Via Fleshploitatoin: Sex rings prey on immigrant women.
Human traffickers trap hundreds of female Hispanics into prostitutionRead the rest at Fleshploitation. Posted by Kyer at January 31, 2006 01:42 PM | TrackBack
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ
fordonez@charlotteobserver.com
Posted on Sun, Jan. 29, 2006
The Charlotte ObserverThe corner bungalow on Weldon Avenue looks like any other house on the quiet street in northeast Charlotte. But for a while in 2004, police say, it cloaked a secret brothel.
At night, men, mostly immigrants, lined up outside to wait their turn with young Latino women held as sex slaves. A typical session lasted 15 minutes, police say, and cost each customer about $30. Some women had sex with dozens of men a night.
Police shut down the brothel in July 2004. But authorities say many more dot the city.
In neighborhoods along North Tryon Street, The Plaza and South Boulevard, criminals have turned small, unassuming homes into illegal houses of prostitution, holding women against their will. Police shut down two last week, but declined to give details because of ongoing investigations.
Hundreds of Hispanic women are brought in and out of Charlotte every week to work at more than a dozen brothels connected to sex-trafficking rings on the East Coast, according to FBI and Charlotte-Mecklenburg police investigators.
Most of the women are in the country illegally and are reluctant to report the crimes. Often locked in rooms with few clothes and no telephone, they fear being beaten if they try to escape.
To keep a constant cycle of prostitutes in Charlotte, traffickers exchange the women with other pimps and handlers in cities such as Raleigh and Greensboro, often for as little as $130 each. The women are moved so frequently that some no longer know what city they're in.
"No one thinks of Charlotte and human trafficking," said Capt. Bruce Bellamy, head of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg police vice and narcotics unit. "But it's a far greater issue than people realize." [...]
That's really sad. I think there should be some sort of punishment for those bastards which humiliates and terrifies them as much as they've done to those poor girls. I would be more than willing to head that committee.
Posted by: Stevin at February 1, 2006 11:10 AM