Texas Man Sentenced To Prison In Human Trafficking Case

A Houston man arrested last year in connection with a human trafficking investigation in Wichita Falls is sentenced to 156 months in federal prison for promoting prostitution, cyber stalking and firearms charges.

29-year-old Joshua William Jackson was arrested in Wichita Falls in April in 2016 after SWAT and Homeland Security Officers raided a home at the corner of 9th and Kemp.

According to the federal arrest affidavit, we obtained ATF Agents found two handguns in his bedroom.

ATF Officers also say the North Texas Trafficking Task Force told them a woman accused Jackson of using force and coercion to get her to engage in prostitution around Texas.

Read more from Texoma 

Tennessee Human Trafficking Sting Leads To 11 Arrests

KINGSPORT, Tenn. (AP) - Eleven men in Tennessee - including a church youth leader and a coach - have been arrested as part of a human trafficking operation sting.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced in a statement Tuesday that the Kingsport-based anti-trafficking operation called "Operation Someone Like Me" took place July 31 through Aug. 3. The TBI partnered with several agencies, including the Kingsport Police Department and Homeland Securities Investigations, to conduct the operation.

Read more from Chattanooga Tennessee WRCBtv.com

Prostitution Sting in Poconos Highlights Human Trafficking Problem

STROUDSBURG -- Monroe County detectives say 19 people were arrested after a recent prostitution bust at a Stroudsburg hotel.

Detectives say two of those arrested were actually victims themselves, women who were victims of human traffickers, forced into having sex for cash.

"When we encountered them Friday night, you could tell just in their eyes that they were thankful that they were arrested because they knew that it was finally over and that they could get the help that they needed,” said Detective Kim Lippincott of Monroe County.

WNEP 16 ABC News Pennsylvania reports

Human Trafficking Cases Increase More Than 50 Percent In Florida

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- Officials say the number of human trafficking cases have increased more than 50 percent in the state from the previous year.

The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) says Florida received 1,892 reports of human trafficking. That’s a 54 percent increase from the previous year.

CBS News reports

Doj: St. Louis Among Top 20 Cities For Sex Trafficking

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (KMOV.com) -
The Department of Justice has named St. Louis among the top 20 cities in the country for sex trafficking.

The Covering House is a non-profit in the St. Louis area and gives restoration to trafficked girls between 13 and 17-years-old.

The founder Dedee Lhamon said they’ve taken in girls as young as 7-years-old.

Read more from  ST. LOUIS, Mo

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. 

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

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 

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 

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

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 

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 

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: 

Jury Deliberates Punishment In Human Trafficking Corpus Christi Case

Jury deliberation is currently underway in the Jovan Miles human trafficking case.

On Friday, Miles was found guilty of bringing a 15-year-old girl to Corpus Christi from Houston and forcing her to work as a sex slave. Houston Police found the teen runaway through an online ad offering herself for sexual services. undercover officers tracked her down to the Days Inn on SPID in 2015.

More Than Massages: A Hidden Sex Industry In Hampton Roads

A woman cried in front of a Chesapeake judge this spring.

A Mandarin interpreter was whispering in her ear, translating as a prosecutor described her crime.
It happened at a massage parlor, in an ordinary strip mall, tucked between a hair salon and a mortgage broker.

Fuzhen Zhao, 53, showed an undercover officer to a room.

He undressed.

During the massage, she crossed a line, making it obvious something illegal was on the menu.

“Not today,” the officer said, shaking his head.

Read more from The Virginian Pilot Online

Our Kids Are Not For Sale!!!

Child sex trafficking is a hidden but persistent form of child abuse in Indiana and nationwide. Recent cases have made the headlines in Lafayette, Terre Haute, Indianapolis, Fort Wayne and Muncie.

While awareness and prosecution rates are rising, the young victims of this horrific crime need our support and assistance. That means we must better understand how trafficking happens, the resources available to intervene and our responsibility to take action and protect Hoosier children.

Read more from The Star Press