Center for the Study of Intelligence

DCI Exceptional Intelligence Analyst Program

An Intelligence Monograph

International Trafficking in Women to 

the United States: A Contemporary 

Manifestation of Slavery and 

Organized Crime

by Amy O’Neill Richard

Date of Information: November 1999

April 2000
Center for the Study of Intelligence

DCI Exceptional Intelligence Analyst Program

An Intelligence Monograph

International Trafficking in Women to 

the United States: A Contemporary 

Manifestation of Slavery and 

Organized Crime

by Amy O’Neill Richard

Date of Information: November 1999

April 2000

The author is an analyst with the State Department’s Bureau of

Intelligence and Research. She conducted her research under

the auspices of the DCI Exceptional Intelligence Analyst Program, administered by the Center for the Study of Intelligence.

All statements of fact, opinion, analysis, policy, and position expressed herein are those of the author. They do not necessarily

reflect official policies, positions, or views of the Department of

State, the Director of Central Intelligence, the Central Intelligence

Agency, or any other U.S. Government or foreign government

entity, past or present. Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or implying U.S. Government or foreign government endorsement of this monograph’s factual statements

and interpretations.
iii

Introduction

Trafficking of women and children for the sex industry and for labor is prevalent in 

all regions of the United States. An estimated 45,000 to 50,000 women and 

children1 are trafficked annually to the United States,2 primarily by small crime rings 

and loosely connected criminal networks. The trafficked victims have traditionally 

come from Southeast Asia and Latin America; however, increasingly they are 

coming from the New Independent States and Central and Eastern Europe. 

Trafficking to the US is likely to increase given weak economies and few job 

opportunities in the countries of origin; low risk of prosecution and enormous profit 

potential for the traffickers; and improved international transportation 

infrastructures. Though it may be impossible to eradicate trafficking to the US, it is 

possible to diminish the problem significantly by targeted prevention and microcredit strategies in the source countries; strengthening the penalties and laws 

against traffickers in this country; and enhancing assistance and protections for the 

victims. 

1 International trafficking in persons to the United States is a significant problem and crime affecting 

men, women, and children. In order to narrow the topic and because women are the predominant 

targets of the traffickers and suffer harm of a different nature and degree than male victims, this 

report will predominantly focus on trafficking in women. Moreover, information on trafficking in 

children to the United States is limited. It is also necessary to treat trafficking in adult women and 

children separately as children receive different kinds of rights and protections than adults, both 

internationally and domestically. Children also generally exercise less decision-making control to 

fully exercise their rights. 

2 Central Intelligence Agency briefing, Global Trafficking in Women and Children: Assessing the 

Magnitude, April 1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
v

Definitions

Though trafficking in women is a longstanding issue globally, it is a relatively new 

issue for US policymakers. US policymakers are struggling to better understand 

the phenomenon, with some officials viewing it as an alien smuggling issue and 

others viewing it through a human rights prism. Trafficking in humans may share 

common characteristics with alien smuggling and illegal immigration, but it has its 

own distinctive features and dynamics involving particularly grievous human rights 

abuses.

As a first step, it is important to be clear on the definition of trafficking in women, as 

the characterization of the issue will determine the strategies to combat the 

problem and protect the victims. The President’s Interagency Council on Women, 

chaired by the Secretary of State, leads the coordination of US domestic and 

international policy on the trafficking in women issue. The President’s Interagency 

Council on Women has formulated a definition on trafficking in women and 

children: 

• Trafficking is all acts involved in the recruitment, abduction, transport, harboring, 

transfer, sale or receipt of persons; within national or across international 

borders; through force, coercion, fraud or deception; to place persons in 

situations of slavery or slavery-like conditions, forced labor or services, such as 

forced prostitution or sexual services, domestic servitude, bonded sweatshop 

labor or other debt bondage. 3

In essence, trafficking in women is the use of force and deception to transfer 

women into situations of extreme exploitation. Examples of this may include 

Latvian women threatened and forced to dance nude in Chicago; Thai women 

brought to the US for the sex industry, but then forced to be virtual sex slaves; 

ethnically Korean-Chinese women held as indentured servants in the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands; and hearing-impaired and mute 

Mexicans brought to the US, enslaved, beaten, and forced to peddle trinkets in 

New York City.4

3 It should be noted that trafficking is also defined in the “International Protocol to Prevent, 

Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children,” which will be a 

supplement to the UN Convention Against Transnational Organized Crime. This Protocol and 

Convention are currently under negotiation.

According to the Protocol, trafficking in persons means the recruitment, transportation, transfer, 

harboring or receipt of persons: by the threat or use of kidnapping, force, fraud, deception or 

coercion, or by the giving or receiving of unlawful payments or benefits to achieve the consent of 

a person having control over another person, for the purpose of sexual exploitation* or forced 

labor.

The word “sexual exploitation” is being debated, and may be replaced by the words servitude and 

slavery.
vi

Given the wide range of trafficking cases that occur in the US, debates on the 

definition often focus on whether or not the women were witting or unwitting about 

the type of work. It makes no legal difference, however, whether or not the victim 

initially knew or agreed to perform the labor voluntarily. A person cannot consent 

to enslavement or forced labor of any kind. The Thirteenth Amendment outlawing 

slavery prohibits an individual from selling himself or herself into bondage, and 

Western legal tradition prohibits contracts consenting in advance to assaults and 

other criminal wrongs. If a person desires to stop performing the work, and then is 

forced to remain and perform the job against his or her will, then the work is 

involuntary regardless of the victim’s purported consent.5

The use of force—be it physical or psychological—to hold someone against his or 

her will has also been debated when discussing the definition. Some defense 

attorneys for the traffickers have sought to argue that if there was no physical 

confinement of the victims, there was no captivity. US law, nonetheless, recognizes 

that more subtle forms of restraint can be used to detain someone, and the victims’ 

vulnerabilities are relevant. If defendants use force, threats of force, or threats of 

legal coercion to create a “climate of fear” to compel service, they are guilty of 

involuntary servitude.6 Additionally, the definition of force or coercion in the draft 

version of the International Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking 

in Persons especially Women and Children encompasses both physical and 

psychological coercion.

• Force or coercion includes obtaining or maintaining through act or threat the 

labor, services, or other activities of a person by physical, legal, psychological or 

mental coercion, or abuse of authority. Force or coercion also entails a person’s 

reasonable belief that he has no viable alternative but to perform the work, 

service or activity, whether that is objectively correct or not. The definition also 

includes an extortionate extension of credit and debt bondage; threats of force, 

harm or violence to the victim or the victim’s family; or unlawful restriction of 

movement and liberty, though this is not a necessary element.

In addition to force and coercion, another subject of frequent discussion is the 

degree of organized crime involvement in the trafficking industry in the US, and the 

definition of organized crime. Traditionally, organized crime is associated with selfperpetuating, hierarchical criminal organizations, such as the infamous Italian 

mafia families.7 The definition of organized crime used by the UN Convention 

4 Men were also trafficked in this case, and to the Northern Mariana Islands to be indentured 

servants.

5 Department of Justice Manual for Prosecuting Worker Exploitation Cases.

6 Department of Justice Manual for Prosecuting Worker Exploitation Cases.
vii

against Transnational Organized Crime—which is under current negotiation and 

scheduled to ready for ratification by the end of 2000—identifies smaller, less 

organized structures. 

• An organized criminal group is a structured group of three or more persons 

existing for a period of time and having the aim of committing a serious crime in 

order to, directly or indirectly, obtain a financial or other material benefit. 

This definition encompasses a broader spectrum of crime affiliation encompassing 

smaller crime groups, loosely connected criminal networks, or large organized 

families, and more appropriately describes organized crime involvement in 

trafficking in the US.

In reviewing the major trafficking cases in the United States since 1990, the 

perpetrators tended to be smaller crime groups, smuggling rings, gangs, loosely 

linked criminal networks, and corrupt individuals who tended to victimize their own 

nationals. None of the traffickers’ names were found in the International Criminal 

Police Organization’s database indicating that these traffickers were not under 

investigation for trafficking or other illicit activities in other countries. This contrasts 

with Europe and Asia where there are more indications of large, hierarchical 

structures involved in trafficking women and children and numerous other illegal 

activities.

The size or structure of the criminal group, however, has no bearing on the 

violence, intimidation, and brutality that is commonly perpetrated on the trafficking 

victims, as many small trafficking rings are extremely vicious. Moreover, 

technology has made size irrelevant in terms of a crime group’s ability to establish 

commercial or business-like structures. The traffickers have easily established 

businesses in the US and abroad to conceal their activities and illicit proceeds from 

law enforcement as well as to deceive the women. 

It is also important to recognize that only tentative conclusions regarding the level 

of organized crime involvement in the trafficking industry in the US can be reached 

at this point as the subject has received little attention from law enforcement. US 

law enforcement officers readily admit they do not know to what degree large 

international organized crime syndicates are engaged in this industry. Asian and 

7 Organized crime is generally defined by US law enforcement agencies as criminal acts committed 

by self-perpetuating, structured, and disciplined associations of individuals or groups combined 

together in a hierarchical or coordinated manner. Their activities are generally conspiratorial and 

tend to insulate their leadership from direct involvement. Their primary goal is economic gain from 

illegal activities. 
viii

Russian organized crime groups are clearly present in the US and involved in alien 

smuggling and/or prostitution among other illicit activities. Some experts state that 

these large criminal syndicates are also involved in trafficking in women, and they 

will become even more immersed in trafficking to the US given the industry’s 

extensive profits. In order to reach more definitive findings about the present and 

future role of organized crime in the trafficking industry, more resources need to be 

devoted towards bolstering research and data collection. 
ix

Table of Contents

Page

Introduction iii

Definitions v

I. Trafficking: The Global Nexus 1

II. Scope and Magnitude 3

III. Enticement and Deception 5

IV. Entry Into the US 7

The Illegal Use of Legitimate Travel Documents. 7

Impostor Passports 8

Entry Without Inspection 9

V. Routes To and Within the US 11

VI. The Traffickers 13

Asian Criminal Enterprises 13

Russian Crime Groups and Syndicates 15

Latin American Traffickers 17

VII. Profits from the Industry 19

VIII. Trafficking In Children 21

For the Sex Industry 21

For the Labor Industry 22

IX. Criminal Exploitation of Women Brought to the US—A Broad Spectrum 25

X. Related Industries 27

Mail Order Bride Companies 27

Maid Schemes 27

Domestic Servants 28

Illicit Foreign Adoptions 28

XI. Issues and Challenges Associated with Combating Trafficking 31

Definitional, Information-Sharing, and Coordination Difficulties 31

Investigative Challenges 32

Low Penalties for the Traffickers 33

Lack of a Trafficking Law 35

Law Enforcement May Miss Smaller Trafficking Cases 35

INS Challenges and Constraints 36
x

Page

XII. Issues and Challenges Associated with Providing Assistance 39

to and Protecting Trafficking Victims 

Detention and Deportation 39

Lack of Adequate Shelters or Services for Trafficking Victims 40

Difficulties with the “S” Visa 41

XIII. Calls For Change 43

Prevention of Trafficking 43

Protection and Assistance for Trafficking Victims 44

Prosecution of Traffickers 45

APPENDIX I: Matrix of Some of the Major Trafficking Cases in the 47

United States Over the Last Eight Years 

Case Summaries 47

Characterization of the Traffickers in the United States 51

General Time Span of the Trafficking Operations 51

B1/B2 Visa Time Length from Major Source Countries for the US 53

APPENDIX II: International Organized Crime and its Involvement 55

in Trafficking Women and Children Abroad 
1

I. Trafficking: The Global Nexus

Trafficking in persons, especially women and 

children, this modern-day form of slavery, is 

prevalent across the globe and likely to 

increase in the United States. In this post-Cold 

War era, international borders and political 

entities mean less while economic issues 

mean more. Today, threats to society—such as 

international organized crime, terrorism, 

weapons of mass destruction and cyber 

attacks on our critical communications 

infrastructure—are both unconventional and 

destabilizing. As Attorney General Reno has 

said repeatedly, “all crime is international in its 

consequences.” Traffickers in woman and 

children, much like terrorists and narcotics 

traffickers, operate boldly across sovereign 

borders. They have not only capitalized on 

technological and communications 

advancements, which have facilitated the flow 

of goods and people, but have also exploited 

the economic crises in Russia and Asia as well 

as regional conflicts, such as Kosovo.

Traffickers have taken advantage of the 

unequal status of women and girls in the 

source and transit countries, including harmful 

stereotypes of women as property, 

commodities, servants, and sexual objects. 

Traffickers have also taken advantage of the 

demand for cheap, unprotected labor, and the 

promotion of sex tourism in some countries.1

To the traffickers, people are highly profitable, 

low risk, expendable, reusable, and resellable 

commodities. Whereas alien smuggling 

usually involves short-term monetary profit, 

trafficking usually involves long-term 

exploitation for economic gain. Organized 

crime groups profit from both the trafficking 

fees and the trafficked person’s labor. In some 

cases, the traffickers may profit even further by 

using the trafficked persons as “manpower” for 

other criminal purposes, such as selling 

drugs.2

The trafficking industry worldwide also is 

closely intertwined with other related criminal 

activities, such as extortion, racketeering, 

money laundering, bribery of public officials, 

drug use, and gambling. For example, INS 

raids on brothels run by traffickers in Toronto 

have netted heroin and counterfeit currency. 

And the Wah Ching, an Asian organized crime 

group engaged in smuggling and trafficking 

Asian women, is also involved in gambling, 

robbery, murder, drug trafficking, and loan 

sharking. The Wah Ching also has 

connections to Asian organized crime groups 

in Boston, New York City, Los Angeles, 

Seattle, Dallas, Vancouver, and Toronto.3

Trafficking also usually involves conspiracy, 

document forgery, visa, mail, and wire fraud. 

Even in the United States, some traffickers 

have been known to supply the women with 

fraudulent state identification and social 

security cards. This involvement in a multitude 

of criminal activities and ties among various 

criminal associations only serves to increase 

the burden on local and federal law 

enforcement agencies.

Trafficking into the sex industry also has 

serious societal consequences as it 

contributes to the spread of HIV and AIDS. 

Some trafficked women are required to engage 

in unprotected sex. Particularly disturbing is a 

case uncovered by INS where at least one 

trafficker was purchasing HIV-positive females 

because he found them to be cheap labor and 

since he believed they had nothing to live for.

Moreover, the corruption commonly 

associated with the trafficking industry in many 

source, transit, and destination countries 

serves to undermine law enforcement and the 

rule of law. Many non-governmental 

organizations stress that the trafficking 

1 Miller, Ali and Stewart, Alison, Report from the 

Roundtable on The Meaning of Trafficking in Persons: A 

Human Rights Perspective, Women’s Rights Law 

Reporter, Rutgers Law School, Fall/Winter 1998. Vol. 20 

Number 1.

