US breaks up sex trafficking ring

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Agence France-Presse

US breaks up sex trafficking ring
Agence France-Presse
Posted at 01/18/2013 8:26 AM | Updated as of 01/18/2013 8:26 AM

WASHINGTON- US authorities arrested 12 people charged with bringing women from Mexico and Nicaragua into the United States and forcing them to work as prostitutes, the Justice Department said Thursday.

Eleven women were rescued from the traffickers and 44 other people were detained for questioning, said a statement from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.

The leader of the gang, identified as Joaquin Mendez Hernandez, was said to have brought women into the country with the promise of employment.

He would then threaten them and force them to work as prostitutes in several southeastern US states, the statement alleged.


Read more: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/global-filipino/world/01/18/13/us-breaks-sex-trafficking-ring

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[center]

Joaquin Mendez Hernandez[/center]

[Awknid]

1. I hope they catch more of them!

So despicable!

[proverbialwisdom]

2. Linked from article on death penalty case discussed today on another DU thread.

Different case, same crime. Well researched.

http://www.wjla.com/articles/2012/11/gang-sex-trafficking-how-a-teen-girl-was-lured-into-northern-virginia-s-sex-industry-82084.html

November 15, 2012 - 10:20 am

ABC7’s Pamela Brown has been researching and investigating this growing trend for more than ten months, finding that teen girls are now considered valuable targets for gangs and the sex trafficking industry.

[Mojorabbit]

3. It is heartbreaking and it makes me angry

that this is still happening. There must be a way to stop this once and for all. Women all over the
world are exploited this way. Lives are shattered. More must be done.

[geek tragedy]

4. Sex traffickers and pimps are a lower form of life than bacteria.

Subhuman scum.

[Ian Iam]

8. Ghastly people!

How anyone could engage in such despicable behaviour is beyond me!

[Solly Mack]

5. K&R

[WhoWoodaKnew]

6. Yep, guy is lower than scum.

[Socal31]

7. Preventable smuggling into the US from South America via Mexico?

And it isn't drugs?

To think of all the people who die, or have their lives shattered due to restrictions on nature. Sickening.

I don't think there are many times where I would say "rural Nevada has it right." But I guess this is one of those times.

[geek tragedy]

9. That's your solution--more prostitution?

Barf.

P.S. prostitution is not nature, it's exploitation.

[Socal31]

10. I would be interested in your opinion on the drug-war.

The drug war has proven that when there is a demand, there will be a supply. No matter what.

Making prostitution illegal is what causes exploitation, just as making drugs illegal causes black-market gangs to become more and more powerful due to a revenue supply. (See: Mexico. MS13. Most gun-deaths in the US. Prohibition and the mob)

Is it sad that a woman at a brothel in Pahrump sells her body for money? Of course it is. But she is safe, regulated, constantly tested, doing it by choice, and actually keeps a large portion of the money she makes.

Someone in Colorado and here in California can walk into a store and purchase Marijuana just like they can beer. They don't have to go to a dark alley and deal with someone who may rob them or worse.



I just don't see how you can be for one and against the other. That is a general statement since I do not personally know your stance on the WoD.

[geek tragedy]

11. Prostitution is by its very nature exploitation.

It is not a victimless crime, unlike pot smoking.

Sex trafficking and exploitation increase as it's legalized. Just like the mainstreaming of vanilla porn lead to the spread of the more disgusting and degrading variants.

[Socal31]

12. Everything can be considered "exploitation". It can be the lesser of two evils.

Who is the victim in a consensual, clean, safe transaction where someone pays for a sexual act legally? Are you assuming that every legal prostitute in Nevada, Brazil, the Netherlands, Mexico, Thailand (this could go on) is some down-and-out weak female with father issues?

That sounds anti-woman to me, but I am a man so I really don't know their general point of view on this.

Do you have data as far as "Sex trafficking.....increase as it's legalized."? I may be wrong because I do not have data either. But my gut tells me that access to legal, safe prostitution would curb the disgusting amount of human-trafficking that is done so that men can get "hand releases" in massage parlors or troll down Main St. for prostitutes that are beaten and robbed by their pimps.

Your point on porn is almost Santorum-esque, I won't even begin to touch that one.

As for this "It is not a victim less crime, unlike pot smoking" :


Legal pot-smoking is a victim less crime. Buying Mexican brick-weed funds the civil war on our border, our prison complex, and the destruction of natural habitat in California and South America. That is an inconvenient truth.

[ButterflyBlood]

13. I mostly agree with what you're saying, plus prostitution law is ridiculously arbitrary and silly

To a point of being really stupid. Like take these two scenarios:

1-Guy meets girl in a bar, buys her a drink, they meet up, talk and end up having a one night stand.
2-Guy meets girl in a bar, buys her a drink, they meet up, talk, he offers her money to have a one night stand with him.

Why the fuck should one be perfectly legal but the other isn't? Saying "Oh yes this is legal and you can do it as much as you want as long as there isn't ANY money involved" just doesn't make sense.

[geek tragedy]

16. Do you think pimps should be allowed to host booths at high school

career fairs just like the military does or other jobs that only legal adults can do?

If someone asked you if your wife/mother/daughter/sister had ever sucked dick for money, would you be offended?

Prostitution is degrading, period. And it is not a coincidence that it's men who constantly argue the strongest for its legalization.

[ButterflyBlood]

17. I don't pimping should be legal

I just don't think exchanging money for sexual favors should be illegal. Basically just like the law in that mysoginistic explotative hellhole: Canada

[FarrenH]

18. Here in South Africa the biggest advocate for legalization,

an organisation called SWEAT, is mostly women. As is the case in many parts of the world. But keep serving yourself fictions that confirm your own biases, by all means.

[FarrenH]

19. "If someone asked you if your wife/mother/daughter/sister had ever sucked dick for money"

Ah, slut-shaming by proxy. Neo-puritanism masquerading as concern for other peoples welfare.

[FarrenH]

20. For clarity, I think the prostitution business

is rife with abuse and exploitation. And legalization, along with good regulation and enforcement of regulations, will go a considerable way to stopping that. I've never used the services of a prostitute or even considered it, so there's no personal investment, but I have known sex workers / former sex workers. And I've seen that sex-negative social attitudes, often couched as concern for their welfare, frequently translate into shaming the alleged victims of exploitation.

The last former sex worker I met was a gay man, and he told me about his past in a hushed tone with every appearance of being deeply embarrassed. My attitude was "Dude, you shouldn't be embarrased by that. You're a smart, funny, interesting person. That's all that matters". But I've seen the exact same people that will wax lyrical about the evils of prostitution and those poor girls and so on clutch their partners like they're about to get swept away when someone rumoured to have done sex-work walks into the room.

[geek tragedy]

14. You apparently aren't aware of the reprehensible kinds of porn

that are out there, just like you're oblivious to the realities of prostitution.

The world isn't a cartoon battle between sexually liberated cool people and sex-hating scolds.

[Socal31]

15. I would like to be made aware.

I am not being facetious, I come here to learn.

There are a couple of "reprehensible" types of pornography that I know of, and they are illegal.

If there are legal types of porn that I am missing as being "disgusting," please let me know. I don't claim to know everything, and I don't search porn sites all night.

What realities of prostitution am I missing? If you are arguing that the demand for sex for hire raises exploitation in jurisdictions where it is legal, I would like to know how and why you think that.

If it is just your opinion without anything to back it up, that is fine as well, just preface your conclusions with that information.