groups, with some reporting reductions of up to 90% in the number of women and girls being admitted to their shelters.

But other activists said the illegal trade was already rebounding, and that the financial strain of demonetisation on poor communities was pushing new, younger girls into sex work, and forcing women already in the industry to work for credit or for free.

Read more from The Guardian 

Texas Man Pleads Guilty to Child Sex Trafficking

HOUSTON, Texas — A Houston man pleaded guilty in federal court on Friday to sex trafficking a child by posting classified advertisements on Backpage.com.

Read more from BreitBart news 

Lodi Man Indicted On Additional Sex Trafficking Charges In Federal Court

A federal grand jury indicted a Lodi man Wednesday on three additional charges related to sex trafficking on top of six charges brought forth in January.

Maurice Withers, 27, was charged with one count of sex trafficking by force and two counts of transporting individuals from Wisconsin to Nevada with the intent to engage in prostitution, the U.S. Attorney's Office said. These are added to a January indictment of two counts of sex trafficking a minor, two counts of sex trafficking by force, one count of attempted sex trafficking and one count of transporting a minor with the intent to engage in prostitution.

Madison Wisconsin reports 

Prostitution Boss And Mother Convicted In Columbia Of Multi-State Sex Trafficking

The Matthew J. Perry Federal Courthouse in Columbia Tracy Glantz tglantz@thestate.com


COLUMBIA, SC

A Gastonia, N.C., man was convicted in federal court in Columbia Friday on eight counts including sex trafficking, child pornography and illegal firearms.

Samuel Pratt, 34, who was arrested in Columbia, ran a sex trafficking business that operated in South Carolina, North Carolina and New York, prosecutors said.

His mother, Daphne Pratt, earlier pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sex traffic children in the case, said U.S. Attorney Beth Drake in a news release.

During the four-day trial, witnesses testified about the manipulation and abuse involved in sex trafficking operations at work in the Carolinas that included children as young as 14 years old, Drake said.

Read more from The State.com Columbia South Carolina

 

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3 Arrested For Alleged Child Sex Trafficking After Teen Found In N.O. Hotel

NEW ORLEANS, LA (WVUE) -
Three people were arrested in connection with child sex trafficking after police discovered a 17-year-old, who had been reported missing, engaged in prostitution at a downtown hotel, according to Louisiana State Police.

Kendrick Pigott, 29, Gregory Russell, 31, and Tiara Smothers, 20, were arrested on Thursday and booked into the Orleans Parish Lock-Up on a charge of trafficking of children for sexual purposes. Pigott was also booked with seven counts of non-compliance for failure to register as a sex offender and one count of unlawful use of a social networking website.

Read more from New Orleans FOX8WVUE

Texas Big Bend Sector Sounding The Alarm As Mexican Cartels Overwhelm Them With Illegal Immigrants And Human-Trafficking

Cartels Flood Remote Border Sector with Migrants, Overwhelm U.S. Agents

Agent Lee continued, “We have multiple Mexican cartels operating in our sector, where most sectors have one or two. Many of the criminal groups make as much or more from illegal immigration and human trafficking as they do from narcotics. They are really overwhelming our abilities ahead of President-elect Trump taking office. The cartels are swamping our Presidio station with illegal aliens. Waves are coming and they use this to divert our resources away from other stretches of the border where they can then send special interest aliens or narcotics through.”

Read more from Breitbart. 

Anti-Sex Trafficking Group Hopes To Raise Money For Second Caseworker

The Polaris Project’s definition of sex trafficking is the use of violence, threats, lies, debt, bondage and other forms of coercion to compel adults and children to engage in commercial sex acts against their will.

In Lincoln, the nonprofit I've Got a Name works to increase awareness of the problem and will host its year-end public celebration Dec. 1 at Berean Church, featuring music and a speech by the mother of a Lincoln girl who was trafficked.

“My goal is to say that this really is (also) a men's issue and we’ve got to change people’s mindset so that this is not acceptable,” said I’ve Got A Name founder Robert Burton. “Johns need to be prosecuted and girls need to be treated like victims.”

More from Lincoln Nebraska 

H.B. Man, 26, Gets Over 14 Years In Prison For Trafficking And Having Sex With Teenage Girl

A 26-year-old Huntington Beach man pleaded guilty and was sentenced this month to 14 years and eight months in prison for human trafficking and engaging in sexual activities with a teenage girl.

