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Greg Russinger's Blog – March 2009 Archive (12)

Russian intelligence officer tried in sex slavery case

An officer of the Russian Intelligence Service has been detained and put on trial for heading the criminal group that sold over 130 women from Russia and other ex-Soviet states abroad, as sex slaves.

The Military Investigation Department of the Russian Prosecutor's Office has been investigating the case of the international sex slavery network for two years by now, spokesman for the investigating committee told RIA Novosti Friday.

The investigation has found out that… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 27, 2009 at 10:40am — No Comments

6 charged in first King County case using human-trafficking law

Its great to see laws passed and working...

Six alleged members of a West Seattle street gang have been charged in connection with the forced prostitution of women and juveniles. One of them is charged under a 6-year-old law that specifically targets human trafficking.

Investigators believe members of a gang called the Westside Street Mobb forced 12 women and girls to perform sex acts for money, beat them and took the money they earned over several months last… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 27, 2009 at 10:29am — No Comments

Obama's Abolitionist (a must read)

If you are a human trafficker or someone who profits from the modern-day slave trade, and you come up against Lou de Baca: God help you. Tuesday, President Obama nominated de Baca, one of the nation's most decorated federal prosecutors, to be his Ambassador-at-Large to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons at the State Department (TIP). If confirmed, de Baca will serve as America's antislavery czar, heading up a vital but woefully underfunded office dedicated to pressuring foreign… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 26, 2009 at 9:36am — No Comments

Can Fair Trade End Human Trafficking?: Rugmark

Follow this article, great read on Change.org

Here's just a bit...

Can Fair Trade End Human Trafficking?: Rugmark

by Zarah Patriana

Published March 20, 2009 @ 07:07AM PST

[photo: savethechildren.org.uk]

Fellow Change.org blogger Amanda over at the End Human Trafficking blog and I are asking ourselves this question: Can Fair Trade end human trafficking? In response, we're looking at what a few Fair Trade companies are doing to… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 20, 2009 at 11:57am — No Comments

Newark hair-braiding salon owner pleads guilty to human trafficking, forced labor

An immigrant from the West African nation of Togo pleaded guilty today to working with his mother to smuggle women from their homeland to work without pay at hair-braiding salons they owned in Newark and East Orange.

Dereck Hounakey, 32, spoke softly as he acknowledged to U.S. District Court Judge Jose Linares that he helped run a human trafficking ring that investigators equated to modern-day slavery. Hounakey said the girls were forbidden to have boyfriends and worked up to 16… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 19, 2009 at 10:15am — No Comments

Human Trafficking "set to rise" in Eastern Europe

WASHINGTON, March 17 (OneWorld.net) - The global recession threatens to cause a "dramatic rise" in human trafficking in Eastern Europe as more and more people migrate in search of a livelihood.

read full article here

361063-human-trafficking-eastern-europe-set-rise

Added by Greg Russinger on March 18, 2009 at 4:14pm — No Comments

Iraq's Unspeakable Crime: Mothers Pimping Daughters

She goes by Hinda, but that's not her real name. That's what she's called by the many Iraqi sex traffickers and pimps who contact her several times a week from across the country. They think she is one of them, a peddler of sexual slaves. Little do they know that the stocky auburn-haired woman is an undercover human-rights activist who has been quietly mapping out their murky underworld since 2006.

That underworld is a place where nefarious female pimps hold sway and where… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 11, 2009 at 4:11pm — No Comments

Police posing as pimps arrest men allegedly seeking sex with girls

Federal prosecutors in Kansas City this afternoon detailed their first-in-the-country use of a commercial sex trafficking law to go after would-be customers instead of those selling minors for sex.

Seven men, including four indicted by a federal grand jury today, now have been charged since Operation Guardian Angel began earlier this year.

The men allegedly responded to online ads placed by investigators offering 11 and 15-year-old girls for sex. Authorities arrested the… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 11, 2009 at 10:09am — No Comments

Pimps Go Online to Lure Kids Into Prostitution

Last week, Marvin Chavelle Epps was held without bail on federal child pornography charges over a video found at his arrest, in which the girl is seen performing a sex act on him while he calls her "bitch" and slaps her in the head with a roll of bills. Though the girl, identified as "S.M." in court documents, denied to police that he was her manager, by his own account Epps is a new kind of pimp -- a web-savvy exploiter who uses sites like myRedBook and Craigslist to broker his… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 8, 2009 at 1:57pm — No Comments

Lawsuit accuses craigslist of promoting prostitution

An Illinois sheriff filed a federal lawsuit Thursday against the owners of craigslist, accusing the popular national classified-ad Web site of knowingly promoting prostitution.

"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," says Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart.

Cook County Sheriff Thomas Dart wants craigslist to eliminate its Erotic Services section.

"Craigslist is the single largest source of prostitution in the nation," Dart said. "Missing… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 5, 2009 at 10:51pm — No Comments

Cadburys chocolate goes fairtrade.. This is huge...

The UK's best-selling chocolate bar is set to become Fairtrade certified, increasing the amount of Fairtrade cocoa sourced from West Africa.

Cadbury's Dairy Milk will make the move - tripling the amount of Fairtrade cocoa sourced from Ghana to about 15,000 tonnes a year - in the summer.

The total annual cocoa production of Ghana is more than 600,000 tonnes.

The Fairtrade mark is designed to secure a better deal for commodity producers in developing… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 5, 2009 at 11:42am — No Comments

Restaurant ownder arrested for human trafficking in London

Restaurant owners arrested for human trafficking

Published Date: 04 March 2009

THE owners of one of Harrogate's most popular curry houses will appear in court later this month charged with human trafficking.

Parveen Khan, 54, Raza Khan, 32, and Shahnawaz Ali Khan, 28 – all owners of the Rajput restaurant on Cheltenham Parade - were on Tuesday charged by police following an initial arrest in November.

The three, from Green Lane, Harrogate have been bailed to… Continue

Added by Greg Russinger on March 5, 2009 at 8:36am — 5 Comments