Monday, July 4
Some Good News on the Fourth of July
I firmly believe that human trafficking/sex slavery, and the pornography or prostitution which pays for it, is by far the greatest evil of our day, much worse than any other evil which afflicts our world today.
"JESUS CHRIST said to His disciples, 'Things that cause sin will inevitably occur, but woe to the person through whom they occur. It would be better for him if a millstone were put around his neck and he be thrown into the sea than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. Be on your guard!" (Luke xvii. 1-3)
US police have broken up two human trafficking rings which smuggled hundreds of South Korean women into California to work as prostitutes.
"The police arrested about 50 people and are questioning around 150 women after taking them into protective custody.
The women were working in dozens of brothels disguised as acupuncture clinics and massage parlours in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
This type of criminal organisation exploits the hopes and dreams of immigrants," said US attorney Debra Wong Yang at a press conference in Los Angeles.
This could be one of the largest human trafficking cases prosecuted in the US.
The women were reportedly charged $16,000 to be smuggled into the US.
They were repaying their debts by working as prostitutes and giving their earnings to the ring.
Connections
Those arrested have been charged with conspiracy to harbour illegal aliens for prostitution and transporting them across state lines, as well as money laundering and sex trafficking.
The two rings operated separately, one in San Francisco and one in southern California.
But investigators believe the ringleaders knew each other and were lending each other some of the workers.
"If they needed a couple of extra women in San Francisco, the (Los Angeles) ring would send them up," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the US attorney's office in Los Angeles.
Some of the women are believed to have entered the country through the Mexican and Canadian borders, while others used illegally obtained tourist visas.
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