2 International Center for Migration Policy Development, 

“Draft Study on the Relationship Between Organised 

Crime and Trafficking in Aliens,” Prepared by the 

Secretariat of the Budapest Group, Vienna, Austria 

January 1999.

3 Operation Lost Thai, Special Report, September 1999.
2

industry could not exist and thrive without 

corruption. The ripple effects of trafficking are 

enormous, as it is a political, economic, crime, 

health, migration, and most importantly, a 

human rights issue.

Overall, the global nexus of trafficking has 

fundamental policy implications. Isolated 

country efforts to combat trafficking will mean 

little without a larger coordinated international 

effort. The transnational character of trafficking 

means that the countries of origin, transit, and 

destination must work together collaboratively.
3

II. Scope and Magnitude

Trafficking in persons, particularly women and 

children, is significant on nearly every 

continent. Gauging the level of trafficking with 

precision, however, is difficult since it is an 

underground industry. Estimates of the 

trafficking problem in the United States vary, 

given differing definitions of what constitutes 

trafficking and research based on limited case 

studies. At present, no one US or international 

agency is compiling accurate statistics. 

Nonetheless, government and nongovernmental experts in the field estimate that 

out of the 700,000 to two million4 women and 

children who are trafficked globally each year, 

45,000 to 50,000 of those women and children 

are trafficked to the United States. 

Approximately 30,000 women and children are 

being trafficked annually from Southeast Asia, 

10,000 from Latin America, 4,000 from the 

Newly Independent States and Eastern 

Europe, and 1,000 from other regions.5

There have been reports of trafficking 

instances in at least 20 different states, with 

most cases occurring in New York, California, 

and Florida. Some Florida law enforcement 

officials, for example, claim that the state is 

being inundated with trafficked women from 

Russia, Ukraine, and Central Europe. INS and 

Labor Department officials fear that the 

problem is not only bigger than they thought 

but also getting worse. For example, INS has 

discovered over 250 brothels in 26 different 

cities,6 which likely involved trafficking victims. 

Evidence suggests that state and local law 

enforcement officials appear to have only 

scratched the surface of the problem. 

Trafficking cases are hard to uncover as the 

crime usually occurs “behind closed doors,” 

and language and cultural barriers usually 

isolate the victims.

The primary source countries for the United 

States appear to be Thailand, Vietnam, China, 

Mexico, Russia, Ukraine, and the Czech 

Republic. Women have also been trafficked to 

the US from the Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, 

Latvia, Hungary, Poland, Brazil, and Honduras 

among other countries. Women have been 

trafficked to the US primarily for the sex 

industry (prostitution, stripping, peep and 

touch shows, and massage parlors that offer a 

variety of sexual services), sweatshop labor, 

domestic servitude, and agricultural work. 

Women have also been trafficked to provide 

maid services at motels and hotels, peddle 

trinkets on subways and buses, and beg. The 

average age of the trafficking victim in the 

United States is roughly 20 years old. Some of 

the Asian women may have been initially 

trafficked overseas at a much younger age, but 

then worked in cities such as Bangkok before 

being trafficked to the US.7

A review of several illustrative trafficking and 

slavery operations—involving sweatshop, 

agricultural, and other forms of labor—over the 

last eight years shows that these operations 

went unnoticed or were able to exist longer 

than trafficking operations involving the sex 

industry. Labor trafficking operations generally 

lasted from 41⁄2 to 61⁄2 years whereas trafficking 

operations for prostitution lasted from a little 

over a year to approximately 21⁄2 years before 

being discovered. Trafficking operations for 

other forms of the sex industry, such as exotic 

dancing and peep-and-touch shows, were in 

existence for anywhere from 10 months to 3 

years. Once uncovered, trafficking and slavery 

cases usually take about a year and a half to 

investigate and prosecute, according to the 

Department of Justice’s Involuntary Servitude 

Coordinator in the Civil Rights Division, 

Criminal Section.

4 This number is only a preliminary estimate and 

represents cross-border and international trafficking. It 

does not include internal trafficking within countries such 

as Thailand or India.

5 Central Intelligence Agency briefing, Global Trafficking in 

Women and Children: Assessing the Magnitude, 

April 1999.

6 Operation Lost Thai report.

7 Interview with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
5

III. Enticement and Deception

Traffickers typically lure women to the United 

States with false promises of jobs as 

waitresses, nannies, models, factory workers, 

or exotic dancers. Capitalizing on rising 

unemployment, disintegrating social networks, 

and the low status of women in the source 

countries, the traffickers promise high wages 

and good working conditions in exciting US 

cities. Traffickers recruit women abroad 

through advertisements and employment, 

travel, model, or matchmaking agencies. Many 

women fall victim when they apply for work at 

seemingly reputable employment agencies 

which are unlicensed or unregulated. 

Recruiters may also target beauty contest 

winners and entice them with “work offers.” 

Additionally, traffickers send recruiters to 

villages and towns. In other instances, friends 

and acquaintances recruit women informally, 

through word of mouth. In almost all the cases, 

recruiters or agents front the money for 

provision of travel documents, transportation, 

and supposed jobs. Occasionally, bogus 

contracts are used to provide an image of 

legitimacy, lulling the woman into believing she 

is dealing with a reputable business.8 The 

Coalition Against Trafficking in Women 

(CATW) reports that the Internet is the latest 

place for promoting global trafficking of women 

and children as it is being used to lure women 

to foreign cities with false promises.9

Once recruited, the women usually find 

themselves in situations with severely curtailed 

freedoms. The women’s passports or travel 

documents are taken, their movements are 

restricted, and their wages are withheld until 

their smuggling debt is repaid. And because 

traffickers can also re-sell the women’s debts 

to other traffickers or employers, victims are 

often caught in a cycle of perpetual debt 

bondage.10 Women are prevented from 

leaving by security guards, violence, threats, 

debt bondage, and/or retention of their 

documents. The traffickers may maintain 

control through isolation; in many cases, the 

women must live and work at the location. The 

women may also be denied outside medical 

assistance when needed. Threats of physical 

abuse against themselves and/or their families 

are also common in order to force cooperation. 

Traffickers also play upon the women’s fears of 

arrest and deportation. In additional cases, 

trafficking victims suffer extreme physical and 

mental abuse, including rape, imprisonment, 

forced abortions, and physical brutality.

8 Global Survival Network, “Crime and Servitude: An 

Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the 

Newly Independent States,” October 1997.

9 Hughes, Donna, Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 

Pimps and Predators on the Internet, Globalizing the 

Sexual Exploitation of Women and Children, March 1999.

10 USAID Office of Women in Development, Gender 

Matters Quarterly, “Women as Chattel: The Emerging 

Global Market in Trafficking,” February 1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
7

IV. Entry Into the US

Women are primarily brought into the US in the 

following three ways: the illegal use of 

“legitimate” travel documents, impostor 

passports, and entry without inspection.

The Illegal Use of Legitimate Travel 

Documents.

The easiest way to traffic women into the US is 

for the women to overstay their visa. 

Traffickers in the Newly Independent States 

(NIS), Central and Eastern Europe, and Asia 

commonly use business (B1) and tourist (B2) 

visas to bring women into the US11 The visa’s 

time length varies from country to country.12

This time length is important given that fraud 

patterns show many passports are recycled for 

new recruits, thus the longer the visa time 

length, the greater the room for abuse. In 

Russia and Ukraine, for example, it is possible 

to get a multiple entry visa for up to three 

months whereas in Latvia, the Czech 

Republic, and Poland it is possible to get a 

multiple entry visa for up to ten years. Ten-year 

multiple entry visas are also possible to get in 

other major source countries, such as Mexico, 

Thailand, the Philippines, and the PRC.13

Student (F1), fiancée (K1), and entertainer 

visas (P1, P3) are also used to acquire entry. 

Traffickers have previously illegally purchased 

I-20 student forms to facilitate obtaining 

student visas. One trafficker paid a 

collaborator, with connections within the Los 

Angeles university system, $6,000 to secure a 

student visa for an applicant.14

Regardless of the type of visa, traffickers often 

coach the women on how to respond in their 

visa interview.15 Fraudulent job letters, 

employment records, or bank statements are 

also being used as supporting documentation 

to obtain the visas and convince a consulate 

officer that the woman will return.16 In other 

trafficking situations, the woman hands over 

her passport, believing the travel agency or 

recruiter is handling all of the logistics, 

including obtaining legitimate work permits. 

This increases the control that the recruiter has 

over the women.

One area that traffickers have abused is the 

travel agency referral program. The program is 

intended to assist some overburdened 

embassies in expediting the visa process by 

allowing travel agencies to refer visa 

applicants; however, these same overworked 

embassies often do not have the time and 

resources to investigate all of the travel 

agencies in the program. Traffickers have used 

travel agencies as fronts in order to submit visa 

applications through the travel agency referral 

program.17 In some cases, the travel agency is 

used unwittingly by the traffickers. As many 

travel agencies in Asia face bankruptcy, they 

are increasingly tempted to cut corners and fail 

to verify all of the applicant’s employment 

information. Conversely, in other instances the 

travel agencies are expanding their services 

by getting into the lucrative business of 

manufacturing fake supporting documents. 18

• This technique was used in 1995 when Thai 

traffickers and a German national, Ludwig 

Janak, trafficked Asian women from Thailand 

to the US Janak used his company, Bavarian 

Thai International Manpower Company, to 

11 Interview with Diplomatic Security, September 1998. 12 The time length of the visa is usually based on 

reciprocity with a foreign country. The US matches 

whatever type of visa and time length that is granted to 

American citizens who wish to travel under similar 

circumstance to that country. 

13 Interview with the State Department’s Visa Office, 

August 1999.

14 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

15 Interview with INS, New York, December 1998; Interview 

with the Consular Section, American Embassy in Thailand, 

February 1999.

16 Interview with the Consular Section, American Embassy 

in Thailand, February 1999.

17 Interview with the Department of State’s Bureau of 

Consular Affairs, Office of Fraud Prevention Programs

18 Cable from the American Embassy in Seoul, 03878, July 

1998.
8

sponsor and submit the visa applications. 

The applications were generally dropped off 

in a consular in-box and the embassy would 

adjudicate the visa requests. Only one 

woman ever saw a consular officer, and none 

had ever met Janak as the Thai traffickers 

arranged all the details.19

• Another example of this abuse occurred 

recently when the American Embassy in 

Seoul uncovered a trafficking ring which had 

used the travel agency referral program to 

obtain visas for at least 91 fraudulent 

applicants, most of whom were unemployed, 

young, single, and female. Fake employment 

documents were submitted from 20 different 

companies.20 In a further trafficking case last 

year, a random consular check uncovered 

that Hana Tours, a travel agency in Seoul, 

had been preparing visa applications with 

bogus employment information to obtain 

visas for Korean women.21

Additionally, traffickers are using other ruses, 

such as including a number of mala fides 

travelers in otherwise legitimate tour groups. 

Alternatively, traffickers may try to flush the 

system by dropping off 20 to 30 applications, 

hoping to get five or six women through.22

Corruption also facilitates the illegal use of 

legitimate travel documents. A Czech crime 

ring, for example, acquired B1/B2 visas by 

paying off a Czech foreign service national 

working in the consular section of the US 

embassy in Prague. The ring also coached the 

women on what to put into their visa 

application.23 Corrupt government authorities 

may also turn a blind eye to trafficking for a fee. 

In Russia, the press reports that local 

authorities are aware of hundreds of phony 

agencies yet none have been prosecuted. In 

Thailand, one trafficker claims that another 

trafficker paid police approximately $12,000 to 

“turn a blind eye” when the trafficker was found 

with some 300 passports. Local Thai police 

have also been known to extort money from 

potential US visa applicants who are found 

with counterfeit or photo-altered Thai 

passports.24

Impostor Passports

Asian traffickers commonly use photo 

substitutions and impostor passports to 

transport women into the US. Traffickers 

typically recycle valid passports with genuine 

visas and alter them with the recruit’s picture or 

try to pass off the recruit as the person in the 

passport.25 In some cases, Asian traffickers 

also use a “jockey,” a person who escorts a 

woman from Asia to the US.26 This person is 

typically of Anglo background and will pretend 

to be the woman’s boyfriend, cousin, or 

husband.27 At times, he may go so far as to 

marry the woman on paper. He is there to 

answer any questions from immigration 

officials at the ports of entry. Moreover, Asian 

traffickers try to target ports of entry where they 

believe immigration or border officials will not 

be as familiar with Asians. Traffickers may also 

use late night flights or holidays when fewer 

officials are on duty.28

19 Interview with INS, New York, December 1998 and May 

1999.

20 Cable from the American Embassy in Seoul, 005569, 

October 1999.

21 Cable from the American Embassy in Seoul, 03567, July 

1998.

22 Interview with FBI, New York, December 1998. 23 Interview with Diplomatic Security, September 1998.

24 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

25 Interview with the Department of State, Consular Affairs, 

Office of Fraud Prevention, November 1998.

26 Booth, William, “13 Charged in Gang Importing 

Prostitutes,” The Washington Post, August 21, 1999.

27 Interview with the Consular Section, American Embassy 

in Bangkok, February 1999.

28 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.
9

Entry Without Inspection

In some trafficking cases, the victims cross into 

the US without inspection. Latin American 

“coyotes,” commonly used to transport aliens 

across the southern border, are also used in 

leading trafficking victims on foot to the US. 

Vans, buses, and U-haul trucks are also typical 

modes of transportation. The coyotes’ fees 

generally range from $700 to $1,500 per 

person.29

• One example of this occurred when Mexican 

traffickers used a coyote to bring women and 

girls across the border with no 

documentation. The coyote was paid $700 

per individual. According to one of the 

smuggled individuals, the trip was an 

arduous journey that required spending 11 

days in the hills before crossing on foot. 

Once in the US, a car took the group to 

Houston and a van later took them to Florida. 

The women and girls were then forced into 

prostitution in Florida and South Carolina.30

Traffickers also transit Canada en route to the 

United States. Organized smuggling rings 

have capitalized on Canada’s visa waiver for 

Koreans to bring Korean women through 

Canada to the US where they enter without 

inspection.31 Asian traffickers may also use 

alien smuggling routes to bring their victims 

into the US.

• In one particularly egregious 1997 trafficking 

case, a 22 year-old Chinese woman was 

kidnapped in China, brought to California on 

a Twainese fishing trawler, and smuggled in 

with no documentation. In Los Angeles, she 

was forced to work as a prostitute, confined, 

raped, and tortured.32

Lastly, traffickers also effect entry by booking 

an international flight for the women that 

transits an US airport en route to another 

country. Once in the US airport, the women are 

met by someone associated with the trafficking 

ring. The group will then abscond from the 

airport, purposefully missing their connecting 

flight.

29 Interview with INS New York, December 1998. 30 Interview with a trafficker, West Palm Beach, Florida, 

April 1999.

31 Cable from the American Embassy in Seoul, 001173, 

February 23, 1999.

32 Interview with the AUSA’s office, Los Angeles, February 

1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
11

V. Routes To and Within the US

Traffickers move women and children into the 

United States using a variety of ports of entry. 

