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Bringing you the latest news in the unfortunate industry of Human and S*x Trafficking.

03/06/2024

📍 Kansas

Elijah Z. Haley, 21, of Atchison was indicted on two counts of s*x trafficking of a child, two counts of s*x trafficking accomplished by force, fraud, or coercion, two counts of transportation with intent to engage in criminal s*xual activity, and two counts of transportation for illegal s*xual activity, according to court documents.

03/06/2024

📍India

Ernakulam Rural SP Vaibhav Saxena said that 41-year-old Ballamkonda Ram Prasad also known as Pratapan was the alleged mastermind behind the mafia and was hiding out in a hotel in Hyderabad

The victims of the organ trafficking operation were from rural areas and the organs were allegedly removed in Iran, police said in a statement.

Victims were contacted through social media

31/12/2023

North Las Vegas Man Pleads Guilty To Multiple Child S*x Trafficking Charges And Witness Tampering (DOJ)🔻

📍Las Vegas, Nevada

🔘 A North Las Vegas resident who recruited his victims over social media pleaded guilty Thursday to 10 federal charges related to child s*x trafficking and exploitation.

🔘According to court documents and statements made in court, beginning in April 2017 through December 2017, Jacques Anton Lanier, also known as “John Dupree,” coerced and solicited nine girls under the age of 18 years old to engage in s*xual activities with him for money and drugs. Lanier engaged in commercial s*x acts with at least four of the girls. He also requested and received s*xual images from some of the victims and took a s*xually explicit image of at least one victim constituting child po*******hy.

🔘Lanier traveled to California and engaged in s*x acts with a victim.
In 2018, while Lanier was in custody pending related criminal charges, he tampered with one of the victims through intimidation and threats, and persuaded that victim to evade legal process, refrain from testifying, and prevent communication between the victim and law enforcement regarding federal offenses.

🔘Lanier pleaded guilty to four counts of coercion and enticement; four counts of s*x trafficking of children; one count of s*xual exploitation of children; and one count of tampering with a witness, victim or informant.
United States District Judge Gloria M. Navarro scheduled sentencing for March 27, 2024. Lanier faces the maximum statutory penalty of life in prison and a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

30/12/2023

2 indicted for s*x trafficking minors, Georgia AG says (Atlanta News First)🔻

🔘 ccording to state Attorney General Chris Carr.
Denorris Hutchinson and Natasha Bridges, both 35 and from East Point, were charged with trafficking of persons for s*xual servitude, Carr said in a news release Thursday. Hutchinson faces three counts and Bridges faces one count, Carr said.
The indictments reportedly stem from “Operation Not Forgotten,” a multi-jurisdictional, joint operation to recover critically endangered missing children in Georgia.

🔘Hutchinson and Bridges were charged with allegedly trafficking a 17-year-old girl who was found at a hotel in Fulton County in 2020 during the operation, according to Carr. The girl had been reported as missing from Kansas City, Missouri, Carr said.
Carr said the investigation indicated Hutchinson and Bridges “had harbored, transported and provided the victim for commercial s*x. They are further alleged to have benefited financially from the sale of the victim.”
Hutchinson was also charged with allegedly trafficking a 15-year-old girl who was identified during the operation, according to Carr.”

🔘Specifically, the defendant is alleged to have harbored and transported the 15-year-old victim for commercial s*x,” Carr said. “He is further alleged to have benefited financially from the sale of the victim.”
Hutchinson and Bridges were arrested in October, and prosecutors presented evidence to a Fulton County grand jury on Nov. 3, according to Carr.

🔘Eleven other suspects, all men, were previously indicted on charges related to the alleged trafficking of the 17-year-old girl.

22/12/2023

Pornhub Parent Company Admits to Receiving Proceeds of S*x Trafficking and Agrees to Three-Year Monitor (DOJ)

⚠️Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Aylo Holdings S.A.R.L. (formerly MindGeek S.A.R.L.) (Aylo), parent company to Pornhub.com, was arraigned on a charge of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions involving s*x trafficking proceeds, after entering into a deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York to resolve the charge. The proceeding was held before United States Chief Magistrate Judge Lois Bloom. The DPA provides for the appointment of a monitor (Monitor) for three years and for payments to be made to the United States and to individuals adversely affected by the underlying s*x trafficking.

