Thread: Human trafficking task force to be formed (San Diego)

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Human trafficking task force to be formed
By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer
March 28, 2005

SAN DIEGO ---- The San Diego County Sheriff's Department has received a three-year, $448,134 federal grant to form a regional task force aimed at curbing what some say is a persistent problem in North County: enslaving people and forcing them into labor or prostitution.

Authorities said Monday that they didn't have statistics readily available to prove the problem, but they said they might be able to produce some numbers today at a news conference to talk about the grant. The conference is being held at the sheriff's headquarters in San Diego.

The proposed task force will help document human trafficking by helping law enforcement officers and community service agencies recognize it, they said.

Many victims are brought here illegally (from Mexico) and then forced into jobs or prostitution by the traffickers, who threaten the victims with deportation if they tell anyone, said Capt. Glenn Revell, sheriff's spokesman.

"That's one of the huge levers frequently used by the perpetrators or suspects who commit these crimes," Revell said. "This is a terribly unreported crime, because of the coercion."

According to a U.S. State Department report, more than 17,000 people, almost 80 percent of them women, are trafficked into the U.S. every year. The report said they are often forced into prostitution.

Sheriff's officials said one reason they were unable to provide statistics about the number of human trafficking crimes and cases in San Diego County is because it goes unreported so often. Although cases have been prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney's Office, a spokeswoman said no prosecution statistics were available Monday.

However, at any given time there are probably 30 to 50 women in North County who were smuggled into the U.S. and forced into prostitution, said Manolo Guillen, a project manager with San Diego Youth and Community Services.

Guillen said some of the victims are as young as 13, based on information his agency has obtained through the Sheriff's Department, former victims and by interviewing women in North County.

"There are a number of cases that we believe are merely the tip of the iceberg," Revell said.

One of them in late 2001 involved an organized crime ring suspected of forcing women into prostitution at migrant labor camps across North County and along the Interstate 15 corridor north to Fresno, officials said.

In that case special immigration agents took about 40 people into custody one Sunday in east Oceanside on suspicion of immigration violations.

Sixteen of them were women and teenage girls, believed to have been forced into prostitution in migrant camps along the San Luis Rey River in North County, authorities said. They said more possible victims were found later.

Sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro of the Vista Sheriff's Station said at a Vista town meeting Wednesday that 47 victims in that case wouldn't testify, so charges had to be dropped.

The slavery problem is so prevalent in the United States that there are at least 16 other task forces against human trafficking in such places as Houston; Phoenix, Ariz.; Miami; Philadelphia, Pa.; Newark, N.J., and Washington, D.C.

In this county, area officials and Castro, who spearheaded the grant effort, will outline the regional task force and its purpose at the news conference this morning.

The task force will include representatives from law enforcement agencies, federal agencies, the San Diego County District Attorney's Office, the U.S. attorney general's office and agencies that provide services to victims.

Revell said the task force will focus on increasing the identification of victims and developing a team to educate people who work with victims, so more suspects will be reported and prosecuted.

The money will be used to pay overtime to train officers to do that education, Revell said. The first training will be held immediately after the news conference.

The grant will complement a $500,000 grant obtained late last year by the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition in National City, said coalition founder and executive Marisa Ugarte and Revell.

Ugarte said coalition members are using that 18-month grant to provide safe housing, psychological and legal assistance, and other services to victims.

Out of 12 women helped by the coalition in the last five months, two were in North County, Ugarte said.

"We will be working very closely with the Sheriff's Department to train, to educate the community and to work with the victims," Ugarte said. "There are several cases under investigation."

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Followup story posted on March 29

Task force to study human trafficking
By: JO MORELAND - Staff Writer

SAN DIEGO ---- Officials on Tuesday announced the formation of a regional task force that will, among other things, attempt to document the prevalence of forced labor and sexual slavery in San Diego County, but said they don't have statistics yet that show the extent of the crime.

"We have a lot of open investigations right now throughout North County and San Diego," said San Diego County Sheriff's Deputy Rick Castro. "Just in North County alone, we're looking at over 50 victims. I know that we're (San Diego County) probably going to have some of the largest numbers in the country, because of our proximity to the (Mexican) border."

The work of the San Diego Region Human Trafficking Task Force will be paid for with a three-year, $448,134 federal grant, authorities said at a news conference at the Sheriff's Department headquarters.

Castro, who wrote the grant application, said that within the last two years, there have been six to 12 documented cases of forced labor and sexual slavery in the county. The U.S. Department of Justice, which gave the grant to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department, is seeking to develop statistics on the regional problem, the Vista deputy said.

The United Nations estimates 700,000 to 2 million people are trafficked worldwide annually, with profits estimated at $9 billion a year, officials said.

A University of Pennsylvania study that included San Diego County found that 750,000 women have been trafficked into the United States in the last decade.

"This is a very important issue," said Sheriff Bill Kolender. "It is the third major organized crime subject (worldwide), next to drugs and weapons."

Dan Dzwilewski, special agent in charge of the FBI's regional office in San Diego, said organized crime now relies on human trafficking as much as drug trafficking for income, and there is a human trafficking problem in this county.

"We do know it's the largest growing source of income right now," Dzwilewski said.

The Department of Justice grant to the county is one of 21 given to agencies around the nation to combat human trafficking. Phoenix, Ariz., Houston, Texas, and Washington, D.C., are among the cities that have developed task forces.

"The trafficking of humans is not about smuggling," said District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis at the news conference. "It's about the buying and selling of people."

She said she thinks it's possible that some cases currently going through local courts as drug, prostitution or pimping crimes may actually involve human trafficking.

"The purpose of this grant is so that we can quantify what the problem is," Dumanis said. "I think all jurisdictions don't know the numbers."

She said her office will pursue prosecution and seek prison time in human trafficking cases. Penalties range from 20 years to life in prison, authorities said.

Thanks Watchman for all the great stuff you do for the cause.

This is a really great article. It is now on the Home Page. http://www.alipac.us/article-314--0-0.html

Originally Posted by RedGirl1

Thanks Watchman for all the great stuff you do for the cause.

This is a really great article. It is now on the Home Page. http://www.alipac.us/article-314--0-0.html

Aw shucks! <staring down rather shyly and shuffling toe in sand> .. it's nothing.

But ... Thanks for the thanks

humbly,
watchman