Antonio Romano Caserta pleaded guilty Nov. 17 to four felonies, including human trafficking of a minor, unlawful sexual intercourse, committing a lewd act upon a child and dissuading a witness by force or threat, according to the Orange County district attorney's office.

In addition to his prison sentence, Caserta will have to register as a sex offender.

Read more from the LA Times 

Sex Trafficking Suspect Makes Plea Deal On Cocaine Charges

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — A Massachusetts man who was arrested in May for allegedly sex trafficking a minor has signed an agreement to enter a guilty plea on cocaine-related charges.

According to the plea agreement, Lewis Valenti, who was the CEO of West Kingston-based Atlantic Produce, will plead guilty to buying “less than 50 grams of cocaine” from April 2015 to May 27, 2016. Valenti, who has homes in East Greenwich and Reading, Massachusetts, turned himself in on May 30.

Read more from 12 Eyewitness News WPRI

New Law Could Make Landlords Liable For Sex Trafficking At Their Rentals

By Arelis R. Hernández November 18

 

New legislation in Prince George’s County aims to hold landlords and property managers accountable for prostitution and human trafficking at their rental properties — the latest sign of a growing concern in an immigrant-rich corner of the Washington suburb.

County Council member Deni Taveras (D-Adelphi) proposed the bill after receiving complaints from several Langley Park-area mothers, who said units in their apartment buildings were being used as brothels and the property managers knew about it.

Washington Post reports 

Prosecutors Aim To Stop Sex Trafficking Without Breaking The Web

The online sex trade didn't disappear when Craigslist got out of the game; it migrated to Backpage.com, a Craigslist clone then run by a publisher of alt-weekly newspapers. Soon after Craigslist's action, a group of state attorneys general sent letters to Backpage's executives asking it to get rid of the site's ads for escorts, erotic massages, and other services often used as fronts for prostitution.

They refused. In the ensuing years, the company successfully fended off multiple lawsuits and legislation trying to shut it down.

Read more from Daily Herald 

Human Trafficking Rring Unearthed In Genesee County

FLINT — The Genesee County Prosecutor David Leyton says it's one of the worst cases of human trafficking he's ever see.

Four women, allegedly kidnapped and violently forced into prostitution by Flint brothers Darryl Allen Miller and Chavez Lee Miller.

"All four of the victims alleged that Darryl and Chavez Miller induced, persuaded, encouraged, the women to become prostitutes through their acts of violence against them," Leyton said. "Beating them, choking them, stunning them, stabbing them with needles, and paying them with drugs."

Read more from NBC25 News

Tip Led Cops To Alledged Human Trafficking Hot Spot

A house owned by a mobster’s wife was a human trafficking hot spot in a quiet Brighton neighborhood until one eagle-eyed resident dropped the dime that led to 16 arrests and 10 women being set free, officials said.

“It was just a matter of kind of being nosy, I guess,” longtime Brooks Street resident Kenneth Cutler told the Herald about his alerting police this summer to a house across the street where people were constantly looking for “massages.”

District 14 Sgt. Shawn Burns was more emphatic about Cutler’s contribution.

“It cannot be understated that Mr. Cutler’s actions may very well have saved the lives of these young women,” Burns said yesterday at a City Council meeting where police and councilors presented Cutler with a commendation.

Read more from The Boston Herald 

Trucker Accused Of Keeping Women As Sex Slaves Gets 20 Years

SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah trucker who pleaded guilty to keeping women as sex slaves in his semi-trailer as he drove across the country was sentenced Wednesday to 20 years in prison.

Timothy Jay Vafeades, 56, sexually assaulted and brutally beat the victims almost daily after trapping them in his truck and forcibly grinding down their teeth, federal prosecutors said.

One woman told a judge that her months-long ordeal began when she got into his truck to go to dinner with him. She started to worry when realized they weren't going toward any restaurants.

"He then said, 'I got you now. You are mine,'" she said. The vampire-obsessed truck driver controlled nearly every aspect of her life, including how she used the bathroom, she said.

MSN reports 

Leader of Virginia Sex Trafficking Ring Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison

A man who was at the center of a violent trafficking ring that sold women and girls for sex throughout Virginia has been sentenced to 35 years in prison.