19/12/2023

(daily mail)

🔘A judge has ruled to unseal documents that would name 177 Does who are Epstein’s friends, recruiters and victims within the coming weeks

🔘The material is related to a defamation case brought by Prince Andrew’s accuser Virginia Roberts in New York against Epstein’s madam Ghislaine Maxwell

🔘The hundreds of files will shed new light on the late financier’s s*x trafficking operation and his network of influence

18/12/2023

🚨 Ohio Man Indicted for Alleged Child S*x Trafficking (DOJ)

📍Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

🔘 The one-count Indictment named Donte Lashawn Cole, 39, as the sole defendant. According to allegations contained in a previously filed federal criminal complaint, in May 2023 Cole transported a minor female victim from Ohio to a hotel in Monroeville, Pennsylvania, to engage in commercial s*x acts. Cole allegedly used online advertisements to market the minor for commercial s*x services in Western Pennsylvania and elsewhere, from April 2023 to October of 2023. With the assistance of the Northeast Ohio Human Trafficking Taskforce, Cole was taken into custody at his residence in Euclid, Ohio, where the minor was also located partially n**e in an upstairs bedroom.

🔘 The federal charge provides for a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years and up to life in prison, a fine of up to $250,000, or both. Under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the actual sentence imposed would be based upon the seriousness of the offense and the prior criminal history, if any, of the defendant.

16/12/2023

🚨⚠️23,000⚠️🚨 Florida man caught with more than 23,000 images, videos of CSAM headed to prison

📍Pensacola, Florida

🔘 A man in Florida is guilty of receiving and possessing images and videos of CSAM, and he’ll be going to prison.

🔘 Wednesday, a federal jury convicted Jeffrey L. Pybus after a two-day trial.

🔘Starting Feb. 18, 2022, authorities said, “Pybus received material containing CSAM through a Peer-to-Peer file sharing program.”

🔘That ended a few months and a lot of files later — on May 4, to be exact — when law enforcement searched his home and found more than 23,000 images and/or videos of CSAM.

🔘At the time, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said his phone had more than 200,000 files, “some of them depicting children under the age of 5 years old being abused.”
The feds say Pybus, 40, faces a minimum mandatory sentence of five years in prison, but he could get up to 20 years.

16/12/2023

‼️Defendant in Ga. human trafficking operation with former NFL PLAYER convicted, AG says (WSB-TV 2)🔻

📍Gwinnett County, Georgia

🔘 Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr announced Thursday that a man accused of being a leader of the Last One To Take Over Gang was convicted and sentenced during a human trafficking case that included former Falcons and Raiders tight end Eric Johnson.

🔘According to Carr’s office, the LOTTO Gang, also known as the 30% Gang, was accused of trafficking three women, including an underage female.

🔘As reported by Channel 2 Gwinnett County Bureau Chief Matt Johnson in February, an indictment revealed details of a human trafficking investigation in Gwinnett County that involved Johnson as one of eight people indicted for alleged gang and human trafficking activity in the county from 2021 to 2022.

🔘Eric Johnson was accused of being one of the gang’s members.

16/12/2023

🚨BORDER TRAFFICKING Mom and son used ‘promise of America’ to lure girls from Mexico, traffic them, feds say (AOL)🔻

📍 Mission, Texas

🔘 A woman and her son are going to jail after officials say they trafficked a teenage girl brought to the United States from Mexico.

🔘Rita Martinez, 65, and her son Genaro Fuentes, 41, were convicted of s*x trafficking, according to a Dec. 8 news release from the U.S. Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs.

🔘Between 1996 and 2019, Martinez and others “recruited” women and girls in Durango and Coahuila to bring to the United States, according to an indictment filed in the Southern District of Texas.

🔘Martinez used “the promise of America to lure vulnerable women and children into the United States and then coerce them into commercial s*x acts,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke said in the release.

🔘Once they were in the United States, Martinez would tell them they “owed her a smuggling debt” and had to work at her bar in Mission, Texas, to pay it off, officials said.
However, officials said Martinez would s*x traffic them out to her bar to customers.

