DHS Open Source Enterprise Daily Human Trafficking and Smuggling Report 17 October 2011
Customs Agency's Rapid Expansion Parallels Rise In Corruption [California]: When Luis Alarid was a child, his mother would seat him in the car while she smuggled people and drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border. She was the sweet-talking commuter, he was her cute boy, and the mother-son ploy regularly kept customs inspectors from peeking inside the trunk. Twenty-five years later, Alarid was back at the border in San Diego, seeking a job as a customs inspector. … Alarid had served in the Marines and Army, which was a factor in his favor. But there was cause for concern: His finances were in shambles, including $30,000 in credit card debt. His mother, father and other relatives had been convicted of or indicted on charges of smuggling. After the background check and an interview, Alarid was cleared for a border posting. Within months, he turned his government job into a lucrative criminal enterprise. In cahoots with a gang that included his uncle and, allegedly, his mother, Alarid let cars into California filled with drugs and illegal immigrants. "I was inside now, going around understanding how things work," Alarid said in a telephone interview from federal prison in Kentucky, where he is serving a seven-year sentence for corruption. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 17 October 2011; Source: http://www.sacbee.com/2011/10/17/3984947/customsagencys-rapid-expansion.html]
Nigerian Gets 11yrs For Human Trafficking [Georgia]: A Nigerian woman was sentenced on Thursday to more than 11 years in prison for enslaving two young women from her country to work as servants and nannies at her home, forcing them to cut her lawn by hand and beating them ruthlessly when they crossed her. Bidemi Bello pleaded with the judge for mercy, but prosecutors said Bello's remorse didn't erase the years of suffering she inflicted on her victims. US District Judge Bill Duffey agreed, sentencing Bello to 140 months in prison and ordering that she be deported to Nigeria after she served her time. Bello was convicted during a weeklong trial in June of luring the two women to her suburban Atlanta home with promises of sending them to school, then dashing their hopes by forcing them to work demeaning chores and beating them with wooden spoons, shoes and cords when they didn't heed her orders quickly. [HSEC- 3.10; Date: 14 October 2011; Source: http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Nigerian-gets-11yrs-for-humantrafficking-20111013]
Three Human Smugglers Sentenced To Prison [Texas]: Three Houstonians have been sentenced to prison for running a human smuggling operation and forcing their victims to distribute pirated CDs and DVDs to pay off their debt. Estela Aguilar-Lopez, 59, Blanca Estela Lopez-Aguilar, 37, Francisco Ivan RodriguezGarcia, 35, were sentenced Thursday to 46, 50 and 57 months in federal prison. During the investigation, investigators determined that Aguilar-Lopez, Lopez-Aguilar and Rodriguez-Garcia, among others, were recruiting illegal aliens from Mexico to the United States. The illegal immigrants would then have to pay off their debt by selling pirated CDs and DVDs in apartment complexes. … The victims were forced to live with the traffickers and if they did not pay their debts, they were assaulted, threatened with violence and intimidated via threatening phone calls made to family members in Mexico. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 14 October 2011; Source: http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/local&id=8391989]
Bulgarian Jailed In UK After Being Found Guilty Of Sex Trafficking: A Bulgarian man has been jailed for six years by a British court after being arrested for forcing a woman into prostitution, the Tottenham and Wood Green Journal reported. According to the report, Mehmed Mahmudov met the woman at a wedding in Bulgaria two years previously and persuaded her to move to London. There, she was held captive and forced into prostitution. She managed to escape after four weeks and pleaded for help, the report said, in the only English she knew, "help, police, please." This led to the unmasking of an international trafficking gang, the report said. Mahmudov, described in the report as a grandfather, aged 33, was jailed for six years for three counts of sex trafficking and three years for three counts of controlling prostitution for gain. [HSEC- 3.10; Date: 16 October 2011; Source:http://www.sofiaecho.com/2011/10/16/1178517_bulgarian-jailed-inuk-after-being-found-guilty-of-sex-trafficking]
Police Arrest 32 In 'Human Trafficking' Raid [Sweden]: Police now suspect that many of the arrested workers could have been victims of human trafficking. … Police officers raided the factory just as many were arriving for work at 8am on Thursday. The premises belongs to Eat Food Factory Europa AB, one of Scandinavia's largest producers of chilled ready-meals and a supplier to, among others, Coop, Lidl, SJ, SAS and Mat på jobbet. According to Aftonbladet the majority of those arrested in the raid come from Uzbekistan or other former Soviet republics. When the police arrived at the factory in Jordbro south of Stockholm there were 54 people working in the factory, 32 were detained and taken from the premises. ... The raid isn't the first time the company has been hit with suspicions of sub-standard labor practices. [HSEC-3.10; Date: 14 October 2011; Source: http://www.thelocal.se/36742/20111014/#]
This is sickening!
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