Thread: 66 detained for human trafficing

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/05/01/human. ... index.html

66 held in raids of human trafficking ring
Ring smuggled Mexicans into U.S.

Monday, May 1, 2006; Posted: 6:43 p.m. EDT (22:43 GMT)


NEWARK, New Jersey (AP) -- Federal agents rounded up 66 people in a series of raids Monday that officials said smashed a suspected human trafficking ring that smuggled Mexicans into the United States, and may have forced the women to work as prostitutes.

Officers with the U.S. Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided 15 locations in Union City, West New York and New York City early Monday after New Jersey State Police pulled over two vehicles containing at least 10 women who worked in brothels in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., said Kyle Hutchins, special agent in charge of the bureau's Newark office.

"How many were doing it willingly, we don't know," he said. "We believe some of them had been trafficked."

Agents were trying to interview as many of the women as possible Monday afternoon, a process Hutchins said would be time-consuming.

The operation was at least the third major immigrant smuggling ring operating in New Jersey in recent years. Prosecutions involving Russian strippers forced to work in go-go bars, and young Honduran women forced to work as hostesses in Union City bars are ongoing in federal court.

Hutchins said authorities were trying to determine whether the latest suspected ring was connected to either of the previous smuggling rings.

None of the alleged prostitution involving the Mexican women took place in New Jersey, authorities said. Rather, when their weekly or monthly shifts in Washington-area brothels was finished, the women would be transported to northern New Jersey and New York by van, Hutchins said.

Thirty-six women and 30 men were taken into custody; all but two were being held on immigration charges for being in the U.S. illegally, Hutchins said. Two brothers, Jose Luis Notario and Jose Ignacio Notario were charged with illegal money transfer.

The arrests came the same day that illegal immigrants and their allies gathered around the nation to protest, boycotting work, school and shopping to show their importance to the United States.

It is about time ICE got off of their b--ts and started to do what they get paid for.

I really don't see ICE as a bunch of lazy people not trying to do anything. I see them as an outnumbered, and out ranked bunch of people, just like the border patrol, who took the job for altruistic reasons and found out that they aren't going to be allowed to do their jobs.

It is the local, state, and federal governments that won't let law enforcement agents do their job. In ICE's case, the Federal Gov't is holding the bag.

None of the alleged prostitution involving the Mexican women took place in New Jersey, authorities said. Rather, when their weekly or monthly shifts in Washington-area brothels was finished, the women would be transported to northern New Jersey and New York by van, Hutchins said.

Now we know why so many Senators are supporting them.

Ain't that the truth Wavtek