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Campaign against child sex trafficking. (Image
source: Captain Alist-ARGH! @AlistairReign)
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Federal authorities
arrested 29 people in 13 cities across eight states on sex trafficking charges,
as part of a sweeping southern states operation called “Safe Haven,” according
to US officials. The
undercover operation involved a loosely affiliated operation that coordinated
the movement of Latino females throughout the southeast of the US, according to
authorities. The traffickers within the operation were independent operators
who coordinated the delivery of women for sexual purposes.
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© Reuters
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“Human
sex trafficking is a cancer that we must cut out, and then aggressively fight
with all of our resources,” US Attorney for the Middle District of Georgia
Michael Moore said in
a released statement.
RT USA report continues:
Moore
said some trafficking victims are “kidnapped and forced in sexual servitude
through violence,” while others “are lured with the promise of a better life,
and then held hostage by predators who literally financially imprison them.”
“No
matter the circumstances that brought these women in sexual servitude, they are
victims,” Moore added.
Investigators
said 15 people believed to be victims were rescued during raids on brothels and
homes in Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina,
South Carolina and Texas. The indictment described a network to recruit young
women, including underage teens, to work as prostitutes because men are willing
to pay more to have sex with them.
One
underage girl was enticed from her home in Mexico by a trafficker who convinced
her to run away with him, promising her a better life, the indictment says.
Instead, he trained her as a prostitute and sent her with delivery drivers to
various cities, where she sometimes performed 25 sex acts a day during the week
and 30 sex acts a day on weekends, the indictment says, according to
ABC News.
The
girl turned 18 in May 2011, and from 2006 until January of 2013 she worked as a
prostitute in Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Louisiana and elsewhere.
The
indictment, filed in federal court in Macon, charged 38 people with
sex-trafficking crimes, 29 of whom were arrested on Thursday in eight southern
states. Six people were charged with conspiracy to participate in the sex
trafficking of a minor, and 38 people were charged with conspiracy to transport
a person in interstate commerce for prostitution. Nine suspects remain at large.
People
charged with conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor could face life
imprisonment and a US$250,000 fine. Suspects charged with conspiracy to transport
a person in interstate commerce for prostitution could face up to five years
and a US$250,000 fine.
“Safe
Haven” began in July 2014 in the rural southern Georgia town of Moultrie and
was led by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agents (ICE). The joint task
force of personnel from ICE and Homeland Security Investigations involved 38
separate missions, and used covert aerial surveillance to track suspects and
identify multiple locations.
"To
the criminals behind these illegal enterprises, these women are just pieces of
meat used to pull a quick profit and then discarded or passed on to the next
trafficker down the line," said Special Agent in Charge Nick Annan, who
heads ICE's Homeland Security Investigations division in Atlanta.
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