Major ports of entry are Los Angeles’ LAX, 

New York’s JFK, Miami International, 

Chicago’s O’Hare, and the San Francisco 

International Airport. Not coincidentally, Los 

Angeles, New York, and Miami also rank as the 

top three cities in the US with the largest 

problems with visa fraud, according to a 

consular officer at the State Department’s 

Fraud Prevention office.

Newly emerging hubs of entry include Atlanta, 

Cleveland, Houston, Orlando, and Washington 

Dulles.33 Atlanta’s airport, for example, was 

chosen as the sole entry point for a Thai 

trafficker who brought in some 90 women 

during 1994 and 1995. He selected Atlanta 

because the city was then preparing for the 

Olympics and he believed the Thai women 

would blend in with the multitude of ethnic 

nationalities that were arriving during that 

period. Additionally, Atlanta was attractive 

because of the low number of Asian ethnic 

immigration officials working there.34

Other traffickers have flown into Toronto and 

Vancouver and transported the women 

overland into the US.35 Toronto is a popular 

transit point with the Russians as there are well 

over 150,000 Russians living there.36

Traffickers also use Guam and Saipan, two 

islands in the Commonwealth of the Northern 

Marianas (CNMI)—a US territory—as a 

conveyance point since they do not require 

visas for Koreans. Many ethnically-Korean 

Chinese women are also trafficked to the 

Northern Mariana Islands, after having been 

duped into believing it is easy access to the US 

or deceived into thinking it was solely a transit 

point for their onward journey to the US 

mainland. Once in CNMI, these women are 

forced to provide sexual services for men in 

nightclubs and/or work in slave-like conditions 

in sweatshops.37, 38

Once inside the United States, women 

trafficked for the sex industry may be moved 

around on an internal circuit that include 

several of the following cities: New York, 

Miami, Las Vegas, Houston, Reno, Seattle, 

Los Angeles, and San Francisco.39, 40 Experts 

in the field disagree over whether the 

movement among these circuits is formally 

organized or not, but it is clear that the 

movement of the women among the brothels 

depends upon the relationship of the brokers 

and brothel operators, and the various 

brothels’ needs. Typically, the traffickers house 

the women at staging points until the brothel 

owners are ready for them.

• For example, in a 1994 trafficking operation, 

Thai traffickers used several staging areas in 

New York’s Chinatown, Brooklyn, and 

Connecticut until the brothels could 

accommodate them. The women were later 

shuttled around to various brothels in New 

York. Some women were also sent to Los 

Angeles, San Francisco, Dallas, 

Philadelphia, Charlotte, Connecticut, and 

Kentucky.41

These women are moved around the country 

for several reasons. The traffickers want to 

ensure “fresh faces” for the clients as well as 

keep the trafficking victims disorientated so 

they will not figure out how to contact law 

enforcement. Additionally, the traffickers move 

33 Central Intelligence Agency briefing, Global Trafficking 

in Women and Children: Assessing the Magnitude, 

April 1999.

34 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

35 Interview with INS, Bangkok, Thailand, February 1999. 36 Interview with the Director of Operation Odessa, May 

1999.

37 The Global Survival Network reports that men have also 

been trafficked to CNMI for sweatshops, construction, and 

security guard jobs. 

38 Interview with Wellesley College Professor, April 1999. 39 This list of cities is not an exclusive list. 40 Interview with California State University, Associate 

Director Southeast Asian Studies Center, Professor 

International Studies and Women’s Studies, February 

1999.

41 Interview with AUSA and INS, New York, May 1999.
12

the women to prevent them from developing 

any sort of relationship with a client who may 

try and assist them. The time length the 

women spend at the various brothels varies 

according to the whims of the traffickers and 

brothel owners.42

• In a trafficking case involving Mexicans, the 

women and girls were rotated every 15 days 

among some 11 cities in Florida and two in 

South Carolina.43

• Thai trafficked victims were rotated among 

15 to 18 different brothels in the United 

States from 1994 to 1995. In a similar case 

involving Asian women, a Thai trafficker 

rotated Asian women around 20 different 

brothel houses in 20 different cities. These 

women were forced to move frequently, and 

not work at a brothel longer than a month.44

Some trafficked victims for other forms of labor, 

such as peddling trinkets and begging, were 

also moved around the country. In a second 

case involving deaf Mexicans, the victims, both 

female and male, were transported among 

various US cities, including but not limited to, 

El Paso, Sanford, Los Angeles, Albuquerque, 

Tucson, and Phoenix.

42 Interview with the Department of Justice, Child 

Exploitation Obscenity Section, September 1998.

43 Interview with FBI agent, West Palm Beach, Florida, 

April 1999.

44 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.
13

VI. The Traffickers

Trafficking in women is a new business and 

source of strength for organized crime. 

Globally, the full spectrum of criminal 

organizations and shady businesses—from 

major criminal syndicates to gangs to 

smuggling rings to loosely associated 

networks—are involved. Overseas, major 

organized crime groups, particularly Russian, 

East European, and Asian syndicates, are 

heavily involved in trafficking. (Please see 

Appendix II for further information on 

organized crime and its involvement in 

trafficking in women abroad.) In the United 

States, trafficking in women is primarily being 

conducted by crime rings and loosely 

connected criminal networks. In many 

trafficking cases, the nucleus of these criminal 

rings is one family or extended family. 

Additionally, trafficking is perpetrated by a 

large number of loosely associated crime 

groups that focus on different aspects of the 

trafficking process, making detection and 

crackdowns difficult for law enforcement as the 

targets are much more amorphous. Though 

smaller crime groups may be involved in the 

trafficking industry in the US, this does not 

diminish the violence that the victims endure, 

nor does it mean that larger organized crime 

syndicates will not increasingly become 

involved in trafficking to the US. Compounding 

the current threat, law enforcement has also 

found that the trafficking in women industry is 

closely intertwined with other related criminal 

activities, such as extortion, racketeering, 

money laundering, bribery of public officials, 

drug use, document forgery, and gambling. 

Besides extorting from the women, traffickers 

have also sought to extort from the clients. In 

some Honolulu brothels, video cameras 

appear to have been used against the clients.45

Asian Criminal Enterprises

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) 

reports that Asian criminal enterprises involved 

in smuggling humans to the US fall into the 

following categories: 45 percent are Chinese, 

29 percent Vietnamese, 7.3 percent Korean 

with Japanese, Filipino, Thai, Laotian, 

Cambodian and Polynesian comprising the 

rest. Asian organized crime organizations 

have played an intricate part in the smuggling 

of Asian females to the US and the running of 

the brothels whether it be as owner, 

extortionist, or protector. INS investigations 

have uncovered ties in some cities among the 

brothels, Asian street gangs, and Asian 

organized crime figures. Cities where Asian 

organized crime involvement with brothels has 

been noted are Los Angeles, San Francisco, 

Sacramento, Las Vegas, Nevada, and Dallas. 

INS has also seen Asian street gangs involved 

with brothels in New York, Philadelphia, and 

Chicago.

Asian organized crime in the US involved in 

trafficking in women tends to operate more like 

a loose confederation of organized criminal 

entrepreneurs or enterprises as opposed to 

one large criminal syndicate controlling the 

trafficking process from beginning to end. 

Criminal groups are business firms of various 

sizes depending on their maturity, according to 

FBI.46 There tends to be little formal 

hierarchical organization among Asian 

organized crime groups. A loose joint venture 

may cut across ethnic and organizational lines 

and is often formed for a given opportunity. 

Trafficking in humans tends to be treated as a 

business. These criminal enterprises tend to 

be fairly organized, and will often subcontract 

45 Operation Lost Thai Special Report, September 1999.

46 Federal Bureau of Investigation, Asian Criminal 

Enterprise Unit, Trafficking of Asian Aliens, July 1998.
14

out the work. The trafficking-in-persons 

industry typically involves enforcers, 

transporters, recruiters, document forgers, 

brokers, brothel owners, and employment 

agencies. Brokers operate in the source 

country as well as in the United States. 

Thailand is one of the primary source countries 

for the United States. According to the 

American Embassy in Bangkok, at least four 

loosely organized groups smuggle and traffic 

Thai women for delivery to US brothels. They 

send roughly 20 to 30 women a month to the 

US and Canada, generally using altered or 

impostor Thai passports. By other accounts, at 

least seven families in Thailand are engaged in 

smuggling and trafficking women into the 

United States for prostitution.47 Many of these 

women have been told they will be 

seamstresses and hostesses but arrive to find 

themselves forced into prostitution. This is 

often the case with Chinese victims trafficked 

from rural areas in the PRC. In other cases, 

Asian women are brought to the US with 

knowledge of their work as prostitutes, but find 

themselves in slave-like situations.

Chinese triads and gangs in the US have been 

involved in alien smuggling and prostitution for 

years, and increasingly they are arranging for 

the direct recruiting and smuggling of sex 

workers from overseas.48 The Sun Yee On 

Triad, 14K Triad, Wo Hop To Triad, the United 

Bamboo Gang, and Fuk Ching Gang are all 

believed to be involved in alien smuggling to 

the US, and it is likely that their activities 

include trafficking. INS Rome has identified 

over 20 members of Asian organized crime 

groups who are trafficking and smuggling 

Asian women and children though Italy to the 

United States for prostitution and/or 

pornography. Additionally, an NGO, the Global 

Survival Network (GSN) found that Chinese 

criminal groups have moved part of their 

operations to the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), where they 

operate significant money-lending operations 

which lend money to trafficking victims at 

exorbitant rates. GSN also found that 

Japanese organized crime groups operate in 

Saipan, where they control a large part of the 

sex tourism sector. Many Chinese women, 

who have been lured to CNMI to be 

waitresses, have been forced to work at 

nightclubs catering to sex tourists and work in 

sweatshops. Several of these Chinese women 

have claimed that they were threatened with 

death if they did not comply.

Brothels across the country generally receive 

protection from Asian street gangs, who may 

or may not live at the brothel location. Besides 

protecting the brothel from other criminal 

groups, gang members are there to watch over 

the women until their debt is paid off, according 

to the FBI. Gang members have also been 

used to kidnap girls and retrieve those who 

have escaped. According to one Californian 

non-governmental organization, the Center for 

the Pacific-Asian Family, the Vietnamese and 

Chinese gangs are known to be the most 

organized and vicious of Asian gangs in 

California.

• In a New York trafficking case, the brothel 

owner was forced to pay protection money to 

the Flying Dragons—a Chinese street gang. 

The Flying Dragons are the enforcement 

sector of the Hipsing Triad, a Fukienese 

Triad. In order to maintain a low profile, the 

Hipsing Triad is registered under the Hipsing 

merchants association.49

• The Wah Ching and Triads also employ 

Asian street gangs, such as the Black 

Dragons and Koolboyz, for protection at the 

brothels.50

47 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

48 Bureau of Consular Affairs, Fraud Digest, “More 

Chinese Women Become trafficking Victims,” November/

December 1998.

49 Interview with INS, New York, May 1999. 50 Operation Lost Thai Special Report, September 1999.
15

• In a 1998 internal trafficking case in 

California, a Fresno-based gang kidnapped 

Hmong51 girls, took them to other cities, and 

forced them into prostitution.52

• A few years ago, some 65 Chinese citizens 

were held in a Maryland basement while 

arrangements could be made by their 

traffickers to sell them to Chinese gangs in 

New York for servitude in restaurants. The 

Chinese were also beaten and forced to call 

their families and ask for more money.53

To evade detection from law enforcement, 

Asian traffickers shift their holding houses on a 

frequent basis; forbid the women from making 

prostitution out-calls; accept only Asian clients 

at the brothels; and use massage parlors, 

spas, sun tanning parlors, and beauty salons 

as fronts for the brothels. Many massage 

parlors in the United States are connected to 

large-scale smuggling and prostitution 

operations. Traffickers may purchase false 

massage licenses or certificates for the 

women, costing anywhere from $200 to $500, 

in order to appear legitimate in case a police 

officer enters the premises. Though many 

prostitution houses operate independently, 

they appear to share information with one 

another regarding any possible law 

enforcement raids, and some have hideaways 

to conceal the women and girls from the 

police.54 Corruption also facilitates the 

industry. For example, there have been 

allegations made against New Orleans police 

department officials that they were accepting 

bribes from local brothels, likely in exchange 

for tipping the brothels off to impending raids.

Russian Crime Groups and Syndicates

All levels of Russian organized crime, from 

individuals to smaller groups to larger 

syndicates, appear to be involved in trafficking 

women to the United States, though law 

enforcement entities disagree as to the degree 

of involvement of Russian organized crime. By 

some accounts, Russian individuals—likely 

with Russian organized crime connections—

are importing women from Russia, Ukraine, 

the Baltic States, and Central Europe for the 

sex industry, namely for stripping, escort 

services, and prostitution. INS agents in New 

York claim there are many cases involving the 

trafficking of these women by freelance 

criminals for stripping or escort services. 

Frequently, the women’s passports are taken 

by the trafficker and they are not free to leave 

until they have paid their debt of around 

$10,000. INS believes these criminals have 

Russian organized crime connections 

overseas, but have not seen instances where 

the major Russian organized crime 

organizations are running the trafficking 

business to the United States.

The Director of Operation Odessa, a Florida 

task force designed to combat Russian 

organized crime, believes that individual 

criminals, not necessarily organized crime, are 

trafficking Russian women to Florida. He 

claims that women are being trafficked to 

Miami, Orlando, Fort Lauderdale, Jackson, 

Palm Beach, and increasingly the Florida 

panhandle. In his opinion, Russian 

entrepreneurs, with ties to Russian organized 

crime, are importing women for Florida’s sex 

industry. For example, one Russian, Sergey 

Skobeltsyn, with alleged ties to the Russian 

organized crime group Kazanskaya, bought 

two strip clubs, Pure Platinum and Solid Gold, 

for $8 million dollars in late 1996.55 And Ludwig 

Fainberg, a Russian mafia figure with alleged 

ties to Colombian drug traffickers, was also 

51 An indigenous hill tribe refugee population from 

Indochina.

52 Interview with Little Tokyo Service Center, Los Angeles, 

California, February 1999.

53 Interview with INS, Washington, DC, July 1999. 54 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

55 Interview with AUSA Fort Lauderdale, Florida, May 

1999.
16

heavily involved in running a strip club called 

Porkys, which likely involved trafficked women. 

FBI headquarters also has information that the 

following major Russian organized crime 

syndicates—the Izmailovskaya, Dagestantsy, 

Kazanskaya, and Solntsenskaya—are 

involved in the prostitution industry throughout 

the United States. Given the way these 

organized crime syndicates operate overseas 

and the brutality of these organizations, it is 

likely that this involvement in the US includes 

trafficking in women through the use of 

deception, threats, and violence.

