No Trafficking.com

Woman Forced to Watch Murder

Anthony M. Davis — Fri, 30 Dec 2011 12:06:51 +0000

A teenager was tortured and killed in front of another woman so that she would be frightened into cooperating with a human trafficking ring.

Miss Carina Saunders' headless body was dumped behind a grocery store in October. A 20-year-old woman came forward as a witness to say she was kidnapped by Jimmy Lee Massey, 33, and forced to watch Miss Saunders' painful death in Bethany, Oklahoma, Daily Mail reported.

Her identity has not been released because of concerns for her safety. The woman said she was standing on a street when a man drove up in a vehicle, opened the door, and forced her inside. The woman said a man blindfolded her with a dark handkerchief and drove her to an unknown location.

North Alabama Woman’s Fight Highlights Human Trafficking

Anthony M. Davis — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 11:34:19 +0000

For three years, a Huntsville woman has been sounding the alarm about the slave trade being alive and well in the U.S. The FBI told her Friday she is being honored for her efforts.

The Special Agent in Charge Patrick J. Maley announced Patricia McCay is to receive the 2011 FBI Director’s Community Leadership Award. She is to travel to Washington, D.C. in March to receive the award from FBI Director Robert Mueller.

McCay is credited as being instrumental in getting the Coordinated Community Response Taskforce Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault to include human trafficking as a focus of the group. In 2010, she helped create a group to identify services in north Alabama to help human trafficking victims that are identified or rescued.

Special victims unit to take a new victim-centered approach to human rights violations

Anthony M. Davis — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 12:01:24 +0000

The little-noticed use of San Francisco’s human trafficking task force to arrest street prostitutes over the summer underscores a sharp nationwide debate on how local law enforcement can help rescue victims of economic and sexual slavery.

Until October, the city’s anti-trafficking team operated out of the San Francisco Police Department’s vice crimes unit. With the help of a federal-state grant, the team racked up more than 15 investigations of suspected traffickers. But in the spring it altered its tactics, making large-scale arrests of dozens of prostitutes in the Polk Gulch neighborhood, in response to complaints from neighbors.

While 60 percent of the prostitutes were “assessed” for evidence of human trafficking, according to arrest reports, the operations otherwise looked like typical street sweeps in problem areas leading to misdemeanor charges, said experts inside and out of the department. One victim was identified and referred to a social service agency, while several suspected victims did not come forward, and were booked.

MS-13 Leader Indicted on Sex Trafficking Charges

Anthony M. Davis — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 14:15:35 +0000

Rances Ulices Amaya, a/k/a “Blue” or “Murder,” 23, of Springfield, Va., was indicted today accused of participating in an underground prostitution business involving underage females.

“Sex trafficking is an unconscionable crime that results in a lifetime of trauma for the young victims,” said Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Mr. Amaya is the fifth gang member charged in this ongoing investigation by the FBI and the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, and we are committed to eradicating juvenile sex trafficking from our communities.”

Amaya was indicted on charges of conspiracy and three counts of sex trafficking of a minor. If convicted, he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in prison for each sex trafficking count and a maximum penalty of five years in prison for conspiracy.

Sailing to Yemen with human traffickers

Anthony M. Davis — Sat, 19 Nov 2011 10:29:51 +0000

Admin Note: I generally don't publish news from Al Jazeera because of the perceived controversial nature of the resource. Yet, this is not about politics, it is about exposing Human Trafficking for what it is – a brutal crime against humanity. The narrative below gives a perspective that should be read.

(Source: Al Jazeera)

Narrative by Journalist Glen Johnson:

There were more than 30 people crammed on the back of the truck as the vehicle bumped through the desert in eastern Djibouti.

The passengers were men, women and children from Ethiopia and Somalia and myself. And all would be smuggled in boats from Djibouti to Yemen, as part of wider trafficking operations involving six countries – Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Djibouti, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea – that apparently trafficks tens of thousands of people from the Horn of Africa to Arabian nations each year.

I had arrived in Djibouti on June 7 to research human trafficking. Having lived in Yemen for part of 2010, I was aware that the Africa-Arabia smuggling trade was one of the myriad challenges facing Yemen, yet one of the troubled nation's least discussed. In Djibouti, I quickly established links with smugglers, some of whom agreed to let me accompany migrants from Ethiopia and refugees from Somalia by boat to Yemen.

