Friday, August 31, 2012
Connie Rose is a voice for trafficked minors. She works with Wendy Vazquez-Ernest, who teaches Rape Aggression Defense classes at the University of South Florida. The two hope to prevent teens and young women from falling prey to predators.
Right now, as Week of Welcome fades into memory and college campuses are merely days into full operation, naïve freshman, away from home, possibly for the first time, are being watched. Blondes, brunettes, redheads – bespectacled bookworms, pink haired video gamers and underage partiers. Each are new on campus, trying to find their footing in an environment completely alien to them. The Predator Makes His Move The freshman is sitting alone, wishing she had taken a better meal plan. She peeks into her wallet a third time, but she cannot will a $5 bill to appear to buy the latte that is splashed across the coffee shop sign. In a college logoed T-shirt and ripped jeans, young, clean cut, handsome or “hot"vas her friends back home would …
Friday, June 29, 2012
Florida's first-ever home of its kind is set to house domestic victims of sex trafficking this fall. This issue is one that's has Pasco officials' attention for a while.
Victims of sex trafficking have received a lot of press in recent years as they have sometimes wrongfully slipped into the justice system along with their traders. But a new home opening up in the Tampa are will house and rehabiltate them instead of jail them. Preparations are now under way on the home in Temple Terrace which will house six beds for the foreseeable future as its founders, Redefining Refuge, go through pilot program status. Since November 2010 a large group of child advocates in Tampa — including the Child Advocacy Center of Mary Lee’s House and The Tampa Bay Crisis Center — have been working under the umbrella of Redefining Refuge with founder Natasha Nascimento to fulfill the dream and great need of having a home to …
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Catch up on the week in Land O’ Lakes headlines.
It’s Sunday and if you’re just sitting down to read local news, here are seven stories that made headlines this week on Land O’ Lakes Patch:
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
The crime is estimated to affect 2.5 million people in the United States alone.
The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is serious about making sure area residents know a thing or two about human trafficking and what they can do to help stop it. That’s why law enforcement officers from the county, region and federal government came together in Wesley Chapel recently to put on an informational workshop about the issue. “It’s not just un-American, it’s inhuman,” Pasco County Cpl. Alan Wilkett told residents assembled for the Aug. 16 meeting. “It’s a crime not just against humanity, but against God himself. We can make a difference.” Wilkett told attendees that the sheriff’s office and other law enforcement agencies are counting on residents to be their eyes and ears to help stop this often “invisible crime.” Pasco Sheriff …
Friday, August 12, 2011
Area residents are invited to attend the Aug. 16 seminar in Wesley Chapel.
Pasco County residents who want to learn more about human trafficking and its impacts on the community will get their chance next Tuesday. The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office is teaming up with the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking and the Department of Homeland Security to offer an awareness seminar in Wesley Chapel, said Pasco County Cpl. Alan Wilkett. “Human trafficking has been called the invisible crime,” Wilkett said. “It has a tendency to happen out in the open, and unless we become aware as a community (and learn) what to look for, it will continue right out in the open.” Tuesday’s meeting takes place at Victorious Life Church, 6224 Old Pasco Rd., in Wesley Chapel. It starts at 7 p.m. and is open to anyone who…
Friday, July 15, 2011
Tampa Bay has been identified as a hub for human trafficking activity by some officials.
The 16-year-old mentally challenged girl was living a life of unimaginable abuse and daily degradation, said Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee. In a form of modern-day slavery, she was transported from one migrant farm worker camp to another, throughout Eastern Hillsborough County, where she was forced to commit sexual acts with anyone willing to pay her captor. An investigation in 2010 by the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, U.S, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Clearwater/Tampa Bay area Human Trafficking Task Force led to the arrest of Mario Alberto Laguna-Guerrero, 25. “This girl was rescued from a nightmare, which could only have gotten worse," said Gee. "The teamwork among law enforcement agencies cannot be …
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Just because there hasn’t been a big case here yet doesn’t mean the crime trend hasn’t arrived.
A teenage girl walked through a Lutz neighborhood on an October day in 2010. While there was nothing unusual about the act on the surface, this case was very unusual, said Pasco County Sheriff’s Detective D. Boyer, who is also a member of the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force On Human Trafficking. This girl didn’t live in the neighborhood and she was clothed only in a bra and panties. Alarmed, neighbors called the sheriff’s office. They were right to do so, Boyer said. As it turned out, the girl, only 13 at the time, was a human trafficking victim authorities in Maryland were looking for. While full details of that case are not available for release, Boyer said the girl, a runaway, had been trafficked in Maryland, came to Florida, and …
The Bay area has seen a number of cases in recent history.
As human trafficking continues to grow on a global scale, local law enforcement and federal agencies are pooling their resources to crack down on the crime. The Clearwater Police Department was awarded a U.S. Department of Justice grant in 2006 to create the Clearwater Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking. This multi-agency task force, which includes the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office, has been involved in a number of cases since its inception. As of January 2011, the task force has made 104 arrests and has successfully had 37 convictions, according to its website. Some of the more recent cases the task force has been involved with in the Tampa Bay area include: The Hunt For Eric Antwan Bell This convicted felon is accused of …
Signs to watch out for and other ways people can help fight back against modern-day slavery.
Every 30 seconds a human being is sold, bought or forced into slavery. That, according to Pasco County Circuit Court Judge Lynn Tepper, is reason for alarm. It is estimated there are 27 million human trafficking victims worldwide with about 2.5 million living in plain sight in the United States alone. Tepper said an estimated 300,000 people are forced into prostitution yearly in America. This number, however, is likely low, she said. “It’s guesstimated, it’s doubled,” Tepper said. Human trafficking is a crime that involves the commercial use and exploitation of people who are forced into the sex trade or other forms of servitude for the gain of another. The crime can involve “forced prostitution and pornography, involuntary labor, …
The two crimes are sometimes similar, but the victims are quite distinct.
A suspected human trafficker whose last known address was Tampa made national headlines last month when a story related to the case against him was broadcast on “America’s Most Wanted.” But, as human trafficking becomes a more commonly heard term, many people don’t fully understand what is meant by "trafficking," officials say. Often, people confuse trafficking and smuggling, thinking the two terms are interchangeable. Although the two crimes sometimes piggyback each other, they are very different, explained Pasco County Sheriff’s Cpl. Alan Wilkett. “Human smuggling is a crime against our border,” he said. “Trafficking (is a) crime against a person.” Smugglers are typically paid by people who wish to cross the border illegally. The …
pam
4:13 pm on Friday, June 29, 2012
It is primarily girls but it does include boys! What is being done for them? more ›