The leader of a ring that lured women and girls from Togo to work for no pay braiding hair in Newark and East Orange will spend 27 years in prison.
A Jersey City pimp got 18 years for using drugs and violence to control sex slaves in brothels and on the street.
A "promoter" is serving five years for using threats to their families back home to get Russian women to dance nude for up to 10 hours a day in strip clubs, and pay him $1,200 a week to do it.
A Union City bodega owner is serving four years for sending as much as $1 million earned by smuggled prostitutes back to Mexico.
Those sentences and many more are the result of a crackdown by authorities, empowered by a 10-year-old federal law, on the traffic in human beings for unpaid labor and sex that is taking place daily in New Jersey.
"This is a very high priority for the Department of Justice generally and for us in particular," said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
North Jersey is a crossroads for most of the types of human-trafficking networks that are active in the United States, experts say. The region’s transportation network, the presence of organized crime and corruption, and pockets of deep poverty, high wealth and diverse immigrant communities all make the region prime territory for traffickers.
"It is quite prevalent," said Asha Vaghela, a deputy state attorney general in Trenton who leads the state’s anti-trafficking task force. "The positioning of the tri-state airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia make it a place that’s really ripe for cultivating victims of trafficking."
A non-profit group that runs a national trafficking hot line added a Newark office to its other two, in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., after seeing several cases of women being routed from New Jersey "up and down the East Coast" to work at sex parties and strip clubs.
"Once we understood the landscape of different trafficking networks, we realized the New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area was a central hub," said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project.
The maximum penalty under federal law for trafficking is life in prison, and the definition of the crime is broader than many people may think. To begin with, someone does not have to be transported to be "trafficked."
Under the law, anyone who sells a minor for sex is a trafficker. So is anyone who uses force, fraud, deception or coercion to get an adult to prostitute herself or perform labor.
"Citizens and legal residents can be trafficked," said Vaghela. "It turns on being forced into an action through physical force or threats or other forms of coercion, including document withholding and lack of wages."
Customers share blame
Sex trafficking relies on customers who do not care if the person gyrating on stage or answering an online personal ad is coerced. Indeed, one crusader on the issue said the sex trade would not be able to operate without trafficking victims.
"You can almost take that to the bank," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-Mercer, sponsor of a landmark anti-trafficking law in 2000 and several subsequent updates. "Based on the evidence, it is true, there are women who are commingled with women who might say they’re doing it on their own. And that’s everywhere. I hate it. It’s a commoditization, like a supply issue."
Myles said the "staggering demand" from men for commercial sex far outweighs the number of women willingly working in the sex trade.
"That demand drives a need for more trafficked women," he said.
In New Jersey, the effort against sex trafficking has led to arrests of many pimps in urban areas, and two cases are scheduled for sentencing next month.
Kasiem Brown, 36, of Newark pleaded guilty in June to trafficking a minor and selling guns as part of a prostitution business that operated in Elizabeth, Irvington, Newark and Atlantic City. He would bring girls to strip clubs, sex parties in private homes, and various "tracks," or locations known for prostitution activity.
He faces up to 20 years in the federal prison system, which has no parole.
Javon Gordon, 28, of Atlantic City, who is also known as "Teflon," pleaded guilty in August to transporting two minors across state lines for prostitution. He admitted that three minors he recruited solicited sex on the street, in casinos and on the Internet.
He faces a maximum life sentence.
Big events a draw
Vaghela said authorities have found there’s an increase in trafficking whenever there are events that draw a large number of men, such as a major sporting event.
"We do know when there are events in Atlantic City, victims are brought in from other states," she said.
Myles said there are four different types of sex trafficking rings operating on the East Coast, and they all have a presence in North Jersey. Asian and Latino rings cater exclusively to those ethnic groups in communities where there is a large enough population. And a broader clientele is served by domestic pimps offering American women, and by Eastern European rings, often allied with organized crime, offering victims duped into coming to the United States by promise of a better life.
A major indictment against a Gambino crime family crew in April included a trafficking count for shipping underage girls across state lines for prostitution.
Rasheed Davis, the purported pimp in the recent case involving Lawrence Taylor, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking of a 16-year-old girl; the former Giants linebacker was charged with rape and hiring an underage prostitute, among other offenses.
Labor trafficking takes many forms in the region, including the hair-braiding case in Newark and East Orange and wealthy families using unpaid immigrant maids or nannies, Myles said. Vaghela said that nationwide, there have been cases of Asian immigrants brought into the country and forced to work in Chinese restaurants.
Both said farm labor is rife with trafficking victims, especially on farms where growers contract with one person to supervise pickers and don't ask questions about the workers.
Celebrities step in
Under the latest version of the federal anti-trafficking law, a business owner who looks the other way while someone else hires trafficking victims to work for him, such as a strip club owner who hires dancers through "talent agents," can be criminally liable.
