DHS Open Source Enterprise
24 October 2011
NATIONAL:
• Human Traffickers Eye Kids For More Profit [New Mexico]: Sometimes the girls haven't even reached puberty, but they are already being forced to have sex with men who could be their grandfathers. Such sexual exploitation of children and teens — many of whom have been trafficked through New Mexico casinos and truck stops — is a growing profitable industry, Tina Frundt told social workers, lawyers and law enforcement personnel Thursday during an anti-trafficking training session at the New Mexico Law Enforcement Academy off Jaguar Drive. "Drug dealers are stopping the selling of drugs to sell children, because they make more money," said Frundt, executive director and founder of Courtney's House, a nonprofit organization in Washington, D.C., that serves teen victims of sexual trafficking. … The average age of girls who come into Courtney's House is between 10 and 13 years. Some cases have involved boys as young as 6 to 8 years old. Data from a national survivor's hotline indicates that 86 percent of victims were sexually abused before they were trafficked, Frundt said. "This is not just a foreign national issue, it's not just a U.S. citizen issue, it's an issue of children being bought and sold." [HSEC-3.10; Date: 22 October 2011; Source: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/Local%20News/Human-traffickers-eye-kids-for-more-profit]
• Officials Seek Out More Human Trafficking Victims [Florida]: The U.S. government offers roughly 5,000 visas a year to illegal immigrants who agree to testify against the traffickers who brought them to this country and then forced them into prostitution or other servitude. But in the first eight months of this year, only 524 victims applied for the visas and less than half were issued. Federal prosecutors and officials say they want to raise awareness about predatory human traffickers and put them in prison. … But they are facing the challenge of convincing illegal immigrants to come forward when sentiment against them is on the rise, and the Obama administration is touting a record number of deportations over the last year. "Someone who came illegally and knew they were coming illegally might think they have no redress, and they are mistaken," immigration services Director Alejandro Mayorca told The Associated Press. Just because someone agreed to be smuggled into the country doesn't mean they should be victimized, he said. [HSEC- 3.10; Date: 23 October 2011; Source: http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/10/23/2468172/officials-seek-out-more-human.html]
• Maryland Man Sentenced In Sex Trafficking Case: Cooper Kweme, 31, of Silver Spring, Md., has been sentenced today to 132 months in prison for the sex trafficking of a female juvenile, stemming from a prostitution business operated by Kweme earlier this year in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia. "Mr. Kweme trolled social networking sites and then lured and groomed a juvenile girl into his prostitution business," said Neil MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. … According to evidence presented in court, Kweme used the Internet to advertise women as prostitutes for his business. In February 2011, Kweme recruited a 16-year-old female to work as a prostitute after meeting her on an online social network targeted at teens, where he falsely claimed to be in his mid-20s. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 22 October 2011; Source: http://fairfaxnews.com/2011/10/maryland-man-sentenced-in-sex-trafficking-case/]
• Oklahoma Woman Gets 5 Years In Prison For Adoption Scam; Charged With Trafficking In Children: A Tecumseh woman charged in an adoption scam has reached a plea agreement with prosecutors and is to serve five years in prison. The Tulsa World reports … that 32-year-old Angela Michelle Wilkerson pleaded guilty last week in Oklahoma County District Court to trafficking in children. Wilkerson admitted to taking money from families in several states last December and January, promising she would give up her child to them for adoption. Wilkerson agreed to pay $55,892 in restitution to her victims and will be on probation for 10 years after serving her prison time. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 21 October 2011; Source: http://www.therepublic.com/view/story/f1aa5eba8556428993aee279ea17663c/OK--Adoption-Scam-
Sentence/]
INTERNATIONAL:
• Businessman On Trial In Human Trafficking Case [United Arab Emirates]: A 51-year-old Palestinian businessman faced a human trafficking charge on Sunday in the Court of First Instance as he is accused of luring a woman to come to the UAE and forcing her into prostitution. The alleged victim, a 21-year-old Moroccan woman, said during the investigation that she was offered a cleaner job for a Dh5,000 [$1,361] salary in the UAE after she gave two signed checks worth Dh5,000 [$1,361] to a compatriot woman in her country. She arrived with that woman, who is wanted in connection with the case, at the Dubai International Airport on May 11. The defendant received them and took them to an apartment in Al Mankhoul Street in Raffa. … When she came back to the apartment, a man, who also is wanted in the case, told her that she would work in flesh trade. While she objected it, he threatened to send her back to Morocco, but held her up in the flat. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 24 October 2011; Source: http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayarticle.asp?xfile=data/theuae/2011/October/theuae_October595.xml§ion=theuae&col]
• New Form Of Child Trafficking In Tanzania: Orphans in secondary schools are now in danger of being exploited by child traffickers who lure them out of school with promises of training them in Europe, but instead exploit them for money, it has been revealed. … "The problem was brought to our attention by teachers who were concerned about the number of students, especially orphans, who were being taken out of school with promises of being trained outside the country," said Ms Ndyetabura. Ms Ndyetabura said after following up on the lead, they discovered that instead, the children were being exploited through working for "charity" organizations outside the country that required them to sing on the streets for money. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 23 October 2011; Source: http://www.theeastafrican.co.ke/news/New+form+of+child+trafficking+in+Tanzania++/-/2558/1260188/-/r4hnjp/-/] 0
• Notorious Albanian Human Smuggler Arrested In Greece: For over 6 years, authorities around Europe had been searching for the Albanian mastermind behind an enormous human smuggling business based in Belgium. The notorious human trafficker was finally arrested by the Greek police while trying to cross the Greek-Albanian borders. The 51-year-old human smuggler was wanted by the Belgium police for being the head of an organized criminal group trafficking women for commercial sexual exploitation in many Belgian countries from 1998 to 2004. Moreover, the Albanian criminal is charged with identity documents forgery, which he sold to the women he was illegally smuggling into Belgium, and with the raping of one of his victims. Police officers of Kakavia Police Station based near the Greek-Albanian borders tracked down the Albanian criminal while he was trying to enter Greece. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 23 October 2011; Source: http://greece.greekreporter.com/2011/10/23/notorious-albanian-human-smuggler-arrested-in-greece/]
• Human Trafficking Cases Witness Sharp Increase In 2011 [Pakistan]: Like other social crimes penetrating in Pakistani society, human-trafficking cases have considerably increased during 2011, whereas the authorities concerned seemed unable to keep check on this nefarious act. … In Islamabad district courts 26 cases were registered against different people allegedly involved in human trafficking incidents. … Three main frequent routes used by traffickers in Pakistan include Makran coast, Thar and porous border with Afghanistan, the sea routes of Karachi, Ormara, Pasni Gawadar and Jiwani are easy routes to get to the Gulf. The favorite destinations of traffickers remain South East Asian countries such as Malaysia, Hong Kong and South Korea that are popular with semi-educated, laborer class. The common destination countries include Gulf and Saudi Arabia and amongst Western Europe and the UK are the most favorite destinations followed by Italy, Spain, Greece, Cyprus and Scandinavian countries. [HSEC-3.6; Date: 24 October 2011; Source: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2011\10\24\story_24-10-2011_pg11_1]
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