The truck drove slowly through the desert. No one talked. A distant beam from a lighthouse swept across the night sky. The silhouettes of coarse thorn scrubs, bent back from the wind, stood under a yellow moon that was ill-defined from the dust and sand that swept up into the night.

Occasionally the truck would grind to a halt and men would get out swinging sticks wildly, telling the passengers to keep still. A woman spoke to a child – his hair a mass of coarse, black curls; his spindly legs sticking out the bottom of his trousers.

The child was travelling with his brother from Mogadishu, the Somali capital. They hoped to reach Kharaz refugee camp, administered by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), in South Yemen. A place where his brother said: "There is food and a house. They [UNHCR] give money."

According to a 2010 Chatham House report, Yemen and Somalia: Terrorism, Shadow Networks and the Limitations of State-building, the Horn of Africa smuggling trade – based on the number of registered arrivals in Yemen 2009, 77,802, could be worth more than $20m each year.

Feds set for human-trafficking crackdown in South Florida

Anthony M. Davis — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 10:55:08 +0000

She was a runaway who traveled from Hawaii to work the Super Bowl in Miami.

Her job: having sex for money in South Beach. Her boss: a pimp who sold the girl using online ads on Craigslist and Backpage. Her age: 16.

Pimp Fred Collins coached her with text messages, court records show: "Make him give you more," he texted. "He's a trick, baby girl."

South Florida is a hotspot for human trafficking because of its gateway air and sea ports, and last month was one of six regions picked to launch an anti-trafficking coordination team. Working together, federal prosecutors, the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Labor will attack the problem.

South Florida's tourism-driven service industry — in restaurants, hotels, trendy nightspots and sporting events such as the Super Bowl — facilitates labor and sex exploitation. The involuntary servitude of maids, butlers, drivers and produce pickers can be found in South Florida's toniest neighborhoods and in agricultural fields ripe for modern-day slavery.

State Department report ranks countries on human trafficking

Anthony M. Davis — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 12:19:09 +0000

Human trafficking is flourishing in the Democratic Republic of Congo, North Korea, Saudi Arabia and Iran, with little effort by the countries' governments to combat it, the U.S. State Department said Monday.

The department's 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report assesses efforts by 184 governments worldwide to fight sexual exploitation, forced labor and modern-day slavery.

The annual report, considered one of the most comprehensive analyses of worldwide human trafficking, ranks countries in three "tiers."

Shaniya Davis’ mother indicted on murder, other charges

Anthony M. Davis — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 11:04:36 +0000

The mother of 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was indicted Wednesday on charges of first-degree murder, rape of a child and human trafficking.

A Cumberland County grand jury also indicted Antoniette Davis, 27, on charges of taking indecent liberties with a child, committing a sexual offense, sexual servitude, and making a false police report, authorities said.

B.C.’s Anti-Human Trafficking office gutted

Anthony M. Davis — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 10:45:19 +0000

The budget for B.C.'s anti-human trafficking office has been reduced to the same amount a trafficker earns selling a single victim, according to a University of British Columbia law professor who works with the organization.

Benjamin Perrin has collaborated with the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons since it was created in 2007, and says it provides an invaluable service preventing trafficking and aiding victims in the province.

"This is an office that over the last several years has serviced over 100 trafficking victims in British Columbia alone," Perrin told ctvbc.ca.

But the organization has had its budget slashed and executive director position terminated, Perrin says, leaving only two full-time, Vancouver-based staff members who have been forced to abandon a number of programs.

"They were going to launch an initiative to prevent young people from becoming prey to trafficking, a whole youth outreach program that has been shelved," he said.

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Human trafficking: A parent’s nightmare

Anthony M. Davis — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 10:40:59 +0000

Karla Lopez never required her teenage daughter to work. She only wanted her to be a good student and focus on her future.

Now Lopez fears her 16 year old might be working to stay alive, a victim of human trafficking.

Lopez’s daughter, Stephany Pineda, dashed out the door Dec. 14, late for school. She made it to the bus stop but never arrived at Lincolnton High School. A family friend called Lopez and told her Pineda was spotted riding off in a car with two men.

That was nearly four months ago.

Since her daughter’s disappearance, Lopez has learned a lot about human trafficking. She’s afraid Stephany might be a victim of the crime and that she may never see her again.