http://nctimes.com/articles/2006/04/...2306182743.txt


Human trafficking grant has paid to train officers, improve awareness

By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer

Money from the first year of a federal grant to establish a multi-agency human trafficking task force in San Diego County was used to train officers and make people aware of the crime, but the efforts haven't increased prosecutions yet.

That will happen during the next two years of the $448,134, U.S. Department of Justice grant, authorities said last week.

However, some area law enforcement officers remain skeptical about the extent of human trafficking in the area, and immigration lawyer Lilia Velasquez, who has represented a number of trafficking victims, questions how many there really are.


"Every couple of years we get a new case, but it's not like the place is teeming with victims," said Velasquez, who is based in San Diego.

Velasquez said she isn't sure whether there just aren't that many victims or whether they're reluctant to testify, a problem that she and officials say is difficult to overcome in human trafficking cases.

Victims are afraid of retaliation against themselves and their families, they said.

At the time the three-year grant was received in early 2005, Deputy Rick Castro, who wrote the grant application and coordinates it through the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, estimated there were more than 50 victims in North County alone.

Castro did not cite numbers of suspected victims in an interview earlier this month, saying only that the scope of the problem isn't known at this time.

However, he said, investigation has begun in "several" human trafficking cases since the San Diego Region Human Trafficking Task Force formed about a year ago. No charges have been filed so far, the deputy said.

"I think currently we have about a dozen open cases, some in North County," Castro said.

The San Diego task force is among 32 set up through human trafficking grants across the nation. They are coordinated through the local U.S. attorney's office, and they include the FBI, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, state and local law enforcement agencies and social service agencies.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher Tenorio in San Diego said no human trafficking cases have been submitted for prosecution yet through the local task force, although he is hoping that 1,500 officers trained under the grant to recognize and investigate human trafficking will provide more case information.

"We have people under investigation," said Tenorio. "We develop sources from other people involved. We know that (human trafficking) is very prevalent."

Supervisory Special Agent Andrew Black of the FBI said that agency is getting more cases since the task force was put together.

"I don't want to give a number (of cases)," Black said. "We've probably doubled the number of investigations since developing the task force."

Cash available

Castro said more than $400,000 of the grant is still untouched, as planned, so that 80 percent of it would be available for overtime pay for state and local officers investigating suspected human trafficking cases during the second year of the grant.

Seventy to 80 officers who were assigned to the task force from area law enforcement agencies meet twice a month, working on the human trafficking situation as well as their regular duties, Castro said.

The deputy said many of the task force officers are experienced vice or child abuse detectives who can be useful human trafficking resources or investigators for their departments.

Federal agents assigned to the task force are not covered by the grant and won't collect overtime.

"Rick's job (as grant coordinator) is part of our special investigations unit," said Lt. Don Fowler, Castro's supervisor. "It wasn't funded by the grant."

Castro said some grant money will also be spent this year on small cards containing information for officers in the field, as well as fliers for law enforcement.

"In the third year we're hoping that we would have had several large successful cases prosecuted, and build off of that," the deputy said.

About $34,000 was spent during the first year, most of it ---- about $20,000 ---- to hold a human trafficking conference in San Diego, said Castro. He said $4,300 was spent for computers and projectors, and the rest of the $34,000 went for overtime pay.

A training video about human trafficking, created with donated resources, was made for law enforcement here and around the nation.

"We have actually done some training in Mexico, with local and federal police there," Castro said.

Training the officers was a key part of the first year of the grant, but the task force also worked on educating about 2,300 members of the general public about human trafficking.

The public education included presentations to such North County groups as the Fallbrook Citizens Crime Prevention Committee, the Vista Townsite Community Partnership, and the Vista Soroptimist Club.

"We are really trying to address the issue," said Kaye Van Nevel, president of the Vista Soroptimists. "Educating the public is the only thing we thought we could do in the beginning."

Now, Van Nevel said, she wants to get training to answer calls from victims on a crisis hotline.

Victims elusive

The U.S. Government estimates as many as 800,000 people are forced into labor or sexual slavery every year world-wide, about 17,500 of them believed to be brought annually into this nation.

A Justice Department report said officials realize the vast difference between the yearly estimate of 17,500 victims brought into the U.S. and the less than 1,000 victims actually helped since 2001 in this country.

Exploring that difference, the department's "Report on Activities to Combat Human Trafficking Fiscal Years 2001-2005" notes that some estimates may overstate the extent of the U.S. problem, mixing human trafficking with the smuggling and harboring of illegal immigrants or with prostitution involving illegal immigrants.

Identifying victims is difficult, and some local and state officials might be helping or encountering victims that the federal department doesn't know about, the report says.

One of the social service agencies working with law enforcement to help trafficking victims in this county is Crisis House Inc. of El Cajon.

"We had 700 situations last month that need further investigation," said Sue Christopher, Crisis House executive director. "Now that doesn't mean that we have 700 victims."

However, all those situations are referred to local law enforcement, including the task force, to check out, she said. Christopher said some of the possible trafficking victims include American-born juveniles.

The national hotline to report suspected human trafficking is (88 373-7888.

Contact staff writer Jo Moreland at (760) 740-3524 or jmoreland@nctimes.com. To comment, go to nctimes.com.