Russian women have also been trafficked to 

Florida, particularly the panhandle, for maid 

work.56 FBI and INS agents in Florida claim 

that Russian and Central European women 

are answering ads in local papers for work in 

the US. Once in the US, these women provide 

maid service in motels and become virtual 

indentured servants, working long hours for 

little pay. The women are paid through a series 

of corporations so the women appear to be 

working only part-time and so the companies 

do not need to provide any benefits. FBI is 

unsure as to whether or not any larger Russian 

criminal syndicate is managing these 

companies.

Another interesting trend identified by FBI 

agents in New York are situations where local 

Russian organized crime groups tried to 

“muscle in” and control a trafficking situation 

after they have noticed its profitability. Bratva—

the Brotherhood—a Russian crime group with 

ties to Russian crime boss Ivankov’s 

successor organization—used extortion, 

assault, and battery in July 1998 to control 

dance agencies and their drivers who were 

bringing Russian women in and delivering 

them to exotic nightclubs, bars, and escort 

services. FBI believes there are about 10 to 12 

dance agencies specializing in Russian 

women, and hundreds of escort services in the 

New York and New Jersey area. Each dance 

agency is believed to employ some 60 to 200 

women. Again, it is not readily apparent to FBI 

to what degree Russian organized crime is 

involved in controlling these 10 to 12 New York 

and New Jersey dance agencies.

Some Diplomatic Security (DS) agents claim 

that many of these dance, modeling, 

employment, or service agencies are fronts for 

trafficking for larger Russian organized crime 

syndicates. According to these DS agents, the 

agencies are used to hide the structural layers 

of the criminal organization, which include 

deputies, associates, collectors, and drivers. 

They claim that Russian and Italian organized 

crime groups are collaborating in New York 

and New Jersey with Russian crime groups 

supplying the women for the multitude of 

nightclubs and peep shows that are managed 

by Italian mafia groups.

In other instances, traffickers have capitalized 

on the reputation of Russian organized crime 

and used it as a means of control and 

intimidation. In a recent Chicago case, a 

Russian American frequently bragged about 

his Chechen organized crime ties and 

threatened Latvian women with harm to 

themselves and/or their families if they did not 

dance nude. He had originally intimidated one 

of the women into coming to the US, by telling 

her he would cut her face up if she refused and 

then escorting her to a mafia hangout for 

dinner so she would know that her face had 

been identified.57

Threats, such as these, have been carried out 

in other instances. In one case, a Russian 

woman was brought over to be a maid but 

forced into prostitution to repay her smuggling 

debt more quickly. When this woman tried to 

leave, a Russian thug beat her so badly she 

had to go to the hospital where she was 

threatened by another Russian gangster not to 

talk to law enforcement officials.58 In another 

56 Interview with the Director of Operation Odessa, 

May 1999. 57 Interview, the AUSA’s Office, Chicago, July 1999.
17

case, the authorities suspected mafia 

involvement in the gruesome murder of a 

Russian woman trafficked to Maryland. The 

case was never solved, but some authorities 

think she was killed because she was holding 

back her earnings from her employers. 59

Latin American Traffickers

In general, there is less information about the 

Latin American crime groups that traffic in 

women, though this does not necessarily 

mean that they are any less involved in 

trafficking. It appears that they operate in some 

similar ways to Asian traffickers as Latin 

traffickers have been noted using independent 

contractors to move trafficking victims across 

the border, and transport them farther inside 

the US interior.60 Latin American traffickers 

appear to use similar routes and means used 

in alien smuggling operations. It is likely that 

corruption facilitates trafficking operations, 

similar to alien smuggling. Human smugglers 

allegedly pay bribes ranging from $200 to $500 

dollars to officials from Grupo Beta, the state 

judicial police and municipal police. The 

consequence for not paying a bribe can result 

in jail time from two to three days and the 

distribution of aliens to other smugglers for 

roughly $50.61

In order to evade detection, Latin traffickers 

vary their routes once law enforcement has 

developed “profiles” for their victims. 

Moreover, these traffickers try to insulate 

themselves by victimizing those within their 

own ethnic group and by controlling the 

clientele that frequent their underground 

brothels. For example, Mexican and other 

Latin American brothel owners will generally 

only permit other Latinos into the brothels.62

58 Interview with the Director of Operation Odessa, May 

1999.

59 Interview with INS, Washington, DC, July 1999. 60 Interview with INS, Washington, DC, 1999.

61 Cable from the American consulate in Tijuana 0698, 

June 1999.

62 Interview with Department of Justice, Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
19

VII. Profits from the Industry

Profits in the trafficking industry provide a 

major source of income for the crime rings. In 

most of the major recent trafficking cases in the 

United States, the traffickers made anywhere 

from one to eight million in a period ranging 

from one to six years.63

Traffickers typically charge the women inflated 

prices for securing the alleged jobs, travel 

documentation, transportation, lodging, meals, 

and incidentals. To increase profits, the women 

are kept in poor, crowded conditions. It is also 

common for trafficked women to be charged to 

buy their passport back. The fee is usually 

around $900 for women from the Newly 

Independent States and Central Europe,64

though in one recent case in Chicago, Latvian 

women paid as much as $4,000 in cash.65, 66

Trafficked Asian women have been charged 

$1,500 to $3,000 for their passports. Women 

may also be charged for ID cards, driver’s 

licenses, and driver’s permits. Prices may vary, 

but typical fees are $700 for an ID card, $900 

for a driver’s license and $1,000 for an ID card 

with a driver’s permit.67

It is illustrative to examine fees from one case 

involving an Asian trafficker that appears 

characteristic for other Asian traffickers. In this 

case, a Thai smuggler is paid between 

$13,000 to $15,000 for every successful entry 

a woman made into the US. The money covers 

the passport (typically sold for $1,500 to 

$3,000), airline ticket, and additional fees paid 

to the Thai recruiting agent and the “jockey” 

who assists in bringing the women into the 

United States. Thai recruitment agents receive 

a commission of about $800 to $1,400 for each 

woman he or she recruited. The “jockey,” or 

person who actually escorts a woman or girl 

from Thailand to the US, is usually paid about 

$1,000 per woman or girl he successfully 

admits to the US. Thus, the smuggler usually 

makes about $7,500 to $9,000 per woman.68

Traffickers have also come up with various 

means to transport the money back to 

Thailand and the agents. The “jockey” may be 

responsible for conveying the impostor 

passport and the $13,000 back to the Thai 

smuggler in Thailand. Alternatively, the money 

is wired through companies to Thai bank 

accounts.

Overall profits in the trade can be staggering, 

as several cases indicate. Thai traffickers, who 

incarcerated Thai women and men in a 

sweatshop in El Monte, California, are 

estimated to have made $8 million dollars over 

about six years.69

• Thai traffickers, who enslaved Thai women in 

a New York brothel, made about $1.5 million 

over roughly a year and three months. In that 

case, the women were made to pay debts 

ranging from $30,000 to $50,000. The 

women were forced to charge $130 per 

client; the madam of the brothel would 

receive $30 and the smugglers would receive 

$100. Sometimes, a woman at the brothel 

might be sold outright to the madam for 

$15,000 or more depending on her 

beauty.70, 71

• One Thai trafficker estimates that he made 

about $215,000 over approximately two 

years. In this case as well, brothel owners 

would pay $7,500 to $15,000 for each 

woman, though her debt would be around 

$40,000. Less attractive women would be 

exchanged or sold off for less money.72

63 Restitution, when ordered for the trafficking victims, 

generally fell far short of the traffickers’ profits.

64 Interview with FBI, New York, December 1998. 65 The traffickers had initially offered to sell the Latvian 

women their passports for up to $60,000.

66 Interview with the AUSA’s office Chicago, July 1999. 67 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

68 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

69 Interview with INS, Los Angeles, February 1999. 70 In these cases, the woman would be indebted to the 

brothel madam, not the smuggler.

71 Interview with INS and the AUSA’s office, New York, 

May 1999.
20

• Chinese criminal syndicates, living in 

Malaysia, have also made $5,000 to $7,000 

for each Malaysian woman delivered to the 

United States, according to the American 

Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. A kidnapped and 

trafficked Chinese woman in yet another 

case was compelled to pay a $20,000 debt 

through prostitution.73

Profits from trafficking women from Latin 

America can be just as lucrative. A Mexican 

crime family, that forced deaf Mexicans to 

peddle trinkets made roughly $8 million, over 

four and a half years.74

In another trafficking case involving Mexicans, 

traffickers made some $2.5 million over two 

years by forcing Mexican women and girls into 

prostitution. The traffickers charged a client 

$22 for 15 minutes of sexual activity with a 

woman. Ten dollars of this amount went to the 

house and the remainder towards paying off 

her $2,000 to $3,000 debt. The traffickers then 

used the money to buy real estate and new 

trucks in Mexico. These assets were used to 

convince additional victims that they were 

successful businessmen who owned a 

legitimate landscaping company in the US75

72 Investigative statements resulting from Operation Lost 

Thai.

73 Interview with the AUSA’s office, Los Angeles, February 

1999.

74 Interview with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.

75 Interview with the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.

and Interview with FBI agent, West Palm Beach, Florida, 

April 1999.
21

VIII. Trafficking In Children

Trafficking in women is much more extensive 

in the United States than is trafficking in 

children; however, trafficking in minors 

appears to be a growing issue. The extent of 

the problem is difficult to document, but 

numerous investigations suggest trafficking in 

minors for the sex or labor industry is common.

For the Sex Industry

Trafficking in teenage girls for the sex industry 

is occurring throughout the US. For example, 

from February 1996 to about March 1998, 

some 25 to 40 Mexican women and girls—

some as young as 14 years old—were 

trafficked to Florida and South Carolina for 

prostitution. The traffickers had promised the 

girls good jobs in landscaping, childcare, and 

elder care, and worked to convince their 

parents that the jobs were legitimate.76 In a 

different investigation, an INS agent in New 

York reports that Mexicans are trafficking 

Mexican teenagers into California and bringing 

them to New York for prostitution. Some of the 

teens know they will be prostitutes, while 

others are duped.

The FBI reports that Asian girls have also been 

discovered in forced prostitution cases. In 

August, an organized crime task force in 

Atlanta, indicted 13 members of an Asian 

smuggling ring for trafficking up to 1,000 Asian 

women and girls, between the ages of 13 and 

25, to Atlanta and other US cities for 

prostitution. The women and girls were held in 

bondage until their $30,000 to $40,000 

contracts were paid off. One brothel was 

described by law enforcement as a “prison 

compound” with barbed wire, fences, chained 

dogs, and gang members who served as 

guards.77

Additionally, the Coalition Against Trafficking in 

Women has reported that operators of the 

Hong Kong Spa in Washington, DC were 

arrested in 1995 for purchasing underage 

immigrant Asian girls, one only 13 years old, in 

Atlantic City and transporting them to DC to 

work in an indentured sexual servitude 

arrangement. The girls had answered ads in 

local newspapers for restaurant jobs paying 

$1,000 to $2,700 a week but were picked up at 

the airport and taken to massage parlors and 

brothels and forced to work up to 15 hours a 

day. The NGO, “End Child Prostitution, Child 

Pornography, and Trafficking in Children for 

Sexual Purposes,” claims that the recent Asian 

economic crisis has made Asian children 

particularly vulnerable to traffickers as more 

and more children are dropping out of school to 

look for work to support their families.78

In Vancouver, British Columbia, an INS 

investigator in Vancouver reports that a group 

of American Canadian pimps, calling 

themselves the West Coast Players, are 

actively involved in trafficking Canadian 

teenagers to Los Angeles for the sex industry. 

There are indications that the West Coast 

Players are establishing links with Asian 

organized crime groups in British Columbia. 

Canadian law enforcement officials also 

believe that American girls are also being 

trafficked from the US to Canada.79 In 1998, a 

pimp and his co-defendants were convicted in 

DC on eight counts of transporting minors from 

Canada across the US-Canadian border and 

across state lines for prostitution.

Children have also been trafficked internally 

within the United States. The NGO the Little 

Tokyo Service Center reports that in 1998 in 

northern California, a Hmong gang kidnapped, 

raped, and forced into prostitution Hmong girls. 

76 Interview with FBI agent, West Palm Beach, Florida, 

April 1999.

77 Booth, William, “13 Charged in Gang Importing 

Prostitutes,” The Washington Post, August 21, 1999.

78 “Impact of the Asian Financial Economic Crisis on Child 

Prostitution,” End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography, 

and Trafficking in Children for Sexual Purposes,” 

Newsletter, May 1999.

79 Cable from the American Consulate, Vancouver, 1080, 

September 18, 1998.
22

There were roughly 15 girls, ages 13 to 15, 

whom were trafficked to other cities and forced 

to submit to sexual slavery for members of 

their own ethnic community.80 Even more 

recently in October, four teenage Hmong girls 

were lured to Detroit by Hmong men and boys 

where they were allegedly gang raped, 

assaulted, and threatened with death if they 

tried to escape.81 The Department of Justice’s 

Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section cites 

at least nine other domestic cases from 1997 

to 1998 in which minors were trafficked 

internally for prostitution.82

Also within the United States, experts at the 

National Center for Missing and Exploited 

Children claim that outlaw American 

motorcycle gangs used to be heavily involved 

in befriending, pimping, and trafficking 

vulnerable youths and runaways some fifteen 

years ago. These gangs moved the minors 

around the country, passing them off from one 

pimp or brothel to the next. In some cases, the 

girls were transported along a “sports circuit,” 

moving from the Kentucky Derby to the 

Preakness to the Indi 500 and so on. The 

Center has not seen any incidences of outlaw 

motorcycle gang involvement in trafficking girls 

over the last several years.

For the Labor Industry

Trafficking in children for other labor sectors is 

also happening, though it is difficult to 

determine the magnitude of the problem. 

African and Middle Eastern families, for 

example, are bringing over children to work as 

domestics. They typically bring the child to the 

United States, claiming the child is their niece 

or nephew. The child is then made to work long 

hours and perform hard work under dangerous 

conditions. There are cases where the young 

domestics have been made to scour 

bathrooms daily with noxious cleaning 

chemicals.83

• A Floridian family was recently taken into 

custody for forcing a 12-year-old girl, brought 

from Haiti, to be a maid and repeatedly 

assaulting her.84

• In New York, a Nigerian smuggling ring is 

charging parents $10,000 to $20,000 to bring 

their children to the US, promising the 

parents that their children will have better 

educational opportunities. Once in the US, 

the ring forces the Nigerian children to work 

as domestics.85

• From February 1997 to August 1998 in 

Woodbine, Maryland, a pastor was bringing 

in Estonian children, ages 14 to 17, 

promising them they would attend Calvary 

Chapel Christian Academy but then forcing 

them to clean roach-infested apartments and 

install office furniture. The children were 

working 15 hours a day and being paid about 

$10 to $50 a week. Some children were 

threatened that they would be sent home if 

they refused, and punishments included 

skipping meals and standing in one spot for 

prolonged periods.86

• INS has also worked on cases involving 

South Asian children smuggled into the US to 

work at low wage scale jobs. In one case, 

about 100 Indian children, some as young as 80 Interview with the Little Tokyo Service Center, February 

1999 and Associated Press, “Police Break Up Sex-Slave 

Ring That Preyed On Immigrant Girls,” November 13, 

1998. 