16/12/2023

⚠️ GRUELING!! NC man convicted after selling teen for s*x, branding her with tattoos to control her mind (The Charlotte Observer)🔻

📍Charlotte, North Carolina

🔘 A Charlotte man sold a 15-year-old girl for s*x at hotels in the Carolinas, and branded her with tattoos to control her mind, federal prosecutors said this week.

🔘 A federal jury in Charlotte found 33-year-old Tawaan Batten guilty Wednesday of conspiring with a Locust woman to s*x-traffic the girl through online ads, U.S. Attorney Dena King said in a news release.

🔘After a three-day trial, the jury convicted Batten of conspiracy to commit s*x trafficking of a minor, s*x trafficking of a minor and transportation of a minor with the intent to engage in commercial s*xual activity.

16/12/2023

⚠️NEW Man sentenced to 18 years for running s*x trafficking operation uncovered by Henrico cops (Richmond)🔻

📍Henrico, Virginia

🔘 North Carolina man has been sentenced to 18 years after pleading guilty to running a s*x trafficking operation that Henrico County police uncovered in major East Coast cities.

🔘Demontray Shadrell Bowman, 41, on Wednesday was sentenced to 58 years in prison, but 40 years of his term were suspended after he pleaded guilty in Henrico Circuit Court to four counts of commercial s*x trafficking among other charges.

⚠️Police said Bowman oversaw a “widespread human trafficking operation” from New York to Florida that “stopped in most major cities along the I-95 corridor.”

🔘 In the course of investigating Bowman, Henrico VICE detectives and Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Terrica Taylor reviewed over 100,000 digital images to positively identify multiple victims of Bowman’s operation and secure the cooperation of several witnesses to testify against him, police said.

15/12/2023

🚨NEW 15 arrested in Montgomery County online child s*x exploitation sting (AL)🔻

📍 Montgomery County, Alabama

🔘 The operation was carried out Thursday and Friday in Montgomery County. The massive sting took several months of training and planning.

⚠️ Assistant Chief Deputy Wesley Richerson said they were targeting people who prey on children. Those arrested, he said, communicated online with who they believed to be children and agreed to pay them for s*x acts.

15/12/2023

🚨BREAKING Retired Cook Children’s Hospital Chaplain Sentenced to 60 Years in Prison for Child Po*******hy (DOJ)🔻

📍 Fort Worth, Texas

🔘 A Fort Worth, Texas man who recorded himself s*xually abusing a minor was sentenced yesterday to 60 years in federal prison, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Leigha Simonton.

🔘Michael Downs, 71, a retired Cook Children’s Hospital chaplain, was charged via criminal complaint in March 2023 and pleaded guilty in July 2023 to two counts of s*xual exploitation of children. He was sentenced Thursday by U.S. District Judge Mark Pittman, who also ordered a lifetime of supervised release.

⚠️ According to plea papers, the investigation began on January 22, 2023 after a seventeen-year-old minor told her aunt she had been s*xually abused by Mr. Downs. The minor female said Mr. Downs recorded the s*xual abuse on an iPad.
Mr. Downs’ wife provided law enforcement with several electronic devices from their residence. Law enforcement located a hard drive that contained numerous videos and photos of Mr. Downs engaging in s*xually explicit conduct with the minor.

15/12/2023

🔸NEW🔸 Georgia Senator files bipartisan "child protection" bill, aims to hold tech companies accountable (WSBTV) 🔻

📍Georgia

🔘 U.S. Sens. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) are teaming up to protect children from online s*xual abuse, with the legislation looking to both strengthen systems in place to protect children online as well as hold tech companies accountable for certain materials on their sites.

🔘 As written, the legislation would increase the strength and support of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children’s tip line to let it collect reports of online exploitation and would increase the amount of time evidence is held for review.

🔘 By doing so, the senators hope to allow law enforcement officers more time to investigate and prosecute child s*xual exploitation crimes committed online.

15/12/2023

🚨 BREAKING Florida seeks DEATH PENALTY in Lake County CHILD S*XUAL ABUSE case under new law🔻
(Tampa Bay)

📍Lake County, Florida

🔘 In what may be the first case of its kind in the state, central Florida prosecutors said Thursday they will seek the death penalty against a man accused of s*xually abusing a child, making use of a new law that expanded capital punishment to s*x crimes against children.