Michael Maynes Jr., of Spring Lake, North Carolina, led a sex trafficking organization known as "Horse Block Pimpin." 

Maynes prostituted 55 women and girls in Alexandria, Richmond and Charlottsville, according to prosecutors. 

Source: Leader of Virginia Sex Trafficking Ring Sentenced to 35 Years in Prison | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Leader-of-Virginia-Sex-Trafficking-Ring-Sentenced-to-35-Years-in-Prison-400056941.html#ixzz4PMjtML92
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Trial Set for Pastor Charged in Teen Sex Trafficking Ring

Formal charges were brought Monday against a South Florida pastor accused of running a sex trafficking ring involving teens.

Ron Cooper, a youth pastor at Good News Baptist Church in Little Haiti, appeared at an arraignment hearing in Miami.

Read more from NBC6 News 

Topeka Man Pleads Guilty To Conspiracy In Interstate Sex Trafficking Case

TOPEKA, Kan. (KWCH) A Topeka man pleaded guilty to conspiring to operate an interstate sex trafficking business, Acting U.S. Attorney Tom Beall said Monday.

Beall said in a news release Barry M. Johnson of Topeka pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy.

In his plea, Johnson admitted to conspiring with co-defendants to run a Topeka-based prostitution business. The business operated in Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, Beall said in the news release.

Read more from KWCH12

Pope Francis Lauds Women Religious In Fight Against Trafficking

Vatican City, Nov 7, 2016 / 05:07 pm

Pope Francis met in Rome with a unique group involved in the fight against human trafficking, where he noted the particular contributions of women religious, which often go unnoticed.

“Your activity in this area reminds us,” the Pope said Nov. 7, of ‘the enormous and often silent efforts which have been made for many years by religious congregations, especially women's congregations, to care for those wounded in their dignity and scarred by their experiences.”

Read more from  EWTN

7 Men Accused in Sex-Trafficking Ring in U.S. and Mexico

By ELI ROSENBERGNOV. 1, 2016

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Seven men have been indicted on sex trafficking charges in what federal officials said on Tuesday was an international organization that exploited adult and underage women for more than a decade in Mexico and the United States.

Four of the men — identified as Efrain Granados-Corona, 41; Alan Romero-Granados, 24; and the brothers Pedro Rojas-Romero, 37, and Emilio Rojas-Romero, 34 — were arrested in Mexico by the authorities there last week. Raul Romero-Granados, 32, and Isaac Lomeli-Rivera, 34, were arrested in the United States, the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan said. The seventh man, Juan Romero-Granados, brother of Alan, remained a fugitive.

All seven could face life sentences in federal court in New York on charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Read more from The New York Times 

4 Calif. Officers To Be Fired In Wake Of Bay Area Sex Scandal

By Javier Panzar
Los Angeles Times

RICHMOND, Calif. — Four more Bay Area police officers will be fired as a result of an investigation into allegations made by a teenage sex-trafficking victim who said she slept with dozens of law enforcement officers.

Richmond City Manager Bill Lindsay on Sunday said the four officers will be fired after a city investigation found “documented misconduct” between the officers and the victim. Five other officers will be given official reprimands.

Read more from Police One

St. Paul Man Sentenced to 20 Years on Sex Trafficking Charge

October 31, 2016 11:11 AM

A St. Paul man has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for prostituting a teenage girl.

Forty-one-year-old Damon DiMartino was sentenced Friday on a first-degree sex trafficking charge.

According to the criminal complaint, police responded to a domestic disturbance call last fall and later learned that the person who made the complaint was a 17-year-old who was being prostituted. The girl told police that she had been kicked out of her mother’s home in June and had been living with friends.

Read more from St Paul Eyewitness News 

FBI Arrests 21 Accused In Georgia Sex Trafficking Sting Operation Cross Country X

Twenty-one people from Georgia face human trafficking charges after an undercover sting involving state and local law enforcement, according to the FBI’s Atlanta Field Office.

The arrests included the capture of two Floridians in Atlanta who were wanted on charges of murder and sex trafficking in the case of a 14-year-old girl.

According to a news release, the FBI’s Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force arrested 54 adult prostitutes, seized nine firearms and saved one juvenile from sex trafficking in addition to the alleged pimp arrests.