81 Associated Press, “Rape Allegations Shake Hmong 

Refugees,” October 14, 1999.

82 These cases include: US v. Howard Draper, US v. 

Vernon Miller, US v. Troy Footman, US v. Andre and 

Jerome Young, US v. Jon Cureton and Daunya Richfield, 

US v. Courtney Fitzgerald and Shannon Brooks, US v. 

Omar Ross, US v. William Clark, US v. Brandon Wright.

83 Interview with the Department of Justice, Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.

84 “Haitian Girl Illegally Residing in the US, Sexually 

Abused and Forced to be a Maid,” Miami Herald, 

September 30, 1999.

85 Interview with INS, Washington, DC, July 1999. 86 Interview with INS, Baltimore, July 1999, and AP, 

Baltimore, July 27, 1999.
23

9 or 10, were being brought into New York 

from 1996 to 1997 and shuffled around the 

country to work in construction and 

restaurants. Some of the children appeared 

to have been sold by their parents to the 

traffickers.87

87 Interview with INS, Baltimore, July 1999.
Intentionally Left Blank
25

IX. Criminal Exploitation of Women 

Brought to the US—A Broad 

Spectrum

In the United States, criminal exploitation of 

women brought to the US encompasses a 

variety of cases that fall along a continuum of 

exploitation and abuse. On one end of the 

continuum are trafficking cases, characterized 

by slavery or slavery-like treatment of the 

trafficking victims. On the other end is the 

criminal exploitation of smuggled economic 

migrants including fair labor and safety 

standard violations. While cases on either end 

are quite distinctive, some cases in the middle 

of the continuum are less clear-cut. It may be 

harder to conclude definitively whether or not 

they are trafficking cases. In practice, these 

evaluations must be made on a case-by-case 

basis. The government seeks to address all 

types of exploitation, though the types of 

protection and assistance afforded the victims 

differ depending upon where the victims fall 

within the spectrum.

The most egregious trafficking cases tend to 

make the headlines and involve the worst 

cases of involuntary servitude, violence, and 

human rights abuses. In these cases, women 

may be forced to work anywhere from sixteen 

to twenty hours per day, and often live in 

conditions of captivity within the US. These 

women have had their freedoms severely 

curtailed. They are kept in situations of forced 

labor through sexual, physical, and 

psychological abuse; threats of violence to 

themselves and/or their families; bonded labor; 

enforced isolation; and/or seizure of their 

passports, travel, or identity documents. 

Human rights abuses in the worst cases that 

have been uncovered have included: forcing 

minors into prostitution; confining a teenager in 

a closet for two weeks as punishment for 

attempting to escape; compelling an adult 

female to wear a dog collar and sleep with the 

dogs; torturing a young victim with cigarette 

burns; and using a stun gun for punishment on 

a deaf person. In one Dallas brothel, Thai 

nationals were locked up and forced to work as 

prostitutes. They were treated like animals in 

that if they did not do as they were told, they 

would not receive any food. Cases, in 

particular, that involve organized crime 

elements tend to receive the greatest amount 

of attention. Fortunately, long-term and largescale organized bondage is the rarest kind of 

involuntary servitude in the United States, 

though it continues to occur. There are also 

fewer slave sharecropping and less AfricanAmerican slave labor crews being reported or 

discovered in the US.88 The violent subjugation 

under labor crew bosses, that was common 15 

years ago, appears to be less prevalent now.89

As we move away from the unambiguous 

instances of trafficking, cases may not fit as 

neatly into definitional boxes. There are a 

variety of cases that might not be straight 

trafficking cases, but involve strong trafficking 

elements, such as the use of psychological 

manipulation and the seizure of identity 

papers, both of which are very common. The 

confiscation of identity papers, particularly for 

women from the former Soviet bloc, can be 

particularly frightening for these women and a 

very real means of control. Frequently, women 

trafficked to the United States are aware of the 

job but unaware of the abusive conditions they 

ultimately find themselves in. The women 

arrive in the United States and find that their 

debt or the terms of repayment have changed 

considerably. In addition to being charged for 

the cost of their travel and for traffickers’ 

commissions, they are charged exorbitant or 

inflated amounts for room and board and other 

basic necessities, such as clothing and 

medicines. The traffickers usually engage in 

irregular accounting practices and charge the 

women usurious interest rates. In these cases, 

the traffickers frequently change their tactics in 

an effort to keep the women a little “off 

balance;” for example, sometimes the women 

must be accompanied when they leave the 

premises, sometimes they are permitted to do 

errands unescorted. Victims’ attorneys have 

88 Interview with Department of Justice, Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999.

89 Navarro, Mireya, “Case of Florida Au Pair Reflects 

Wider Problem,” The New York Times, December 12, 

1996: A-12.
26

also said that while the traffickers might not 

have beaten their clients, these women had 

witnessed the traffickers hitting their girlfriends 

and therefore did not want to risk making the 

traffickers angry.

Farther down the spectrum, many economic 

migrants have been severely exploited. 

Largely uneducated and heavily indebted to 

the smuggling rings, some illegal aliens are 

encouraged to sell drugs or go into prostitution 

to repay their debt. Aliens, with little to no 

formal education, are sometimes urged to sign 

contracts, which they cannot understand and 

commit them to working with hazardous 

chemicals. Many illegal migrants, who work on 

agricultural farms, find themselves working 

long hours and under difficult, precarious 

conditions. Inflated costs for meals, lodging, 

and incidentals ensure the migrants never 

repay their debt.
27

X. Related Industries

Closely linked in public perception to trafficking 

in women are a variety of profitable businesses 

and fraud schemes that entail the exploitation 

of foreign women, such as unlicensed mail 

order bride companies, maid schemes, and 

domestic servants. Typically, women know 

they are going to the US for marriage or maid 

services, but they are abused or exploited 

once in the US. Many exploitation cases 

involving domestic workers are particularly 

hard cases to document because of the 

privacy afforded by a home.90 Trafficking may 

be occurring in some or possibly all of these 

situations, though this would have to be judged 

on a case by case basis. Mail order bride 

brokers, for example, are not traffickers per se; 

but, where there is deception or fraudulent 

non-disclosure of known facts concerning the 

nature of the relationship being entered into or 

the criminal or abusive background of the 

client, the brokers should be liable as 

traffickers.91

Mail Order Bride Companies

Foreign women and American men are 

increasingly using marriage or international 

matchmaking agencies, services, or “mail 

order bride” catalogues to find a spouse. While 

international matchmaking agencies are 

considered legitimate businesses, they are 

almost completely unregulated.92 There is 

generally no obligation for full disclosure, no 

liability, and no obligation to give the women 

information about their rights. A nongovernmental organization, the Global 

Survival Network (GSN); found that marriage 

agencies generally do not screen their male 

clients, some of whom have histories of 

domestic violence or criminal records. Another 

consequence of the lack of regulation is that 

marriage agencies are able to advertise 

minors. In March 1999, the INS reported that 

the number of mail-order bride agencies in the 

US was growing rapidly. It reported that there 

were over 200 mail order bride agencies 

operating in the US in 1998. These agencies 

are bringing approximately 4,000 to 6,000 

women, mostly from the Philippines or the 

Newly Independent States, to the US each 

year.93 GSN also reports that most of the 

matchmaking companies in Russia have links 

to Russian organized crime. These ties 

facilitate trafficking, as GSN found the Russian 

mafia recruits women at mixers or 

matchmaking parties, organized by marriage 

agencies. Russian organized crime is also 

using these companies’ databases to get 

additional names of possible recruits who wish 

to marry and/or work abroad.

Maid Schemes

Another industry that may front for some 

trafficking cases is maid schemes that are 

used to supply émigré families in the US with a 

steady stream of domestic workers, usually 

women between the ages of 35 and 55 years 

old. Typically, the women come in on B-1 or B2 visas where a member of the fraud ring 

meets them at the airport. The women are then 

taken to a “safe house,” their documents are 

seized, and they are later placed with a family. 

Often the terms of employment are not what 

the women were led to expect. Many of the 

women are forced to work long hours for little 

pay. They are usually not paid directly, but 

rather their salaries are given to a placement 

organization that gives them a percentage. 

Women who complain have been kept in line 

by threats, intimidation, and/or physical 

violence.94

90 Navarro, “Case of Florida Au Pair Reflects Wider 

Problem,” A-12. 

91 Miller, Ali and Stewart, Alison, Report from the 

Roundtable on The Meaning of Trafficking in Persons: A 

Human Rights Perspective, Women’s Rights Law 

Reporter, Rutgers Law School Fall/Winter 1998.

92 Global Survival Network, “Crime and Servitude: An 

Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the 

Newly Independent States,” October 1997. 

93 Hughes, Donna, “Pimps and Predators on the Internet,” 

The Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, March 1999.
28

Domestic Servants

Lately, several cases have come to light 

involving foreign women being exploited as 

domestic servants for foreign diplomats or 

other officials at international financial 

institutions. Many former domestic servants 

claim that they found themselves in situations 

akin to slavery or bonded servitude. They 

reported that their employers confiscated their 

passports and other documents, required dusk 

to dawn labor for little or sometimes no pay, 

and forbid them from leaving the house or 

making contact with other domestic workers.95

• For example, an illiterate Ethiopian woman 

was brought to the United States eight years 

ago by an IMF staff member to work as a 

maid. She was made to work seven days a 

week 15 hours a day, isolated from others, 

and physically abused. Though promised 

$235 a week plus medical care, she received 

less than 3 cents an hour. 96

• In another case, a nanny from the Philippines 

was brought into the US to work for 

Philippine embassy employees, but then 

sent to work for another family for 41 cents 

an hour, 16 hours a day.

According to the State Department, 3,800 

domestic servants come to the US each year 

under two types of temporary employment 

visas to work for foreign diplomats or non-US 

staff members of international organizations. 

These employers are to abide by US labor 

laws, but a fellow at the Institute for Policy 

Studies claims that there is no monitoring by 

the World Bank or IMF to ensure that staff 

members meet their obligations.97 The Global 

Survival Network concurs that there is no 

effective monitoring of domestic workers who 

are brought into the United States to work for 

diplomats and officials of international 

agencies.

Illicit Foreign Adoptions

The buying and selling of babies under the 

guise of an adoption is yet another extension of 

trafficking and an egregious human rights 

violation. In the case of foreign adoption, 

several means of procurement have been 

identified to secure the babies. Smuggling 

rings might pay rural midwives to falsely 

register the birth of a child under a woman’s 

name. A child is then stolen from its family and 

given to the falsely registered mother who then 

gives the child up for adoption. Alternatively, 

trafficking networks have been known to 

procure children by drugging or tricking 

uneducated mothers into “thumb-printing” a 

blank legal document.98, 99 Shady adoption 

agencies have also worked to convince 

impoverished parents to give up their baby so 

it will be given a much “better life” in the US. 

Concerned by these unlawful and 

unscrupulous tactics, the Guatemalan 

government invited last July the UN 

representative for the Sale of Children, Child 

Prostitution and Pornography to Guatemala to 

evaluate the situation of the sale of children in 

the country.100

Illicit adoptions have also occurred in Mexico 

and other parts of Central America. In July, two 

American women and a Mexican lawyer were 

94 “The Russian Maid Scheme,” Department of State, 

Bureau of Consular Affairs, Office of Fraud, Prevention 

Programs, August 1997.

95 “Not in This Country, They Can’t,” Editorial, The 

Washington Post, January 7, 1999: A24.

96 Branigin, William, “A Life of Exhaustion, Beatings and 

Isolation,” The Washington Post, January 5, 1999.

97 Branigin, William, “Modern-Day Slavery, Imported 

Servants Allege Abuse By Foreign Host Families in US,” 

The Washington Post, January 5, 1999, A1.

98 This occurred in Guatemala that is the fourth-largest 

source of children for US adoptions, behind Russia, China, 

and South Korea.

99 Bird, Yoshi, “The Trafficking of Children for Sexual 

Exploitation and Foreign Adoption: Background and 

Current Measures,” Draft document, International Criminal 

Police Organization (INTERPOL), August 1999.

100 “UN Representative to Travel to Guatemala to Assess 

Sale of Children,” Mercyhurst, July 13, 1999.
29

charged with taking part in an illegal adoption 

ring in which 17 Mexican babies were 

smuggled across the border and placed in 

American homes for approximately $22,000 

each. The ring used Mexican women with legal 

border-crossing documents to pose as 

mothers to escort the children from Mexico into 

the US. In another case in El Salvador, police 

arrested in May the ringleader of a major 

criminal organization that specialized in 

smuggling children into the US. The ringleader 

had been paying corrupt civil registry officials 

to provide false birth certificates.101

101 Associated Press, “Adoptions of Smuggled Mexican 

Babies,” July 25, 1999. 
Intentionally Left Blank
31

XI. Issues and Challenges 

Associated with Combating 

Trafficking

After interviewing over 150 individuals in the 

public and private sector on the trafficking 

issue, it is clear that uncovering, investigating, 

and prosecuting trafficking in women cases 

while protecting, assisting, and repatriating 

trafficking victims is a complicated and 

resource-intensive task. Individuals within the 

Departments of Justice, State, Treasury, and 

Labor, the Intelligence Community, state and 

local police, as well as non-governmental 

organizations, academic institutions, and 

foreign governments all identified their most 

pressing concerns and difficulties in combating 

the traffickers and/or protecting the victims. 102

Definitional, Information-Sharing, and 

Coordination Difficulties

Definitional difficulties still persist regarding 

trafficking in women. Different branches of the 

government and various offices within those 

branches frequently define, categorize, and 

handle trafficking cases in different ways. 

Distinctions regarding trafficking in women, 

alien smuggling, and irregular migration are 

sometimes blurred with INS predisposed to 

jump to the conclusion that most cases 

involving illegal workers are alien smuggling 

instead of trafficking cases. One INS agent 

recently stated that there are no innocent 

victims, they are all willing participants. 

Consequently, their focus is on deporting the 

women once they are discovered. Less 

emphasis is placed on the exploitative settings 

these women find themselves in. Additionally, 

the Department of Justice sometimes 

tabulates or labels trafficking cases as worker 

exploitation cases. The label suggests 

something closer to wage and hour problems 

versus involuntary servitude, debt bondage, 

and forced prostitution.

In an effort to bolster information sharing and 

coordination at the federal, regional, state, and 

local levels, the Attorney General created the 

Worker Exploitation Task Force in April 1998. 

This Task Force created a manual on 

Investigating and Prosecuting Worker 

Exploitation and Abuse Cases and is holding 

training programs for local, state, and federal 

law enforcement on worker exploitation. 

Nonetheless, information sharing among the 

various entities remains imperfect. Several 

Department of Justice offices look at the 

trafficking issue through the prism of their 

particular office’s interest, be it eliminating civil 

rights violations, tackling organized crime, or 

protecting minors. Even within the Department 

of Justice, information is not always shared 

among the concerned offices. Moreover, case 

information is often kept at the field offices. 

