Posted on Sun, Apr. 01, 2007

U.S. attorney bolsters human trafficking fight
Official says MB case shows need for new approach

By Adam Beam and John Monk
McClatchy Newspapers

COLUMBIA - A number of S.C. cases involving human trafficking - including a 2005 Myrtle Beach case - have been overlooked because authorities weren't asking the right questions, U.S. Attorney Reggie Lloyd said.

A week after federal prosecutors opened a case against two illegal immigrants for smuggling a 14-year-old girl into the United States and forcing her to prostitute herself at a Columbia mobile home park, Lloyd said that human trafficking in South Carolina is "bigger than any of us recognized."

"There is a great deal of this going on in this state," Lloyd said. "As we get better, I think you will see more of these cases brought."

If so, that would mirror a national trend of increased federal prosecution of cases involving human trafficking for forced prostitution or forced labor.

In 2001, five cases nationwide involved human trafficking; two involved sex. In 2005, 27 cases nationwide involved human trafficking; 19 of those involved sex, according to the U.S. Justice Department.

Authorities have arrested two people in the S.C. case: Jesus Perez-Laguna and Ciro Bustos-Rosales, both of whom are illegal Mexican immigrants. Officials with Immigration and Customs Enforcement are looking for a third suspect, Guadalupe Reyes-Rivera, who is suspected to be the ringleader.

So far, Perez-Laguna and Bustos-Rosales have been charged with bringing in and harboring illegal immigrants. However, Lloyd said prosecutors are "miles away from where we're going to be at the end of this case."

The case represents a new approach on immigration cases, Lloyd said. In the past, authorities would simply deport women working as prostitutes and arrest the people in charge for immigration-related offenses, such as falsifying documents.

Now, Lloyd said, prosecutors and law enforcement are looking at the women as victims, even if they are here illegally.

"We don't look at them anymore as an illegal alien, we really are looking at them now as victims," Lloyd said. "Regardless of them being here illegally, they are being exploited."

An example is a 2005 case out of Myrtle Beach.

Martin Carbajal-Servin and Estella Aguilar-Ortiz, a husband and wife who were here illegally, pleaded guilty to enticing women into prostitution. Carbajal-Servin got two years in prison; Aguilar-Ortiz was sentenced to 11 months.

One of the victims in that case, an illegal immigrant from Mexico, told authorities that a woman approached her in Charlotte, N.C., and promised her a better job in Myrtle Beach, according to federal court documents.

When she got there, the victim told authorities that Carjajal-Servin and Aguilar-Ortiz forced her to work as a prostitute. Customers paid $30 for 15 minutes with her, and she was given either a card or a token for each customer. She turned in her tokens to the man in charge, and that's how they kept track of how much money she made, according to court documents.

The victim told police that her captors threatened to kill her if she did not have sex with the customers.

The victim, however, was prosecuted for being in the country illegally. An affidavit in support of her arrest makes no mention of her forced prostitution. She was sentenced to time served in jail, about three months, and then deported, S.C. Assistant U.S. Attorney William Day said.

Focusing on immigration violations has made tracking human trafficking cases in South Carolina - and elsewhere - difficult.

In April 2005, Samuel Baeza-Soberanes pleaded guilty to possessing a counterfeit Social Security card. The broader story is that Baeza-Soberanes was transporting Mexican prostitutes who were in the country illegally to Myrtle Beach.

"At the time, we didn't look at it from that angle," Lloyd said.

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson said the department made human trafficking a priority in 2001. In January, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales created the Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

An attorney from the new unit, Ryan McKinstry, came to South Carolina from Washington at the request of Lloyd's office to assist with Perez-Laguna case.

Lloyd started an S.C. human trafficking task force a few months after he took office in February 2006. The task force has 30 members, including representatives from the FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Gov. Mark Sanford's office.

"We should have been doing this a long time ago," Lloyd said. "It is a moral outrage that we haven't done anything prior to this."

Lloyd said the human trafficking business is as sophisticated and lucrative as the drug trafficking business.

Pimps need people to smuggle the women into the United States, supply and feed them and transport them from place to place. They also need people to round up the prostitutes' customers and arrange temporary housing for the prostitutes.

"When you run into human trafficking, you're talking about a lot of people being involved," Lloyd said.

It also means big profits. In the Myrtle Beach case, Jose Hernandez-Becerra, who was in charge of one of the brothels, told authorities he made $700 in one night from one prostitute, according to court documents.

South Carolina appears to be ahead of the curve in terms of state laws.

In 2006, Rep. Catherine Ceips sponsored a successful bill that banned human trafficking for forced labor or other services in South Carolina. Fewer than 10 states have such laws, Lloyd said.

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