The sting was part of Operation Cross Country X, an international operation focused on human sex trafficking. This year, officials were able to rescue 82 minors and arrested 239 traffickers, according to the release.

Read more from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution

5 Arrested After FBI, Local Law Enforcement Conduct Anti-Human Trafficking Bust

BIRMINGHAM, AL (WBRC) - 

The FBI's Birmingham office says that multiple people have been arrested in connection to Operation Cross Country X (OCC X), an initiative aimed at stopping underage human trafficking.
The Shelby County Sheriff's Office has identified several suspects arrested in their area and released their charges:

• Kheliam Jamar Rountree: Human trafficking, child endangerment, second degree unlawful possession of marijuana
• Aaron Lee Byrd, Jr.: Human trafficking, obstruction of justice
• Elaina Josephine Logan: Promoting prostitution
• Devon Johnson: Promoting prostitution
• Terkeria Sherell Simmons: Chemical endangerment of a child, second degree unlawful possession of marijuana

Fox6 News Is On Your Side 

New Orleans Human Trafficking Victims Says Backpage Website A Major Factor In New Orleans Human Trafficking

Just over half of the New Orleans human trafficking victims seeking help at Covenant House over the past six months were featured in prostitution ads on the website Backpage, whose CEO was arrested on pimping charges Thursday (Oct. 6), a Covenant House official says.


And of those 16 human trafficking victims, 11 worked in New Orleans strip clubs, said Shari Lockridge, a case worker at Covenant House. Some of them were recruited through the strip clubs and then began exchanging money for sex, often at the behest of a pimp who would maintain the ads and coordinate the flow of customers to the woman.

The Times Picayune has more

Backpage Ceo Arrested On Sex Trafficking Charges

Oct. 6, 2016: This photo released by the Texas Office of the Attorney General shows Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton alleges that adult and child sex-trafficking victims had been forced into prostitution through escort ads posted on the site.  (Texas Office of the Attorney General via AP)



DALLAS –  State agents raided the Dallas headquarters of adult classified ad portal Backpage and arrested Chief Executive Officer Carl Ferrer on Thursday following allegations that adult and child sex-trafficking victims had been forced into prostitution through escort ads posted on the site.

Ferrer, 55, was arrested on a California warrant after arriving at Houston's Bush Intercontinental Airport on a flight from Amsterdam, said Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton. In a statement, Paxton said agents from his Law Enforcement Unit participated in a search of Backpage headquarters and Ferrer's arrest.

"Making money off the backs of innocent human beings by allowing them to be exploited for modern-day slavery is not acceptable in Texas. I intend to use every resource my office has to make sure those who profit from the exploitation and trafficking of persons are held accountable to the fullest extent of the law," Paxton, a Republican, said in a statement.

Read more from FoxNews

South Dakota AG Joins Sex Trafficking Fight

 (CN) — South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley, along with 20 of his counterparts in others states, has added his name to an amicus brief filed in hopes of holding Backpage.com liable for sex trafficking.

     The brief was filed in the Supreme Court case of Doe v. Backpage.com, and says the Communications Decency Act (CDA) does not shield website operators from liability when they use language designed to attract sex traffickers in advertisements.

     The First Circuit previously upheld a dismissal of the case by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns in Boston.

     Three underage women claimed the website allowed advertisements for their trafficking in its "escorts" section.

Read more from  Courthouse News Service

Sex Trafficking's Unholy Tour

THE MONTH of fright is underway, which means half the city is doing its best to give me a heart attack.

Between massive spider webs stretched across driveways and skeletons dancing in trees, it’s really starting to look like Creep Town around here, which is excellent.

I do so love Savannah’s early enthusiasm for Halloween, even if I’m kind of afraid to walk the dog past the nice yellow bungalow on the corner that’s been transformed into the Shrieking Shack.

Regrettably, there’s a lot more to be scared of in real life than any moaning goblin yard decoration.
We’ve got masked shooters on the loose, multiple government agencies haunted by scandal and some seriously misguided mad science about to go down on Elba Island.

Even deeper into the darkness looms a human trafficking industry that’s harder to get a handle on than a zombie on flakka.

Read more from Connect Savannah 

Sex-Trafficking Sting Nabs 2 Vancouver Men

Portland police officers arrested seven men, including two from Vancouver, in a sex-trafficking sting operation late September.