Many FBI agents say it is difficult, if not 

impossible, to formally write-up the cases and 

lessons learned once they are completed 

given their demanding workload, inadequate 

staffing, and pressing new cases. 

Furthermore, there is no one central repository 

of all the trafficking in women and children 

cases within the United States.

Information sharing and coordination with 

overseas law enforcement entities is also often 

burdensome. One Assistant US Attorney from 

New York claims coordination with foreign law 

enforcement agencies is problematic given 

extensive corruption within those bodies. 

Bureaucratic infighting, overlapping and 

unclear responsibilities among foreign law 

enforcement bodies, and a lack of clarity over 

what information can be disclosed to US 

officials makes prosecuting foreign traffickers 

particularly challenging. Though Interpol’s 

main offices try to expedite communication 

among national police forces of countries in 

which trafficking in persons is a problem, 

member countries are slow to report cases of 

102 A compilation of a variety of perspectives is outlined 

below. Thoughts are not attributed to specific individuals in 

order that a more frank and candid discussion could ensue 

about the real issues facing law enforcement and so that 

this trafficking report could be unclassified. Additionally, 

the views expressed are individual opinions; they do not 

necessarily represent the views of their offices or bureaus. 
32

suspected trafficking in women to Interpol as 

well as to exchange relevant trafficking 

information amongst themselves.103

Investigative Challenges

There are many challenges facing law 

enforcement that hampers its ability to combat 

trafficking. Limited resources hinder law 

enforcement’s ability to investigate and 

prosecute trafficking cases. For instance, at 

the same time the Department of Justice’s Civil 

Rights Division is intensifying its efforts to 

prosecute trafficking cases, its responsibilities 

are growing in the areas of police brutality, hate 

crimes, church burnings, and abortion clinic 

violence, without an equivalent increase in 

funding or resources. According to a federal 

prosecutor who works on slavery cases, 

investigating trafficking and slavery cases is 

also arduous, as it is extremely difficult to 

infiltrate many ethnic crime groups that are 

engaged in trafficking. This prosecutor 

believes the FBI needs more ethnic Chinese or 

Spanish-speaking agents, especially ones 

familiar with particular dialects. In the Latin 

American immigrant community, for example, 

there are a lot of important language 

subtleties, specific dialects, and cultural 

mannerisms which agents have a hard time 

mimicking. Even Spanish and English varies 

according to how long the immigrant trafficker 

has been in the US. The multitude of Asian 

languages also makes it hard for law 

enforcement to go undercover. The benefit of 

having an agent speak Thai was demonstrated 

in Los Angeles when INS was investigating the 

El Monte slave labor case involving over 70 

Thai victims.

Law enforcement also has few resources to 

hire and train ethnic female officers for 

trafficking undercover work. Even if they did 

have the resources, federal prosecutors have 

noted that it is nearly impossible to use a 

female undercover agent because she would 

have to be a victim. In order to prove slavery, 

beatings, and forced prostitution, she would 

risk suffering these traumas. This contrasts 

with infiltrating a drug operation, in which the 

agent’s undercover responsibilities might 

include buying, selling, or transporting drugs 

from one location to the next.

Another investigative challenge is that many 

law enforcement officials do not hear about 

trafficking cases or receive lead information. 

Having been threatened by the traffickers, 

many trafficking victims either are unable to or 

fearful of coming forward. Additionally, 

traffickers have usually supplied the women 

with answers and statements they should tell 

law enforcement if they are caught. Victims 

often distrust law enforcement as the 

traffickers have played upon their concerns of 

law enforcement in their own countries. 

Furthermore, victims almost always fear 

deportation. These same anxieties sometimes 

make victims reluctant to testify in a trial. 

Despite being victimized, they feel ashamed 

and overwhelmed by the lengthy ordeal of a 

trial. At times, conflicting statements from 

victims makes law enforcement’s job of 

building a case more challenging.

Thus, law enforcement may at times have to 

rely on other investigative techniques such as 

tapping the traffickers’ phones. Some 

prosecutors, however, feel handicapped and 

would like broader discretion in being able to 

use Title 3, the wire statute. In particular, one 

Assistant US Attorney from Miami said that the 

Mann Act—transportation for illegal sexual 

activity—should be used as a predicate 

offense for Title 3.

Additionally, proving trafficking and involuntary 

servitude cases is difficult, as the prosecutor 

must often demonstrate that force or the threat 

of force was used to intimidate the trafficking 

victims. An Assistant US Attorney from 

103 Bird, Yoshi, “The Challenges Posed By Insufficient 

Collaboration and Communication in the Pro-Active Fight 

Against Trafficking of Women,” Interpol, September 1999.
33

Los Angeles, who has worked on trafficking 

cases, claims that the force is often 

psychological rather than physical, and harder 

to prove as it is generally the woman’s word 

against the traffickers.

Low Penalties for the Traffickers

A review of the trafficking cases shows that the 

penalties appear light, especially when 

compared to sentences given to drug dealers, 

and do not appear to reflect the multitude of 

human rights abuses perpetrated against the 

women. The statutory maximum104 for sale into 

involuntary servitude is only ten years per 

count, whereas the statutory maximum for 

dealing in ten grams of LSD or distributing a 

kilo of heroin is life. At the state level, in 

Maryland for example, a defendant convicted 

of a felony drug charge, who has two prior 

misdemeanor drug charges, would be required 

to serve ten years without the possibility of 

parole. Thus, the perception is that 

punishment for trafficking in women is less 

than or equal to the punishment for trafficking 

in drugs. Even small amounts of drugs can 

carry tough sentences. At present, a defendant 

convicted of dealing at least five grams of 

crack cocaine in the federal system receives a 

mandatory minimum sentence of five years. 

Additionally, sentencing enhancements for use 

of a gun during the commission of a violent 

crime or drug trafficking is five years 

mandatory for the first offense and then 20 

years for each subsequent violation.

• In Los Angeles, where traffickers kidnapped 

a Chinese woman, raped her, forced her into 

prostitution, posted guards to control her 

movements, and burned her with cigarettes, 

the lead defendant received four years and 

the other defendants received two to three 

years.105

• In another case where Asian women were 

kept physically confined for years with metal 

bars on the windows, guards, and an 

electronic monitoring system and were 

forced to submit to sex with as many as 400 

customers to repay their smuggling debt, the 

traffickers received between four and nine 

years.106

• In a case involving some 70 deaf Mexicans 

who were held under lock and key, forced to 

peddle trinkets, beaten, and in some cases 

tortured, the ringleader received 14 years 

and the other traffickers received from 1 to 8 

years.

• In a 1996 trafficking case involving Russian 

and Ukrainian women, who had answered 

ads to be au pairs, sales clerks, and 

waitresses, but were forced to provide sexual 

services and live in a massage parlor in 

Bethesda, Maryland, the Russian-American 

massage parlor owner was fined. He entered 

a plea bargain and charges were dropped 

with the restriction that he would not operate 

a business again in Montgomery County.107

The women, who had not been paid any 

salary and were charged $150 dollars for 

their housing, were deported or left the US 

voluntarily.

• In a trafficking case involving over 70 Thai 

laborers who had been held against their will, 

systematically abused, and made to work 20-

hour shifts in a sweatshop, the seven 

defendants received sentences ranging from 

four to seven years, with one defendant 

receiving seven months.

• In a trafficking case involving forced 

prostitution, confinement, assault, rape, and 

forced abortions, sixteen defendants were 

charged with a variety of Title 18 and Title 8 

offenses ranging from involuntary servitude 

104 The statutory maximum sets forth the outer limits of 

what sentence the defendants may receive.

105 Interview with the AUSA’s office, Los Angeles, 

February 1999.

106 Interview with the AUSA’s office, New York, and INS 

New York, May 1999.

107 Global Survival Network, “Crime and Servitude: An 

Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the 

Newly Independent States,” October 1997.
34

to conspiracy to alien smuggling. Their 

sentences ranged from 21⁄2 years to 61⁄2 years 

with one ringleader getting 15 years.108

Some prosecutors contend that they are using 

the legal tools at their disposal, but there are 

high standards of proof in current involuntary 

servitude prosecutions. Moreover, some 

prosecutors say that they enter plea 

agreements in order to avoid having the 

victims testify at trial against their traffickers 

out of concern for the trauma that would result 

from public testimony and cross-examination. 

While each case is different and the 

prosecutors may not always be able to prove 

all of the indictable offenses, the general 

perception is that these sentences do not 

appear to account for all the human rights and 

civil violations inflicted upon the victims. In 

many of the cases, traffickers and brothel 

owners end up being prosecuted for hiring 

illegal aliens, immigration fraud, and/or the 

Mann Act which have limited penalties as 

opposed to kidnapping, RICO charges, 

peonage109, money laundering, and collection 

of extension of credit by extortion.

Additionally, the criminal provisions of the labor 

statues—the most likely alternatives to slavery 

prosecutions—are especially weak, making it 

tough to prosecute traffickers of women for 

slave labor. The Fair Labor Standards Act 

(FLSA) carries criminal penalties for willful 

violations; however, it is only a six-month 

maximum sentence. A person convicted of a 

FLSA violation can only get a sentence 

involving prison time on the second conviction, 

though this issue is under review. The criminal 

penalties for intentional violations of the 

Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker 

Protection Act (MSPA) is a statutory maximum 

of one year for the first offense and three years 

for the second or more offense. There are also 

no sentencing guidelines, so judges often give 

probation. Many prosecutors are therefore 

reluctant to take on labor cases that do not rise 

to the level of involuntary servitude. 

Prosecutors also find it difficult to file suit 

against farm owners who use slave labor, 

because the owners claim they were unaware 

of any exploitation on behalf of their 

contractors.110 It is therefore necessary not 

only to strengthen the current labor statutes 

but also to provide for a statutory tool to punish 

those who benefit or profit from the slavery.

These low penalties and the long, complicated, 

and resource-intensive nature of trafficking 

cases tend to make them unattractive to many 

assistant US attorneys. Some Justice 

Department interlocutors claim that trafficking 

cases require enormous amounts of 

paperwork, and federal attorneys are 

frustrated that the sentencing outcomes 

historically have not reflected the work 

involved or the full nature of the crimes. There 

is no uniformity of opinion, however, about the 

issue. Other Department of Justice 

interlocutors feel the penalties for trafficking in 

women are tough enough but that the 

government must work harder to seek longer 

sentences allowable under the sentencing 

guidelines. Still, other prosecutors are very 

concerned that increased penalties will result 

in less pleas, more trials, additional trauma for 

the victims, and fewer cases being prosecuted 

as prosecutors are engaged in trials. They 

contend that the sentencing guidelines111 are 

what matters, rather than the statutory 

maximums, pointing out that conspiracy 

prosecutions under 18USC241 carry a 

potential life sentence. And, when multiple 

substantive counts are charged (as in most 

federal involuntary servitude prosecutions), 

the statutory maximums for each count 

108 Sentencing hearing, US v. Cadena, West Palm Beach, 

Florida, April 16, 1999.

109 Peonage is defined by case law as involuntary 

servitude for the purpose of repayment of a debt.

110 Interview with Department of Justice, Civil Rights 

Division, Criminal Section, April 1999. 

111 The sentencing guidelines apply various factors to 

determine the actual sentence imposed within the 

statutory maximum.
35

aggregate to determine the full exposure, thus 

resulting in as much potential prison time as 

necessary to ensure a substantial sentence.

In 1996, Congress, concerned that the 

sentence guidelines did not adequately 

address the problem, directed the US 

Sentencing Commission to revise the 

guidelines for involuntary servitude and alien 

smuggling. These revisions raised the 

involuntary servitude guidelines to place them 

on par with kidnapping and extortion, and 

provided for enhancements in immigration 

cases where the aliens are injured or hurt.

Lack of a Trafficking Law

The US currently does not have a 

comprehensive trafficking law. Law 

enforcement now relies upon a number of 

criminal, labor, and immigration laws to 

address activities involved in trafficking 

schemes. Trafficking in women cases are may 

be prosecuted under various Title 18 sections, 

such as the Mann Act (§2421), involuntary 

servitude and slavery (§1581), and 

extortionate collection of extension of credit 

(§894). Cases are also prosecuted under Title 

8 sections, such as recruiting, smuggling, and 

transporting aliens (§1324) or harboring for 

prostitution (§1328). Prosecutors feel the use 

of a combination of charges can create many 

plea and sentencing options to reward 

cooperation and/or reflect a defendant’s role in 

the conspiracy as well as result in longer 

sentences. Moreover, currently there are a 

number of federal initiatives designed to 

address gaps in the laws regarding trafficking 

issues.

Advocates for a specific trafficking law, 

however, argue that using numerous statues 

may be more cumbersome as the prosecutor is 

required to prove each element of each crime 

whereas a trafficking statue would streamline 

the prosecutorial burden. The passage of a 

trafficking law provides an additional tool 

without losing the existing mechanisms. 

Moreover, a trafficking law would permit better 

tracking of cases and record keeping, improve 

Department of Justice coordination, and serve 

as a greater deterrent to such behavior. 

Additionally, it would provide conceptual clarity, 

define the issue, and provide a model for other 

countries and for state and local legislation. 

Lastly, a trafficking law would also provide 

adequate protection and assistance for the 

trafficking victims.112

Law Enforcement May Miss “Mom and 

Pop” or Smaller Trafficking Cases

Many smaller trafficking in women situations 

may go unnoticed by US law enforcement. 

According to an Assistant US Attorney from 

New York, federal law enforcement tends to 

focus on major organized crime syndicates 

and may miss the smaller trafficking rings or 

“mom and pop” shop operations which 

commonly orchestrate trafficking in women 

operations. An INS agent in Los Angeles 

claims that there is more funding when cases 

involve organized crime, and that the smaller 

trafficking conspiracy cases therefore do not 

get as much attention and resources.

Local law enforcement may also miss possible 

trafficking instances. Local police officers tend 

not to be very interested in investigating 

brothels which is where much of the trafficking 

is occurring. Prostitution is sometimes seen as 

a victimless crime and therefore of lower 

priority than gang warfare, narcotics trafficking, 

or other street crimes. Victims’ advocates 

claim that law enforcement often views 

trafficking victims as part of the conspiracy and 

consequently sees them as accomplices.

112 Interviews with the President’s Interagency Council on 

Women, September 1998-September 1999.
36

INS Challenges and Constraints

Some INS agents who have worked on 

trafficking cases say one of their largest 

challenges is that the victims are in the US 

illegally and thus must be treated the same as 

other undocumented workers because they 

have broken the law. Moreover, some INS 

agents say they need to be careful not to 

prejudice witnesses by promising them a 

green card or residency. Another primary 

challenge in their view is that they arrest over 

a million people a year and it is tough to 

determine who has been severely victimized or 

trafficked. According to one INS agent, it is 

hard to “play favorites” because there are 

countless other illegal aliens who are exploited 

by unscrupulous employers, and it is not easy 

to know where you draw the line in terms of 

who is being exploited. Some INS agents also 

believe that many of these cases are alien 

smuggling for prostitution cases not trafficking 

in women cases.