Celebrities such as Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormand have tried to use their fame to raise awareness and money for the fight against trafficking, both in media appearances and testimony at hearings on Capitol Hill.
Authorities said that while it may look as though victims could easily run away, the traffickers have many ways to exert control, including warning the victims that police will be more brutal or will send them back to their native country.
"With younger victims, there are trauma issues, and a huge embarrassment factor," Fishman said.
Smith said the law he sponsored in 2000 provides for special immigration visas.
"A woman or anyone who is trafficked, they can get asylum here," Smith said. "And we also protect their families, because where the traffickers can exert incredible influence on the woman in the brothels is by saying, ‘I know where your little sister is in Russia.’ "
A joint effort
The latest front in Congress against sex trafficking has brought Smith and other religious conservatives in Congress together with some liberal Democrats.
The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010 (HR-5575) would provide federal money for shelters and also urge states to change the way criminal laws treat child prostitutes.
"According to the FBI, too many people believe that child prostitution is a victimless crime and the children involved are willing participants. That kind of thinking is wrong. These children are victims," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, at a House subcommittee hearing last month.
A former teenage prostitute now running a shelter for victims provided a firsthand example.
"I was 13 years old when I fell in love for the first time – he turned out to be a pimp. I was gang-raped, psychologically manipulated, sold for sex and beaten," said Tina Frundt, founder and director of Courtney’s House.
She said arrest and a year in detention spared her "the daily rapes and beatings," but she was branded a delinquent and had no "counseling or treatment for the trauma."
It’s an uphill climb to change public perception, but Smith relishes the fight. He boasts of the time he was pushing an anti-trafficking resolution in 1999 as chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and hard-line Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky angrily confronted him.
"He said, ‘You hate Russians.’ I said, ‘No.’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Why do you want Russian women being raped in New York City?’ And that stopped him," Smith said.
E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com. Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson
The leader of a ring that lured women and girls from Togo to work for no pay braiding hair in Newark and East Orange will spend 27 years in prison.
A Jersey City pimp got 18 years for using drugs and violence to control sex slaves in brothels and on the street.
A "promoter" is serving five years for using threats to their families back home to get Russian women to dance nude for up to 10 hours a day in strip clubs, and pay him $1,200 a week to do it.
A Union City bodega owner is serving four years for sending as much as $1 million earned by smuggled prostitutes back to Mexico.
Those sentences and many more are the result of a crackdown by authorities, empowered by a 10-year-old federal law, on the traffic in human beings for unpaid labor and sex that is taking place daily in New Jersey.
By the numbers
* 1 million children each year estimated trafficked for labor and sex globally — UNICEF
* 571 convictions in domestic sex trafficking cases since June 2003 — FBI Innocence Lost project
* 247 T-visas issued in 2008 for victims of human trafficking — State Department
* 77 federal convictions in 27 sex and 13 labor trafficking cases in 2008 — Justice Department
* 9.3 years was average prison sentence in 2008 cases — Justice Department
More information
To report tips, seek help or request information, including training in how to spot victims:
* State hot line: 877-986-7534
* National hot line: 888-373-7888
"This is a very high priority for the Department of Justice generally and for us in particular," said U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman.
North Jersey is a crossroads for most of the types of human-trafficking networks that are active in the United States, experts say. The region’s transportation network, the presence of organized crime and corruption, and pockets of deep poverty, high wealth and diverse immigrant communities all make the region prime territory for traffickers.
"It is quite prevalent," said Asha Vaghela, a deputy state attorney general in Trenton who leads the state’s anti-trafficking task force. "The positioning of the tri-state airports in New York, New Jersey and Philadelphia make it a place that’s really ripe for cultivating victims of trafficking."
A non-profit group that runs a national trafficking hot line added a Newark office to its other two, in Tokyo and Washington, D.C., after seeing several cases of women being routed from New Jersey "up and down the East Coast" to work at sex parties and strip clubs.
"Once we understood the landscape of different trafficking networks, we realized the New York/ New Jersey metropolitan area was a central hub," said Bradley Myles, executive director of Polaris Project.
The maximum penalty under federal law for trafficking is life in prison, and the definition of the crime is broader than many people may think. To begin with, someone does not have to be transported to be "trafficked."
Under the law, anyone who sells a minor for sex is a trafficker. So is anyone who uses force, fraud, deception or coercion to get an adult to prostitute herself or perform labor.
"Citizens and legal residents can be trafficked," said Vaghela. "It turns on being forced into an action through physical force or threats or other forms of coercion, including document withholding and lack of wages."
Customers share blame
Sex trafficking relies on customers who do not care if the person gyrating on stage or answering an online personal ad is coerced. Indeed, one crusader on the issue said the sex trade would not be able to operate without trafficking victims.