🔘 The office of State Attorney William Gladson, who prosecutes cases in five counties northwest of Orlando, filed a notice of intent to seek a death sentence for Joseph Andrew Giampa, who faces charges of s*xual battery on a person younger than 12.

⚠️ An arrest affidavit in his case states that Lake County sheriff’s deputies questioned him at his home Nov. 2. During their conversation, Giampa led the deputies to a camper and allowed them to look at a video on a laptop computer, the document states. The affidavit describes the video as depicting a man s*xually abusing a child while recording the act.
During a portion of the video, the man put the camera down and moved in front of it. Deputies identified the man as Giampa, according to the affidavit. Giampa is being held in the Lake County Jail.

15/12/2023

Man Sentenced for Multiple Child Exploitation Offenses🔻

📍Sanford, Maine

🔘 According to court documents, Joseph Daniel Zoll, 63, of Sanford, shared CSAM with a CHILD S*X TRAFFICKER in the Philippines and paid the trafficker to s*xually abuse a prepubescent minor over a live-streaming videochat platform.

🔘For around two years, Zoll communicated with the trafficker and repeatedly instructed the trafficker to s*xually abuse the minor over live-streaming video calls. Zoll engaged in similar conduct with multiple individuals in the Philippines over the same platform. In addition, Zoll frequently recorded the live-streaming video calls, which he would then show to other individuals when instructing them to s*xually abuse children during their own calls.

08/12/2023

Facebook and Instagram content enabled child s*xual abuse, trafficking: New Mexico lawsuit (CNBC)

Facebook and Instagram created “prime locations” for s*xual predators that enabled child s*xual abuse, solicitation, and trafficking, New Mexico’s attorney general alleged in a civil suit filed Wednesday against Meta

and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
The suit was brought after an “undercover investigation” allegedly revealed myriad instances of s*xually explicit content being served to minors, child s*xual coercion, or the sale of child s*xual abuse material, or CSAM, New Mexico attorney general Raúl Torrez said in a press release.

The suit alleges that “certain child exploitative content” is ten times “more prevalent” on Facebook and Instagram as compared to po*******hy site PornHub and adult content platform OnlyFans, according to the release.

30/11/2023

🔻Red Roof Inn settles s*x trafficking case on eve of trial (Atlanta Constitution Journal)

🔘Red Roof Inn has settled allegations it participated in and profited from years of s*x trafficking at two Atlanta-area hotels, on the eve of a trial due to start in a federal court on Monday.

🔘The settlement came over the weekend in a civil case brought by four women who alleged they were the victims of s*x trafficking at Red Roof Inn hotels on Corporate Plaza in Smyrna and North Druid Hills Road in Buckhead between 2010 and 2017.

⚠️Red Roof Inn companies headquartered in Ohio and Texas were part of sweeping s*x trafficking litigation filed in 2019 in Georgia by the four Jane Doe plaintiffs, whose identities were protected. Related cases previously resolved before trial involved claims against companies behind Hilton, Wyndham, Extended Stay America, La Quinta, Choice, Microtel, and Ramada-branded hotels.

22/11/2023

🔻Senior Pentagon Official Overseeing Elementary Schools Division Arrested in Human Trafficking Sting (Gateway Pundit)

🔘 “In a recent crackdown on human trafficking in Coweta County, Georgia, an unsettling revelation has come to light: among those apprehended in a law enforcement sting operation is Stephen Francis Hovanic, 64, a senior official with the Department of Defense Education Activity (DODEA) Americas division, which oversees elementary education for military families.”

21/11/2023

🔻SLOVENIA: Police Team Takes Down CSAM Ring in Western Balkans 2 CHILDREN RESCUED (OCCRP)

🔘 “Western Balkan law enforcement joined together in a regional operation against child s*xual exploitation, identifying 39 suspected child abusers and rescuing two of their victims”

⚠️ “The police said that the image and video files feature youngsters being s*xually assaulted by adults and minors being n**e on tape.”

⚠️ “Slovenian police further stated that five suspects used cryptocurrencies in their criminal acts, and that they also operated on the darknet.”

21/11/2023

🔻X, Snap, Discord CEOs are Called to Testify on Online Child S*xual Exploitation (iTech Post)

🔘 “According to the report, the executives have been invited before but have been repeatedly refusing to appear after several weeks of negotiations. Both the Congress and the Committee have been rallying on big tech' responsibility to protect children from the dangers of the online world.”