Even before the trafficking victims reach the 

border, State Department consular officers 

concede that mistakes are made in the visa 

process given the heavy volume of visa 

applicants. For example, there were 

approximately 98,000 visa applications in 

Bangkok in 1995.113 And it is often the junior, 

less experienced foreign service officers who 

are conducting the visa interview. As consular 

officials try to be service-oriented and not 

“blanket deny” all young women between the 

ages of 15 and 30, potential trafficking victims 

may be missed.

Once at the border, some INS interlocutors 

claim it is difficult to be service-oriented, 

process people very rapidly at the border, and 

catch all potential trafficking victims. Resource 

issues often limit what INS can do. For 

example, INS has no means for tracking B2 

(tourist) visa overstays, nor does it have an 

adequate means of checking into the schools 

that sponsor student visa applications. In New 

York, for example, there is only one person 

examining fraud cases involving invitations 

from schools.114 Furthermore, according to an 

INS officer serving in Manila, INS is not 

committing any resources towards 

investigating marriage fraud. Though mail 

order bride companies from the Philippines 

and the US do not appear to be masking 

trafficking operations, with virtually no 

investigation, illegal trafficking situations could 

be missed.

INS agents also claim that they have a hard 

time getting law enforcement interested in their 

investigations involving minors, because some 

prosecutors believe most children have been 

smuggled into the country for family 

reunification and do not want to lock up or 

detain aliens who are minors. INS agents also 

say it is difficult to gain the trust of the children 

who have been convinced by the traffickers 

that INS wants to hurt them.

INS has also come under criticism for previous 

trafficking in women investigations. According 

to one California INS agent, mistakes, 

mismanagement, and neglect occurred in 

investigating the El Monte Thai slave labor 

case, resulting in the workers spending more 

time in slave-like conditions. In 1988, a notice 

of inspection for the El Monte compound was 

given to the perpetrators, the Manasurangkun 

family, three days in advance of the inspection. 

This gave the family time to scatter the 

workers. INS watched the workers scatter, but 

was helpless to do anything because the 

notice of inspection was an administrative, not 

criminal, action. Next, INS got an 

administrative subpoena that the family did not 

comply with. INS subsequently arrested the 

family for harboring aliens, but had to let them 

go for lack of evidence. INS then closed the 

case, claiming that the garment company was 

no longer in existence.

113 Interview with the Consular Section, American 

Embassy in Bangkok, February 1999. 114 Interview with INS, New York, December 1998.
37

INS got another investigative lead in 1992 to 

check out the compound, according to this INS 

agent. The Assistant US Attorney at the time 

required that INS meet a “shopping list” of 

things in order to establish probable cause and 

receive a search warrant. INS fulfilled the list, 

but not before the AUSA had changed and 

there were new requirements to meet. INS did 

not attempt to go after the additional 

requirements. A raid did not occur until August 

1995 and it was conducted by the Department 

of Labor Standards Enforcement, who went in 

to cite the owners for doing industrial 

homework in a residential area, though INS 

assisted. This same INS agent, however, says 

that since the El Monte case, there has been a 

growing awareness by INS and other law 

enforcement entities that slavery actually 

exists in America. Subsequently, INS has 

taken the lead in pursuing several slavery 

cases, especially in the Los Angeles and 

Miami areas. INS was also commended 

recently for their assistance in a trafficking 

case in Chicago.
Intentionally Left Blank
39

XII. Issues and Challenges 

Associated with Providing 

Assistance to and Protecting 

Trafficking Victims

In addition to the challenges in investigating 

and prosecuting trafficking in women cases, 

non-governmental organizations (NGOs) claim 

there are numerous issues that make 

protecting trafficking victims difficult. Most of 

these issues center around the treatment of 

trafficking in women and children as an 

immigration issue focused on their illegal 

status, as opposed to a human rights issue. 

Additionally, there does not appear to be any 

consistency or streamlined procedures for 

housing and handling trafficking victims. The 

response often appears ad hoc and at the 

discretion of the local prosecutor, vice squad, 

FBI, or INS officials. Even the Attorney General 

herself has said that the government must do 

a better job of advocating for trafficking victims 

because right now there are not adequate 

protections for the victims.115

Detention and Deportation

Non-governmental organizations call for 

arrested trafficking victims to be housed in 

appropriate shelters, not in jail or detention 

facilities. Currently, they say that many 

trafficking victims are placed in INS detention 

facilities and then deported. Those few 

trafficking victims, who are designated material 

witnesses in federal criminal cases brought 

against the traffickers, may be placed in the US 

marshals’ custody and held in local jails. Even 

when aliens are not being used as material 

witnesses, INS is housing over 60 percent of 

its detainees in local jails throughout the 

country, according to a 1998 report from 

Human Rights Watch. These INS detainees, 

including asylum seekers, are being held in 

jails where they might be mixed with accused 

and convicted criminal inmates. Human Rights 

Watch also reports that INS has not provided 

adequate oversight of its detainees inside 

these jails.116

It is impossible to determine how many 

trafficking victims are in detention centers; 

however, regular detention facilities, major 

contract facilities, and local jails housed over 

150,000 aliens last year for an average of 32 

days, according to INS’s Director of Detention 

and Deportation. For juvenile aliens, the 

average length of stay in 1998 was 34 days, 

though the median was 12 days.117 According 

to the US Director of the Jesuit Refugee 

Service, this detention has a negative 

consequence by criminalizing the victim in the 

mind of the public and fueling xenophobia. For 

trafficking victims, it also exacerbates all kinds 

of social, psychological, and medical 

problems. Additionally some lawyers, who 

specialize in assisting immigrant women say 

that they only learned about women who had 

been trafficked by chance through newspaper 

accounts of brothel raids, and that these 

women had not received proper medical 

attention while in detention.

• In a Florida case involving Mexican women 

and girls forced into prostitution, the victims 

spent time in both Krome, an INS detention 

center, and County Stockade, the local jail. In 

addition to Krome and Stockade, the minor 

victims were held in a juvenile detention 

center and a hotel where they were guarded 

24 hours a day by INS. After three months, 

the victims went to a shelter found by their 

attorneys and paid through the government’s 

Emergency Witness Assistance Program.118

Many INS agents concur that there needs to be 

more facilities for housing adult and minor 

trafficking victims, but say it does its best to 

treat trafficking victims humanely and make 

appropriate arrangements for them. This 

treatment is even more important for juvenile 

victims. While we do not know how many 

juvenile victims are being detained, the INS 

Juvenile Coordinator says INS houses about 

115 Interview with Attorney General Janet Reno, 

September 1999.

116 Human Rights Watch United States, “Locked Away: 

Immigration Detainees in Jails in the United States,” 

September 1998.

117 Telephone interview with INS, Juvenile Coordinator, 

August 1999.

118 Interview with FBI, INS agents, West Palm Beach, 

Florida, and Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, 

Criminal Section, April 1999.
40

500 juvenile aliens a day in roughly 50 juvenile 

detention centers, group homes, shelter care 

facilities, and foster homes. Moreover, he says 

that the children receive education and 

medical care, and the staff and caseworkers at 

the facilities receive substantial training. At the 

same time, he concedes that more staff is 

needed, as juvenile aliens require additional 

resources and special attention. Some INS 

agents feel, however, that many US Attorneys 

are less inclined to take trafficking cases 

involving minors because of the lack of 

adequate facilities to hold them. In New York, 

for example, trafficking victims and aliens, who 

are minors, may end up in Spotford, a facility in 

Pennsylvania that houses criminal juveniles. 

This facility is also two hours from New York, 

making interactions with the victim witnesses 

difficult.119 According to an INS agent in New 

York, INS is also out of witness fund money this 

year and does not dedicate money to sustain 

witnesses in temporary housing.

Trafficking victims, adults and minors who are 

not material witnesses are usually detained 

and then deported or voluntarily returned to 

their home country. Some victims are returned 

to their home countries after a videotaped 

deposition under Federal Rule of Criminal 

Procedure 15, which provides for the taking of 

pretrial testimony. In a recent example of 

deportation, Asian women, trafficked to the US 

for prostitution and forced to live in bondage 

until their contracts were paid off, were all 

deported immediately even before the case 

went to court or before they were able to 

recover any compensation or damages.

Victims’ social service providers also worry 

about the lack of follow-through with deported 

trafficking victims, particularly given the 

involvement of crime groups in the trafficking 

industry and the potential for retaliation by 

these groups. According to a professor from 

California State University with an expertise in 

Southeast Asia and women’s studies, some 

non-profit organizations in Los Angeles are 

trying to partner up with NGOs abroad so that 

returnees can be met at the border or airport 

upon their return and receive repatriation 

assistance. In her opinion, these networks are 

easy to create but time consuming.

Lack of Adequate Shelters or Services for 

Trafficking Victims

At present, there are no shelters and precious 

little special funds specifically designed for 

trafficking victims. The existing shelters for 

domestic violence victims are the only current 

resources available for trafficking victims. 

Even these shelters may not always be 

available to trafficking victims as many shelters 

face funding constraints, and their limited 

program funds are frequently tied towards 

assisting a specific block or category of 

people, such as juveniles or rape victims.

Victims’ advocates claim that on one level, 

most victims have basic needs such as shelter, 

medical, psychological, and/or legal services. 

There are, however, some unique 

considerations when it comes to trafficking 

victims. Attorneys for trafficking victims feel it is 

better for them to be housed together rather 

than split among several shelters. Trafficking 

victims have often bonded with one another 

because of their shared traumatic 

experiences. Many shelters, however, cannot 

accommodate a large influx of victims at once.

Furthermore, trafficking victims also have 

commonly experienced the most extreme 

forms of exploitation ranging from forced 

prostitution, involuntary confinement, rape, 

and torture. Thus, the need for mental health 

services is often greater than the counseling 

needs facing other victims.120 In the Bowery 

brothel case, for example, one of the victims 

went crazy after years of confinement. 121

119 Interview with INS agents, New York, December 1998.

120 Interview with the Little Tokyo Service Center, Coalition 

to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, July 1999. 
41

Trafficking victims may also speak a variety of 

foreign languages that shelters cannot 

accommodate. This contrasts with many 

domestic violence or rape victims who are 

American citizens or have been in the United 

States for a long time and speak English or 

Spanish. Additionally, trafficking victims often 

face complicated legal issues related to their 

immigration status. Shelters are not suppose 

to ask the immigration status of the women 

needing services, but some NGOs report that 

shelters are doing so. Shelters and clinics are 

permitted to give services to undocumented 

workers, but not direct compensation. The 

Legal Services Corporation (LSC),122 provides 

funds to independent legal entities, but 

grantees are prohibited from representing 

illegal aliens in civil cases and grantees are not 

permitted to do criminal cases. There are a few 

limited exceptions that permit LSC recipients 

to use funds, from sources other than the 

Corporation, to assist illegal aliens or their 

children who suffer domestic violence;123

however, this exception does not currently 

apply to illegal aliens who have suffered from 

trafficking.

Some existing shelters also express concern 

that trafficking victims pose greater security 

risks to the shelter given the trafficking 

industry’s association with organized crime, 

crime rings, and gangs.124 In several of the 

trafficking cases, victims who escaped from 

the brothels were hunted down by the 

traffickers and forcibly returned.

NGOs advocate that given these additional 

considerations and concerns, trafficking 

victims would be best served in either special 

shelters designed to meet their needs and/or 

existing shelters where the staff has been 

trained and given information on how to handle 

trafficking cases.

Difficulties with the “S” Visa

Non-governmental organizations claim that the 

use of the “S” visa, where the victim must 

possess critical and reliable information that is 

essential to a criminal case, is used too 

infrequently. NGOs claim, and many INS and 

law enforcement officers concur, that the “S” 

visa is not sufficient because there are only 

200 “S” visas permitted a year, with an 

additional 50 available for those immigrants 

which possess significant information tied to 

terrorist actions. Many trafficking cases involve 

civil rather than criminal violations, yet the “S” 

visa can only be used in criminal cases. Law 

enforcement officers also lament the “S” visa’s 

heavy oversight burden: the agents must 

closely supervise the “S” visa recipients and 

make quarterly reports to the Attorney 

General.125 For example, the INS agent 

handling the El Monte Thai victims claims he 

has filed at least 700 forms relating to the “S” 

visa for the 75 victims. Every three months, he 

says, he must interview all of the victims to file 

the reports.126 Some INS agents have 

expressed frustration that there is no “middleroad” between the “S” visa and straight 

deportation. Victims are sometimes given 

deferred action for a year, but this is a 

temporary measure.

In essence, many trafficking victims remain in 

a sort of legal limbo. Trafficking victims, who 

are waiting to be material witnesses at a trial, 

121 Interview with the AUSA’s office, New York, May 1999. 122 The Legal Services Corporation is an independent 

agency that receives funding from Congress. It was 

established by the Congressional Legal Services 

Corporation Act of 1974.

123 Since 1998, an LSC grantee may use funds, derived 

from a source other than the Corporation, to provide legal 

assistance only to aliens, or their children, who have been 

battered or subjected to extreme cruelty in the United 

States by a spouse or a parent, or by a member of the 

spouse or parent’s family residing in the same household 

as the alien. They may not use LSC funds for these 

purposes. 

124 Interview with the Coalition to Abolish Slavery and 

Trafficking, July 1999.

125 INS Office of Policy and Planning, address before the 

US/Italy Bilateral Working Group on Trafficking in Women, 

July 1999. 

126 Interview, INS, Los Angeles, September 7, 1999.
42

also face economic hardships, as they are 

usually not permitted to work. Work 

authorization during this time period usually 

depends upon the discretion of the INS case 

agent. If the victim has been “paroled-in,” there 

tends to be more latitude than if the victim has 

been given deferred status. To “parole-in”127 an 

alien is also advantageous, as it limits the 

amount of “bad time” which would otherwise 

accrue, but it requires a letter from a senior 

Justice official.

In an effort to respond to these issues and 

provide visas to other aliens suffering serious 

abuses, the Department of Justice has 

proposed a new visa, called the “T” visa, in the 

upcoming crime bill. Aliens who have suffered 

severe physical or mental abuse in the US as 

a result of criminal activity will be eligible to 

obtain the “T” visa if they possess material 

information, not necessarily critical 

information, to the case. There will be 1,000 “T” 

visas a year for these victims and their family 

members. These visas also provide for work 

authorization. Lastly, the “T” visa will be valid 

for up to three years, and can be adjusted to 

permanent legal status for humanitarian 

reasons if necessary. Once the aliens became 

permanent residents, there would be offsets 

against the annual number permitted for a 

country.128 Such a visa would not only be 

beneficial to law enforcement as it would 

ensure that they had material witnesses for 

their cases, but also would provide a “resting 

period” for the victims allowing them to receive 

some assistance.