"You can almost take that to the bank," said Rep. Chris Smith, R-Mercer, sponsor of a landmark anti-trafficking law in 2000 and several subsequent updates. "Based on the evidence, it is true, there are women who are commingled with women who might say they’re doing it on their own. And that’s everywhere. I hate it. It’s a commoditization, like a supply issue."
Myles said the "staggering demand" from men for commercial sex far outweighs the number of women willingly working in the sex trade.
"That demand drives a need for more trafficked women," he said.
In New Jersey, the effort against sex trafficking has led to arrests of many pimps in urban areas, and two cases are scheduled for sentencing next month.
Kasiem Brown, 36, of Newark pleaded guilty in June to trafficking a minor and selling guns as part of a prostitution business that operated in Elizabeth, Irvington, Newark and Atlantic City. He would bring girls to strip clubs, sex parties in private homes, and various "tracks," or locations known for prostitution activity.
He faces up to 20 years in the federal prison system, which has no parole.
Javon Gordon, 28, of Atlantic City, who is also known as "Teflon," pleaded guilty in August to transporting two minors across state lines for prostitution. He admitted that three minors he recruited solicited sex on the street, in casinos and on the Internet.
He faces a maximum life sentence.
Big events a draw
Vaghela said authorities have found there’s an increase in trafficking whenever there are events that draw a large number of men, such as a major sporting event.
"We do know when there are events in Atlantic City, victims are brought in from other states," she said.
Myles said there are four different types of sex trafficking rings operating on the East Coast, and they all have a presence in North Jersey. Asian and Latino rings cater exclusively to those ethnic groups in communities where there is a large enough population. And a broader clientele is served by domestic pimps offering American women, and by Eastern European rings, often allied with organized crime, offering victims duped into coming to the United States by promise of a better life.
A major indictment against a Gambino crime family crew in April included a trafficking count for shipping underage girls across state lines for prostitution.
Rasheed Davis, the purported pimp in the recent case involving Lawrence Taylor, is facing federal charges of sex trafficking of a 16-year-old girl; the former Giants linebacker was charged with rape and hiring an underage prostitute, among other offenses.
Labor trafficking takes many forms in the region, including the hair-braiding case in Newark and East Orange and wealthy families using unpaid immigrant maids or nannies, Myles said. Vaghela said that nationwide, there have been cases of Asian immigrants brought into the country and forced to work in Chinese restaurants.
Both said farm labor is rife with trafficking victims, especially on farms where growers contract with one person to supervise pickers and don't ask questions about the workers.
Celebrities step in
Under the latest version of the federal anti-trafficking law, a business owner who looks the other way while someone else hires trafficking victims to work for him, such as a strip club owner who hires dancers through "talent agents," can be criminally liable.
Celebrities such as Demi Moore, Susan Sarandon and Julia Ormand have tried to use their fame to raise awareness and money for the fight against trafficking, both in media appearances and testimony at hearings on Capitol Hill.
Authorities said that while it may look as though victims could easily run away, the traffickers have many ways to exert control, including warning the victims that police will be more brutal or will send them back to their native country.
"With younger victims, there are trauma issues, and a huge embarrassment factor," Fishman said.
Smith said the law he sponsored in 2000 provides for special immigration visas.
"A woman or anyone who is trafficked, they can get asylum here," Smith said. "And we also protect their families, because where the traffickers can exert incredible influence on the woman in the brothels is by saying, ‘I know where your little sister is in Russia.’ "
A joint effort
The latest front in Congress against sex trafficking has brought Smith and other religious conservatives in Congress together with some liberal Democrats.
The Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking Deterrence and Victims Support Act of 2010 (HR-5575) would provide federal money for shelters and also urge states to change the way criminal laws treat child prostitutes.
"According to the FBI, too many people believe that child prostitution is a victimless crime and the children involved are willing participants. That kind of thinking is wrong. These children are victims," said Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, at a House subcommittee hearing last month.
A former teenage prostitute now running a shelter for victims provided a firsthand example.
"I was 13 years old when I fell in love for the first time – he turned out to be a pimp. I was gang-raped, psychologically manipulated, sold for sex and beaten," said Tina Frundt, founder and director of Courtney’s House.
She said arrest and a year in detention spared her "the daily rapes and beatings," but she was branded a delinquent and had no "counseling or treatment for the trauma."
It’s an uphill climb to change public perception, but Smith relishes the fight. He boasts of the time he was pushing an anti-trafficking resolution in 1999 as chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe and hard-line Russian nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky angrily confronted him.
"He said, ‘You hate Russians.’ I said, ‘No.’ I looked him in the eye and said, ‘Why do you want Russian women being raped in New York City?’ And that stopped him," Smith said.
E-mail: jackson@northjersey.com. Blog: northjersey.com/herbjackson
New Jersey is crossroads in sordid work of human trafficking... | crime courts, crime courts news, international, arts entertainment, other international news, immigration, other immigration news, national crime, state, other state news from NorthJersey.comSource: North Jersey.com
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