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Tuesday, June 02, 2015

HUMAN TRAFFICKING HIDDEN IN DOZENS OF MARYLAND COMMUNITIES WHILE AUTHORITIES STRUGGLE TO FIGHT IT

BALTIMORE – These women’s stories, told in a variety of Maryland courtrooms, are similar. And chilling.

R, an immigrant in her early 20s with no papers, a third-grade education and a baby girl, entrusted her life to a man she met at a restaurant in Prince George’s County who told her he’d take care of them. Instead, he beat her and threatened to harm her daughter to force her into prostitution.

S, 23, took a bus from St. Louis to Baltimore to work for a man who promised he’d give her a job in his “webcam business.” Arriving on the ticket he paid for, she learned the man was actually a pimp — who told her she’d have to work as a prostitute to pay him back, including a stint in a hotel near Baltimore Washington Thurgood Marshall International Airport.

C, a 14-year-old runaway, was walking down the street when a man offered her a ride and a place to stay in Clinton. He pampered her, fed her and took her shopping. Then on the third day, he revealed he ran a prostitution business and expected her to work for him. When she messaged friends on Facebook that she wanted out, he became violent.

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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I guess R should've stayed at A instead of coming to B! Along with any other "illegal"! You don't come here unless you do it properly and are set up to live here. I have no remorse for her.

Anonymous said...

They got what they deserved, don't sneak into our country, and you won't get abused.

Anonymous said...

This isn't just an "illegal" problem. There are plenty of American women, usually poor and desperate, who are victimized as well.

Anonymous said...

The Freddie Gray family lawyer Billy Murphy has a familial connection to someone who is charged with human trafficking.