From Sept. 19 to 23, investigators with the Portland Police Bureau’s Sex Trafficking Unit posted ads on websites known for sex trafficking. Seven men contacted undercover officers to arrange for paid sex acts, the bureau said. 

Read more from The Columbian 

FBI Says Two Men Indicted For Sex Trafficking Could Be In Seattle Area

SEATTLE – The FBI is asking for help tracking down two men charged with sex trafficking who might be in the Seattle area.

Aaron M. Barnes, 33, and Kamau Curnal, 28, are both charged with one count of sex trafficking of a child and one count of transportation of a minor for the purpose of prostitution following an investigation in Oregon.

Read more from FOXSeattle

Three Duke Women Take On Human Trafficking

Three high-ranking government officials outlined how everyday consumers can help combat human trafficking Thursday.

Susan Coppedge, Trinity ‘88 and the United States ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons; Andrea Wilson, MPP/MBA ‘12 and a foreign officer in the State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and Amy Pope, Law ‘09 and deputy assistant to the President and deputy homeland security advisor on the National Security Council, spoke at the Sanford School of Public Policy about the government’s role in monitoring and policing trafficking.

Coppedge—who was appointed to her current position by President Barack Obama in 2015—said her own inspiration came after joining the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia and prosecuting trafficking cases. 

Read more from The Chronicle

Four Arrested For Human Trafficking In Connection To 2015 Case

The arrest of two human trafficking suspects in 2015 led to four more human trafficking arrests this week.

According to Louisiana State Police, investigators were able to positively identify four human trafficking suspects after working closely with the victim. The victim told police that Tina Marie Wiles, Ricky L. Hale, John P. Cox Jr. and Clifton P. Simmons all held her against her will and forced her to participate in sexual acts between June and August of 2015 in East Baton Rouge and Livingston Parishes.

• Wiles, 29, is charged with Human Trafficking.
• Hale, 56, is charged with Human Trafficking.
• Cox, 36, is charged with Human Trafficking and Possession with Intent to Distribute Heroin and Methamphetamine.
• Simmons, 43, is currently incarcerated in the Tangipahoa Parish jail for a separate incident, but will be charged with Human Trafficking and Aggravated Assault with a firearm.
•  

Read more from Channel 4WWL

Cocoa Man Found Guilty Of Sex Trafficking Of Child

FLORIDA TODAY 5:44 p.m. EDT September 30, 2016

(Photo: File)

A Cocoa man has been found guilty of sex trafficking of a child, with force, fraud or coercion and production of child pornography by a federal jury, according to the U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Florida.

Kennedy Harris, Jr., 23, of Cocoa faces a maximum penalty of life in prison. Sentencing in the case is slated for December 19.

Harris was indicted on May 11. The Ccooa Police Department came into contact with the victim in this case on February 10.

Read more from Florida Today

Two Charged in Maryland with Rape, Human Trafficking, Others

Two men were arrested in Frederick, Maryland, and charged with human trafficking-related offenses, according to Frederick police.

Officers responded to the Super 8 Motel on Monocracy Boulevard for reports of a domestic dispute. When they arrived, a juvenile victim said she was reported missing out of Texas and brought to Maryland by one of the men.

Thomas Duane Jones, 35, of Houston, Texas, and Marvin Bernard Armstrong, 46, of High Point, North Carolina, were arrested. Police said the men were charged with rape, sex offense, human trafficking by force, human trafficking (take cause), false imprisonment and second-degree assault.

Source: Two Charged in Maryland with Rape, Human Trafficking, Others | NBC4 Washington http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Two-Charged-in-Maryland-with-Rape-Human-Trafficking-Others-395505801.html#ixzz4M2dutcQr
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Ex-Baptist Pastor From Miller Sentenced To 46 Months In Federal Prison In Child Sex Sting

Joseph Raleigh, a former Baptist pastor in Miller, South Dakota, was sentenced in Pierre this week to nearly four years in federal prison after pleading guilty to attempted trafficking of what he was told was a 15-year-old girl.

Raleigh, who turned 35 last month, was caught last Oct. 16 in a sting by federal, state and local law officers using the internet to place sex ads to which he responded. He was arrested in Blunt, South Dakota.

