Thread: GA: Federal officials: Human trafficking a pervasive problem

Federal officials: Human trafficking a pervasive problem

By Kimberly Moore Wilmoth & Karen Voyles
Staff writers


Published: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 4:17 p.m.
Last Modified: Tuesday, March 29, 2011 at 11:43 p.m.

The hazards of farm work hit home last year when three people were arrested in Alachua County and charged with enslaving Haitian workers for several years. The case is scheduled to be heard in federal court later this year.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said the scheme involved persuading 34 workers to travel from their native Haiti to Florida to take jobs the suspects allegedly told them were well-paying.

Once the group arrived in Florida, officials said the suspects confiscated the workers’ passports and forced them to work on farms by threatening to report them to local agencies or threatening to have them deported to face their unpaid debts for their recruitment fees.

Carline Bontemps Ceneus, 32, of Miami; her brother Cabioch Bontemps, 34, of Lacrosse; and Willy Paul Edouard, 47, of Miami, were arrested after being indicted on charges of conspiring to commit forced labor and visa fraud. Ceneus also was charged with document servitude.

Susan McCormick, special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in 58 of Florida’s 67 counties, said that while she could not address the Alachua County case specifically, she could say human trafficking is a growing problem worldwide.

“Outside of narcotics trafficking, human trafficking is one of the largest activities in the United States and globally, and that’s because the profit can be amazing.â€

Put all human traffickers on a remote unnamed island in the middle of the ocean somewhere to work for themselves. After neutering them first of course, we do not need more of their kind in this world...