When FBI and immigration agents arrested a 28-year-old Guatemalan woman three months ago in Los Angeles, they announced that they had shut down one of the most elaborate sex trafficking rings in the country. It was also the family business.
The woman, Maribel Rodriguez Vasquez, was the sixth member of her family to be rounded up in the two-year multi-agency investigation. Vasquez, five of her relatives and three other Guatemalan nationals were charged with 50 counts, alleging that they lured at least a dozen young women — including five minors as young as 13 years old — to the United States with promises of good jobs, only to put them to work as prostitutes. All remain in custody as investigators attempt to unravel the complex case.
Vasquez — quickly dubbed the “L.A. Madam” — attracted attention because she had been featured on the fugitive-hunting television program “America’;s Most Wanted.” But it was one of only a few such cases to be spotlighted by national media, contributing to the false impression that cases of immigrant sex trafficking are isolated incidents, law enforcement officials and advocates for immigrants say.
The reality is that human trafficking goes on in nearly every American city and town, said Lisette Arsuaga, director of development for the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, a human rights organization in Los Angeles.
“Human trafficking is well hidden,” Arsuaga said. “I consider it a huge problem.”
Her assessment is shared by authorities in Bexar County, Texas, where the Sheriff’s Office has formed a task force with Shared Hope International, an anti-slavery organization founded by former Rep. Linda Smith, D-Wash. Bexar County is considered a crossroads of the cross-border Mexican sex slave trade because two Interstate highways that crisscross the state intersect there, some 150 miles from the Mexican border.
“I could go to a truck stop in South Texas right now and get on a CB radio and ask for some sweet stuff, and someone’s going to come out and offer something to sell,” Sheriff’s Deputy Chris Burchell said.
A $9.5 billion-a-year industry
Federal officials agree that the trafficking of human beings as sex slaves is far more prevalent than is popularly understood. While saying it is difficult to pinpoint the scope of the industry, given its shadowy nature, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials estimated that it likely generates more than $9.5 billion a year.
Last year alone, the FBI opened more than 225 human trafficking investigations in the United States. Figures for 2008 are not yet available, but in a coordinated nationwide sweep in July, federal, state and local authorities made more than 640 arrests and rescued 47 children in just three days.
In congressional testimony this year, FBI Director Robert Mueller called sex trafficking “a significant and persistent problem in the U.S. and around the world.”
getCSS("3088867") Web extra video Sex trafficking: Anna’s story
Trafficked to Malaysia from her home in the Philippines in early 2007, “Anna” had her virginity sold for $80.
Dateline NBC
Most cases involve “international persons trafficked to the United States from other countries,” who are generally less aware of their rights, probably do not speak English and are frightened to go to the authorities, he said. “Victims are often lured with false promises of good jobs and better lives and are then forced to work in the sex industry.”
While an increasing number of young men and boys are being forced into the commercial sex industry, more than 80 percent of victims are women and girls, the State Department estimated this year. Of those, 70 percent are forced into prostitution, stripping, pornography or mail-order marriage.
That allegedly was the case with the L.A. Madam.
Prosecutors said in court documents that the Vasquez ring sold Guatemalan women and girls to one another like slaves for several years. Ring members also would try to keep them in line by taking them to witch doctors who threatened to put curses on them and their families if they ran away, the prosecution said.
In one incident, three of the defendants repeatedly kicked and hit one of the victims to punish her for trying to escape, the documents allege.
“These young women were enticed into coming to this country by promises of the American dream, only to arrive and discover that what awaited was a nightmare,” said Robert Schoch, an ICE special agent. Growing sex slave trade in US
8 comments:
it's not only the US but all over the world....Nepali girls as young as 10 are trafficed into India.
stuff like this always reminds me of the old Yoko Ono/John Lennon song "Woman is the N*gger of the World"
Evil in the rawest form! Yet not even a blip on the radar screen of millions of the "First World." A great post!
Great post. Thank you for bring attention to this. Like Linda said, it's a world wide disgrace.
Hi Linda
It is all over the world it is just the US and its money that is the highlight! What I find sick is not how prevalent it is in Africa and worse but that it is accepted and rampant amongst so called religious Islamists!
B E
Thanks! Highlight Mexico and speak up about the border wars because of our drug problem!
Utah!
I am by nature principled and righteous but as for this I am sickened that it is often condoned and not just in the third world! Welcome out by the way!
Sad to say this, but having seen it around the world, this subject, bigotry, & drug abuse are rampant. What is really saddening is that some of the 'groups' most 'anti' all those are users, supporters, and/or vendors of the same. 'Same as it ever was' since pre-historic times. Says a lot about us as a species.
Hi Mike
Glad to see you! It is sick ian't it? At least in the governmeent those that complain the loudest are the guilty! Merry Christmas Bud!
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