Read more from Capital Journal 

Supreme Court Won't Block Senate's Backpage Sex Ads Subpoena

The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a congressional subpoena seeking information on how classified ads portal Backpage.com screens ads for possible sex trafficking.

The high court's action means the website will have to turn over documents that a Senate panel has been pursuing for more than a year.

Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer had argued that the company's process for reviewing ads on its adult section is a "core editorial function" protected under the First Amendment. Lawmakers said the documents would help determine what if any business practices and policies the company has to prevent criminal activity.

Read more from FOXNEWS

Man Sentenced To Over 10 Years In Prison For Sex Trafficking Of A Child

NORFOLK, Va. (WAVY) — A South Carolina man was sentenced Tuesday to 10 and a half years in prison for his role in a conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a child.

25-year-old Travis C. Brown, of Columbia, South Carolina, was also sentenced to 10 years of supervised release. He will be required to register as a sex offender when he gets out of prison.

Brown pleaded guilty on June 7.

Read more from Wavy

California Marijuana Industry Gateway to Sex Trade

California’s multi-billion dollar underground marijuana industry has, according to a new report, become a gateway to the sex trade and is riddled with abuse against women.

An exposé by RevealNews.org from The Center for Investigative Reporting and published in Cosmopolitan reveals a little-reported epidemic of sex trafficking and abuse on marijuana farms located in an area known as the “Emerald Triangle” — an area that encompasses Humboldt, Trinity, and Mendocino Counties.

Read more from Breitbart

Sex Trafficking Victims Forced To Work In Illicit Texas Bars, Claims Study

More than 1,000 women and girls have been apparent victims of sex trafficking in illicit bars in the US that operate largely beyond the reach of law enforcement, according to the anti-slavery group Polaris.
Half of the trafficking cases in cantinas – a type of bar popular in Mexico and the American south-west – arose in Houston, Texas, a city near the Mexican border with a large Latino population, said Polaris in a study that tracked calls to its trafficking hotlines from over the past decade.

‘I carried his name on my body for nine years’: the tattooed trafficking survivors reclaiming their past

Read more

Cantinas, social gathering spots popular in Latino communities, may disguise the cost of commercial sex in very high drink prices. Women are forced to flirt and drink with patrons, the study’s author, Tessa Couture, said.

Maine Police Know Sex Trafficking Is Here, Yet Many Still Fail To Fight It

Shawna Calhoun and Alvin Houston are each serving nine years in federal prison for their roles in transporting a person they intended to prostitute across state lines. (Photos courtesy of the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Office)

 

 

By Danielle McLean, BDN staff

Posted Sept. 08, 2016, at 6:17 a.m.
Last modified Sept. 08, 2016, at 7:53 a.m. 

 

Last December, a 14-year-old Maine girl stood before a judge and faced the woman who sold her for sex to numerous men. She described the agony she had endured. Was life not worth living? she asked.
She didn’t talk about being repeatedly raped by strangers in Bangor and Boston hotels. 

With the words of someone far older, she shared how it changed the way she saw herself, stole her sense of self-respect and self-love, and made her feel less than human.

She talked about how she wanted to preserve her sanity to make sure what she’d been through wouldn’t happen to others.

Read more from Maine Focus

Dunwoody cops rescue sex-trafficking victim, bust alleged pimps

The Dunwoody Police Department recently held an undercover operation at a local hotel, resulting in 15 arrests and the rescue of a sex-trafficking victim, the agency announced this week.

The sting was in cooperation with the FBI's Metro Atlanta Child Exploitation Task Force and the DeKalb Anti-Trafficking and Exploitation. The hotel, whose name police asked to be withheld, agreed to let the authorities use it as the site of the Aug. 25 arrests.

Reda more from Atlanta Journal Constitution

Wife now arrested in human trafficking investigation

WATERLOO – A second person has been arrested in connection with the investigation into two Chicago teens who were brought to Waterloo for prostitution.

Waterloo police arrested Sade Deseri Campbell, also known as Sade VanArsdale, 24, on Wednesday night for two counts of human trafficking and two counts of using a juvenile to commit an offense. Her bond was set at $40,000.

Sade Campbell is the wife of Lawrence Edward Campbell Jr., 35, who was arrested on the same charges on Tuesday morning. He remained at the Black Hawk County Jail as of Wednesday night.