🔘 “Following the call-out, X's head of US and Canada government affairs, Wifredo Fernandez assured that the company is already communicating with their schedule to participate in the hearing. Meanwhile, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel confirmed his appearance to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee.”

🔘 Other platforms are communicating to contribute

20/11/2023

(Fox)

Former editor of liberal news outlet charged with multiple counts of child po*******hy (Fox)

🔘 “A former editor for the left-leaning website The Recount has reportedly been charged with multiple counts of child po*******hy.”

🔘 “According to Massachusetts authorities, 44-year-old Slade Sohmer has pleaded not guilty to two counts of possession of child po*******hy and two counts of dissemination of child po*******hy.”

🔘 “Sohmer was arrested at his residence in Otis, Mass., on Friday, several weeks after law enforcement obtained a search warrant and confiscated his personal electronic devices.”

⚠️ “After searching through Sohmer’s phones, laptops, and tablets, investigators initially uncovered 1,300 files, with hundreds that included child s*xual abuse media. One of the pictures depicted the r**e of a child around four years old.”

18/11/2023

(Fox 13)
🔘 Around 1:43 a.m., TPD says Gardener invited the victim to his room at Renaissance Hotel at International Plaza, and she accepted the invitation.

🔘The victim told police she initially agreed to take money in exchange for s*x acts but later told Gardner that she no longer wanted to engage, and he became angry.

🔘According to officials, Gardner told the victim that she needed to leave his hotel room and the two got into a verbal argument that escalated to a physical dispute after Gardner put his hands around the victim's neck, stopping her from being able to breathe.

10/10/2023

🔻Convicted s*x trafficker pleads guilty to witness intimidation (Boston Herald)

🔘 “Mark Pinnock, 32, of Mattapan, pleaded guilty to one count of witness intimidation”

🔘 ““Let the cleaning lady know” she would be arrested by ICE if she were to go to court, Pinnock wrote to the security officer of a Brockton condo building last November, days before she was set to testify against him.”

26/09/2023

More than 1,000 kids reported missing in Ohio this year in ‘extraordinary surge’
(NY Post)

🔘 “The disappearances are now creating a disturbing trend in northern Ohio, which began in May, when nearly 30 children went missing in just the first two weeks.
Officials at the time called it an “extraordinary surge” in disappearances.”

09/09/2023

Teacher among five charged in TBI human trafficking operation in Chattanooga (Local 3 News)

🔘 “One of the men was identified as David Acevedo, a special education teacher at Calvin Donaldson Elementary in Hamilton County.”

🔘 “Hamilton County Schools confirmed Acevedo's involvement and suspended him without pay on August 29 pending an investigation.”

🔘 “The TBI says that seven women received assistance from Grow Free Tennessee, while others either declined services or were cited or arrested for unrelated warrants during the operation.”

09/09/2023

Sorry for the gap in posting! Please head to countertraffickingalliance.com to view the published report on the National Human Trafficking Hotline

09/08/2023

Police officer arrested for trying to have s*x with undercover cop posing as underage girl (The Mirror)

🔘 “Telvin Wilson, 31, of the Texarkana Arkansas Police Department after was arrested by his colleagues when officers posted an advert on a website known for prostitution and posed as a minor.”

🔘 “Despite advertising the girl was underage, police said three men still wanted to have s*x with her. One of the three men was allegedly Wilson, a cop on the Arkansas side of town. Texarkana, a major city, consists of two administrations, one on either side of the border between Arkansas and Texas.”

🔘 “After being lured to a location where police were in fact waiting for them, the men were arrested.”

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Authorities in Franklin County detained 18 people who were in the country illegally after a traffic stop on Interstate 30 Thursday afternoon. Franklin County Sheriff Ricky Jones explained that a Texas Department of Public Safety trooper made a traffic stop on a Toyota Sequoia at about 2 p.m. Thursday, thinking that it was hauling narcotics because of all the weight in it. When the DPS trooper opened the hatchback, he saw 18 Guatemalans who were in the United States illegally. He immediately called the Department of Homeland Security for assistance. Current policy is to release them, if they don’t fit the holding criteria. But the sheriff says ‘release them where?’