Category Archive for : ‘HUMAN TRAFFICKING’

By Emily Van de Riet

MANCHESTER, Md. (Gray News) – A Maryland man was sentenced to 17 years in prison Friday for kidnapping a woman and leading a sex trafficking conspiracy, the U.S. Department of Justice announced.

The DOJ said Joshua Lankford, 33, used violence and drugs to control a young woman and planned to kill her to keep her from testifying at trial.

According to court documents, Lankford led and organized a conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force. Evidence indicated that Lankford kidnapped the victim, a young adult woman, to engage

NEW YORK — The leader of the Sarah Lawrence College sex cult was found guilty Wednesday and now faces life in prison for a decade of physical, mental and sexual abuse of a group of wayward college kids.

The Manhattan jury brought down the guilty verdict on all 15 counts. Lawrence Ray, wearing all white, stood motionless as the verdict was read.

It took the panel roughly a half-day to convict Ray, 62, of racketeering conspiracy for his 10-year reign atop “The Ray Family,” preying on the vulnerable young friends of his

The most striking moment in Surviving Sex Trafficking comes late, when survivor Rachel Fischer strolls down a street in Budapest, only to be engaged by a group of random men. These burly guys come across as jovial, but almost immediately, one of them solicits her with cash. Another man named Richard admits that he’s a pimp who, because prostitution is illegal in Hungary, does most of his business in Switzerland and elsewhere. As these strangers continue to chuckle, Rachel strings them along, compelling Richard to confess, “I can give work.”

MIAMI (CBSMiami) – More than one hundred people, including three Disney employees, were arrested in a massive sex sting in Polk County.

Called “Operation March Sadness 2,” the six day undercover operation focused on human trafficking and prostitution.

Undercover detectives communicated online with the suspects and arranged for a meetup at a location where they were arrested after their arrival, according to the Polk County Sheriff’s Office which conducted the operation.

Among the 108 arrests made, the oldest person was 67-year old Derek Collins who showed up to a residence drinking Ensure, the

At least one staff member at a Texas foster-care facility designed to help young girls who are victims of sex trafficking is accused of trafficking them all over again, according to state officials and court documents.

Nine current and former employees at the Refuge Ranch, a state-contracted rehabilitation facility in Bastrop County are accused of criminal activity amid allegations of neglect, physical and sexual abuse, and exploitation of seven girls at the facility about 30 miles southeast of Austin. The girls were left at the facility for more than a month

A Sarah Lawrence College graduate is accused of helping her classmate’s father, who prosecutors say moved into his daughter’s dorm room and abused students at the elite New York school.

Isabella Pollok, who graduated from the college in 2013, was arrested Jan. 29 on charges of racketeering conspiracy, money laundering, extortion conspiracy and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, court documents show.

In a new indictment, unsealed the day of her arrest, prosecutors allege that Pollok helped Lawrence Ray in his nearly 10-year scheme. Ray’s daughter was a student at Sarah Lawrence when