Read more from The Courier 

Polaris and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas Launch Anti-Human Trafficking Digital Billboard Campaign Across Minnesota

MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Polaris and Clear Channel Outdoor Americas (CCOA), a division of Clear Channel Outdoor Holdings, Inc. (CCO), together with Congressman Erik Paulsen, today unveiled an anti-human trafficking awareness campaign to run on 53 digital billboards throughout Minnesota. The new campaign, launching today and running for three weeks, will alert victims how to reach out for help through the National Human Trafficking Resource Center (NHTRC) (1-888-373-7888), as well as raise awareness about the true nature of modern slavery.

Read more from Yahoo 

Tennessee Must Fight Hard To End Human Trafficking

Like many people lucky enough to call Tennessee home, I’ve heard about human trafficking before. But it’s entirely different to see it firsthand, right here in our state.

I had the chance recently to see “Operation Someone Like Me,” spearheaded by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, from the inside. It is complex, lifesaving, incredible work. As a legislator, combating human trafficking is something we often discuss, but seeing it firsthand absolutely cemented my belief that we must continue working to implement policies that will assist our law enforcement throughout the state in these operations.

Read more from the Tennessean 

2 In Davidson County Charged With Human Trafficking

Celenia Pauline Gracelynn Bennett, 20, and Ashley Shane Upchurch, 25, both of Thomasville

Saturday, August 27, 2016 09:04PM

 

THOMASVILLE, N.C. -- 

 

Two Davidson County residents have been jailed under bonds totaling millions of dollars on charges of human trafficking.

Celenia Pauline Gracelynn Bennett, 20, and Ashley Shane Upchurch, 25, were arrested after authorities executed a search warrant at the pair's Thomasville home, WGHP reports.

Sex Trafficking Survivor: I Was Forced Into Prostitution

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Portland is known as a hotspot for sex trafficking. Experts say its location, dense population and many strip clubs make it fertile ground.

Andrea Benson didn’t work for a strip club, but she found herself deep in the seedy world of sex trafficking. She said it was someone she loved who got her involved.

Benson was just 22 when she met Michael Knight on a popular dating website. The recent college graduate was looking for a boyfriend at the time. She said she and Knight fell in love quickly and moved in together just weeks after they met.

Read more from Portland Oregon 

3 indicted for human trafficking of more than 40 victims in Prince George’s County hotels

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, Md. (ABC7) — Three people have been indicted in a human trafficking enterprise which operated out of various Prince George’s County hotels and involved more than 40 victims, officials said Tuesday at a press conference in Baltimore.

Officials said the victims were as young as "in their teens."

Police said that Rashid Marwan Mosby, 42, Terra Marie Perry, 35 are in custody and that the third suspect, Joshua Isaiah Jones, 26, is at large.

Read more here 

Major regional human-trafficking ring shut down, Maryland prosecutors say

Maryland law enforcement has shut down a wide-ranging human-trafficking ring that stretched across the region involving dozens of victims who were forced into prostitution under an agency being advertised as "Pink Pleasure Entertainment," police and prosecutors announced Tuesday morning.

Read more here 

Hundreds of Johns in Cook County Charged in National Sex Trafficking Sting

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office arrested more sex buyers than any other agency in the nation this summer.

More than 1,300 alleged sex buyers were charged in this year’s Johns Suppression Initiative, a national effort by law enforcement to curb sex trafficking.

And no place saw more arrests as part of the month-long summer sting involving dozens of agencies than Cook County.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office arrested 230 johns from July 1 to August 7, including 43 in cooperation with suburban police departments in Lansing, Matteson and Broadview.

Chicago Patch reports:

 

 

12 Arrested In Nebraska For Sex Trafficking Related Crimes

More than 1,300 sex buyers, a record, were arrested across 18 states in this summer's National Johns Suppression initiative aimed at reducing sex trafficking, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Department.

Nebraska reports: 

Human Trafficking Among Mexico's Lucrative Crimes

JUAREZ — After drug trafficking, human trafficking in México is the illicit activity that generates the most money for criminal groups, according to a high-ranked official of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

“It gives organized crime more revenue than human smuggling and gun trafficking,” said Mariana Alegret Cendejas, regional officer of International Cooperation of the UNODC, at a conference designed to prevent and combat human trafficking.

El Paso Texas reports: