Archive : North America

"FBI: Criminal Pursuit," a Wednesday-night show on the cable station Investigation Discovery, devotes its episode this week to a Hartford sex-slave ring whose leaders were convicted in 2007 of forcing girls as young as 14 to turn tricks. The episode "All-American Sex Slaves," part-news report and part-dramatic re-enactment, tells the story of two pimps, Brian Forbes and Dennis "Rahmyti" Paris, and two girls, one from New Hampshire and one from Vermont, who were enslaved by Forbes and Paris and then escaped and testified against them.

A 26-year-old man from Chiapas, Mexico, was sentenced Monday in a Tucson federal court to five years in prison for human smuggling, the U.S. Attorney's Office announced Tuesday. Berlain "El Chato" Galvez Lopez was found guilty on Feb. 1 of three counts of bringing in illegal aliens for commercial advantage or private financial gain, said Bill Solomon, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Cook County authorities on Tuesday arrested a Chicago man who allegedly held women against their will, giving them heroin several times a day and forcing them to work as prostitutes. Dajuan Brown, 35, was charged with 10 felony counts of involuntary sexual servitude and one count of aggravated human trafficking, Cook County Sheriff's Department officials said in a news release.

A Modesto man accused of raping a woman last year has been arrested in front of his home. Devon Tenille Bradford, 33, was arrested Monday night on suspicion of rape, human trafficking, and lewd and lascivious acts, according to police Detective Steve Anderson.

Two people among 492 Tamil refugee claimants who landed on the West Coast of Canada two years ago have now been charged with helping to organize the smuggling operation. Lesly Jana Emmanuel and Kunarobinson Christhurajah are accused of organizing, inducing and aiding in the operation that brought the Tamils by boat to British Columbia.

A twisted sicko who pimped out a 13-year-old girl on craigslist in the Bronx was sentenced Monday to up to 25 years in prison. Bronx Supreme Court Justice Megan Tallmer threw the book at Sahim Lucas, 34, handing down the maximum sentence for sex trafficking and promoting prostitution.

In an unprecedented event, a woman has pleaded guilty to human trafficking in Albuquerque. Heather Brannon, 34, is the first female to admit guilt under the 2008 Human Trafficking Law, according to a news release from the Office of N.M. Attorney General.

A Columbus man arrested in connection with a sex trafficking case in Kearney is free on $7,500 bond. Donald Grafe, 37, posted 10 percent of a $75,000 bond Wednesday, or $7,500, and was released from the Lancaster County Jail. Grafe was arrested Saturday at his home in Columbus on a Lancaster County warrant for one count of felony first-degree sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl.

A suspected pimp and child sex trafficker who fled California to Illinois, was returned to Sacramento and arraigned on Wednesday, according to federal prosecutors. According to the indictment, Marquist Piere Bradford, 26, recruited a 15-year-old girl to travel from Fresno to Sacramento where she was used in his prostitution business from Jan. 19 through Feb. 5, 2012.

A federal judge today sentenced an Indianapolis man to 41 months in prison for his role in a multi-state prostitution ring. Gregorio Hernandez-Castilla, 34, pleaded guilty to conspiring with his two brothers, Jose Luis Hernandez-Castilla, Indianapolis, and Norberto Hernandez-Castilla, Chicago, to operate the ring, U.S. Attorney Joe Hogsett said today.