127 One option for legalizing a trafficking victim’s 

immigration status is to bring the person into the US as a 

parolee in the public interest, which enables them to obtain 

work authorization but unfortunately often requires that the 

individual depart and re-enter the US for bureaucratic 

purposes. Another option, for those who have already 

been put in deportation proceedings, is suspension of 

deportation, which also can lead to work authorization but 

has the unfortunate side effect of the alien victim accruing 

“bad time” under Immigration Laws. “Bad time” affects the 

alien’s chances of future legal entry. 

128 INS Office of Policy and Planning, address before the 

US/Italy Bilateral Working Group on Trafficking in Women, 

July 1999.
43

XIII. Calls For Change

The challenges associated with combating 

trafficking and protecting the victims are 

overwhelming but not unmanageable. The 

same government officials and nongovernmental experts who outlined their most 

pressing issues also provided some 

suggestions and recommendations for 

preventing trafficking, prosecuting the 

traffickers, and assisting the trafficking victims. 

The Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) 

feel that a multi-dimensional approach to 

addressing and eradicating trafficking must 

include not only legislative initiatives, crime 

prevention, and border control efforts, but also 

social welfare, job training, rights protection, 

and development initiatives in the source, 

transit, and destination countries and locales. 

Developing effective strategies must entail 

governments, governmental agencies, NGOs, 

advocacy groups, service providers, survivors, 

and affected communities all working together 

on the issue.129

Prevention of Trafficking

Prevention of trafficking must incorporate 

economic alternatives in the source countries, 

public awareness campaigns, and improved 

data collection on the issue. Trafficking 

prevention strategies must focus on the highrisk areas in the primary source countries. 

Prevention initiatives should develop or 

expand upon targeted micro-credit initiatives, 

small business development, and job and skills 

training. Moreover, grants should be awarded 

to non-governmental organizations to promote 

or accelerate the empowerment of women in 

political, economic, social, and educational 

roles at the local, regional, and national levels 

in the source countries. Prevention of 

trafficking should also include legal, social, and 

cultural reforms to eliminate gender 

discrimination. In a recent survey completed 

by 3,000 people in 57 regions of the Russian 

Federation and in Georgia, Armenia, 

Azerbaijan, Ukraine, and Mongolia, young and 

old women listed poverty, economic 

depression, and unequal career opportunities 

as their top three issues of concern.130 High 

unemployment rates pose hardships on 

women. By some studies, between 70 and 

80 percent of the unemployed workers in the 

Russian Federation, for example, are 

women.131 For those women who have jobs, 

they often must contend with sexual 

harassment in the workplace. It is this 

destitution and discrimination that make 

women especially vulnerable to traffickers’ 

false promises of good jobs abroad. In addition 

to addressing economic issues, NGOs call for 

programs to keep children, particularly girls, in 

elementary and secondary school as well as 

curricula which includes information about the 

dangers of trafficking. Some non-profit 

organizations claim that use of local drama 

clubs, student organizations, and church 

groups are not only cost effective but also a 

meaningful way to communicate with young 

people.

Additionally, NGOs say public awareness 

campaigns must involve the use of the media, 

particularly television, radio, newspapers, and 

magazines. In the survey mentioned above, 

television was clearly ranked first as the best 

way to reach at-risk young women and their 

families. Of those respondents who had heard 

of trafficking, 7 out of 10 people had learned 

about trafficking from TV. When asked about 

computer access, only 15 percent of the 

vulnerable 10 to 19-year-old population said 

they owned computers; however, 93 percent 

expressed a strong desire to use e-mail and 

the Internet.132 While the insights learned from 

129 Miller, Ali and Stewart, Alison, International Human 

Rights Law Group, Report from the Roundtable on the 

Meaning of Trafficking in Persons: A Human Rights 

Perspective, Women’s Rights Law Reporter, Rutger’s Law 

School, Fall/Winter 1998.

130 Puchkov, Yuri, Dr., “Report June 29, 1999 MiraMed 

Institute Anti-Trafficking Chatroom,” MiraMed, June 29, 

1999.

131 USAID Office of Women in Development, Gender 

Matters Quarterly, “Women as Chattel: The Emerging 

Global Market in Trafficking, February 1999.
44

this survey in the Newly Independent States 

are very helpful, public awareness programs in 

other parts of the world must be culturally 

sensitive and focus on the most effective 

communication channels for that region. For 

example, skits and plays about the dangers of 

trafficking may be a better teaching tool in 

parts of Asia or elsewhere.

Thus, prevention of trafficking requires a better 

understanding of the individual source 

countries, traffickers, and their attempts to 

recruit girls from these nations. Additional 

information into the legal, economic, social, 

and cultural status of women in the individual 

source countries will also assist in developing 

prevention strategies. Strengthening the 

collection of trafficking data and research will 

be key to raising this level of comprehension. 

Some government experts who have studied 

the trafficking issue would like the Attorney 

General to establish guidelines for collecting 

data from federal, state, and local law 

enforcement agencies on human trafficking, 

particularly women and children, and the 

disposition of victims of these crimes. Data 

collected should be incorporated into existing 

and supplemental Department of Justice 

reports, including reports on criminal civil rights 

violations, organized crime, and exploitation of 

minors. The US is exploring additional ways to 

facilitate data-sharing, as appropriate, with law 

enforcement entities abroad, including 

developing further protocols.

Protection and Assistance for Trafficking 

Victims

There is a need for trafficking victims to receive 

medical, mental health, and legal services. 

Trafficking victims should have access to 

information about their rights and translation 

services. As mentioned earlier, appropriate 

shelters need to be constructed or designated 

for trafficking victims. Another solution is to 

further utilize existing shelters as well as health 

and legal clinics in immigrant communities. 

Such shelters and clinics should be vetted 

beforehand to ensure they are capable of 

meeting the needs of trafficked victims. 

Moreover, staff at these shelters should 

receive specialized training. Government 

grants should also be awarded to those 

shelters and clinics with a proven track record 

of service, to enable them to provide victims 

with housing, medical, psychological, and legal 

services. In the area of legal services, the 

Legal Services Corporation Act might also be 

amended to permit LSC grantees to provide 

trafficking victims with legal services, similar to 

the exception that is made for illegal aliens who 

have subjected to domestic violence.

At present, the Department of Justice’s Office 

for Victims of Crime and the victim-witness 

coordinators from the US Attorney’s offices 

have the primary responsibility for ensuring the 

safety and protection of victims. The Office for 

Victims of Crime, Federal Crime Victims 

Division funds state compensation and state 

victim assistance programs. The Crime 

Victims Fund, established by the Victims Crime 

Act of 1984 and distributed to the states, is 

available to trafficking victims in terms of 

services but not in terms of direct funding. No 

state is permitted to give direct compensation 

to an undocumented worker only services. 133

Some government experts on the issue of 

trafficking would like trafficking victims in the 

US to be eligible for victim’s services, 

compensation, and assistance under the 

Crime Victims Fund. Alternatively, a separate 

account, called the Trafficking Victims 

Protection Fund, might be established to 

provide the shelter and services for the 

trafficking victims. Criminal fines, penalties, 

and forfeited assets from the traffickers, which 

are not dispersed directly by the court to the 

trafficking victims, would go into this account.

132 Puchkov, MiraMed Report, June 29, 1999.

133 Department of Justice, Office for Victims of Crime, 

Federal Crime Victims Division, October 1999.
45

Additionally, some policymakers engaged on 

the issue would like funding from the Violence 

Against Women Act to be available to 

trafficking victims as well as for the operation of 

hotlines, training programs for professionals, 

and preparation of anti-trafficking informational 

materials.134 Currently, funding from the 

Violence Against Women Act is for victims of 

domestic violence, stalking, and sexual 

assault.

Lastly, some NGOs call for better reintegration 

initiatives. In those cases where the trafficking 

victims will be returning home, advocates say 

an NGO representative should meet those 

victims at the border and/or airport. Wellthought out repatriation and reintegration 

programs should be in place to assist the 

trafficking victims make the transition and 

protect them from any retaliation by the 

traffickers.

Prosecution of Traffickers

To facilitate the investigation and prosecution 

of the traffickers, one Department of Justice 

civil attorney suggests that the Attorney 

General create trafficking and exploitation task 

forces in the United States Attorneys offices in 

districts with the highest number of trafficking 

and exploitation incidents.135 This would be 

similar to organized crime and drug task 

forces. This approach differs from the current 

regional worker exploitation task forces, 

because it ensures that each US Attorney’s 

office has permanent staff dedicated to these 

types of cases. These task forces would be 

beneficial, as they would ensure a higher 

profile, adequate staffing, and expertise. 

Currently, the US Attorneys offices appear to 

be understaffed and overburdened, making 

investigations of potential trafficking cases 

difficult. Moreover, at present, many US 

Attorneys do not have a sufficient number of 

victim witness coordinators capable of working 

effectively with the victims. These task forces 

could be staffed by Assistant US Attorneys and 

detailees from DOJ’s Criminal Division and/or 

the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section.

To improve coordination and informationsharing, these task forces should work with 

local law enforcement, including the local 

district attorney and chief of police. This would 

also assist in the proper labeling of cases, 

since many trafficking or exploitation cases are 

frequently labeled as straight alien smuggling 

or prostitution cases. Additional 

recommendations include monthly meetings 

with the US Attorneys, the local police, the 

District Attorney’s Office, INS, and FBI as well 

as tapping into NGO expertise and experience 

with trafficking victims.136

Advocates for trafficking victims also believe 

that federal, state, and local law enforcement, 

including immigration officials, should receive 

specialized training in identifying and 

responding to trafficking victims. This training 

should also include sensitized questions to be 

used in debriefing the victims. In an effort to 

bolster training, INS, with the assistance of the 

Office for Victims of Crime, has put together an 

informational training video to help sensitize 

the INS and border patrol agents to victims 

needs. The Attorney General has said that it is 

absolutely critical to educate state and local 

agencies as they are the “eyes and ears” in 

these regions as well as for local, state, and 

federal law enforcement to work 

collaboratively on this issue.137 Training for 

State Department consular officers and 

diplomatic security agents should also be 

bolstered. Additional instruction should be 

134 Interviews with the President’s Interagency Council on 

Women.

135 Interview with an attorney at the Department of Justice, 

Civil Rights Division, Office of the Special Counsel for 

Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices, March 

1999. 

136 Interview with an attorney at the Department of Justice, 

Civil Rights Division, Office of the Special Counsel for 

Immigration Related Unfair Employment Practices, 

March 1999.

137 Interview with the Attorney General, September 1999.
46

given on identifying the “front companies” used 

by the traffickers and the range of auxiliary 

members involved in the trafficking operations, 

such as the recruiters, transporters, and 

document forgers.

Deterring, disrupting, and prosecuting 

traffickers will also require strengthening the 

laws and penalties against trafficking in women 

and/or drafting new trafficking legislation. 

Prosecutors practicing in this area would like 

involuntary servitude statutes to be modified to 

recognize psychological pressures, not just 

force and threats. Some experts in the 

trafficking field recommend that trafficking in 

women and children should carry sentences of 

15 years or more. Moreover, they suggest that 

the US Sentencing Commission shall further 

review and, if appropriate, amend the 

sentencing guidelines applicable to persons 

convicted of offenses relating to trafficking, 

involuntary servitude, peonage, and slave 

trade offenses. The sentencing guidelines 

should be sufficiently stringent to reflect the 

heinous nature of such offenses. Sentencing 

enhancements should be considered when the 

offenses include a large number of victims, 

involve a pattern of continued and flagrant 

violations, include the use or threatened use of 

a weapon, and result in the death or bodily 

injury of any person. Other possible 

sentencing enhancements could include: 

bribery and graft in connection with trafficking, 

money laundering of profits, organized crime 

involvement, sexual assault, the trafficking of 

underage victims, and the transport of victims 

in an unsafe manner.

Under a new trafficking law and/or enhanced 

penalties, upon conviction for a trafficking 

violation, the convicted person should be 

required to forfeit any property traceable to 

gross profits or other proceeds obtained from 

such offenses or used to promote the 

commission of such transgressions.138 Courts 

should also be directed to order the 

defendants to pay restitution to the victims in 

addition to any other civil or criminal penalties 

authorized by law. The forfeited property could 

be used to pay this restitution. NGOs also call 

for trafficked persons to be able to more easily 

file civil claims and for judgments against their 

traffickers. Judgments in those claims could be 

satisfied from the forfeited assets. Stiffer 

penalties for traffickers may also serve as a 

model for other countries that are crafting their 

anti-trafficking legislation.

Without implementation of these proposals, 

trafficking in women—this modern-day form of 

slavery in the United States—will not only 

continue but also will grow. Given the 

extensive profits of the industry and countless 

targets of opportunity, it is only a matter of time 

until the large organized criminal syndicates 

involved in trafficking overseas become more 

heavily involved in trafficking in the US. Thus, 

improving law enforcement coordination and 

information-sharing as well as strengthening 

the penalties for traffickers will be key to 

prosecuting those who traffic in women. At the 

same time, economic alternatives and 

effective prevention programs, including public 

awareness campaigns in the source countries, 

will arm the women with jobs and information 

making them less vulnerable to the traffickers. 

Lastly, providing shelter and services for 

trafficking victims will not only provide law 

enforcement with invaluable witnesses in their 

criminal cases against the traffickers, but also 

will exemplify the humanitarian ideals of 

respect and dignity for the individual on which 

US law is based.

138 Interviews with the President’s Interagency Council on 

Women.
47

APPENDIX I:

Matrix of Some of the Major 

Trafficking Cases139 in the United 

States Over the Last Eight Years

Case Summaries

In the last three years, the Department of 

Justice has prosecuted numerous “modernday slavery” and trafficking cases. The 

Department’s Involuntary Servitude 

Coordinator alone has prosecuted slavery 

cases involving over 150 victims. These 

trafficking cases involved varying degrees of 

deception, confinement, force, and grievous 

human rights abuses. These cases were not 

specific to one region, having occurred around 

the country. These cases do not offer an 

exhaustive list of prosecutions, as they do not 

list state law enforcement efforts. They do 

provide, however, a glimpse into the civil rights 

violations and US government efforts to 

combat them.

US v. Cadena 1998

Background/Deception: From about February 

1996 to about March 1998, some 25 to 40 

Mexican women and girls, some as young as 

14 years old, were trafficked from the Veracruz 

state in Mexico to Florida and the Carolinas in 

the United States. The victims had been 

promised jobs in waitressing, housekeeping, 

landscaping, childcare and elder care. Upon 

their arrival, the women and girls were told they 

must work as prostitutes in brothels serving 

migrant workers or risk harm to themselves 

and/or their families.

Confinement: Besides enduring threats, 

women who attempted to escape were 

subjugated to beatings. Guards used force to 

keep them in the brothels in order that they pay 

off their smuggling debt that ranged from 

$2,000 to $3,000. One woman was locked in a 

closet for 15 days as punishment for trying to 

escape. Additional human rights abuses 

included: forced prostitution, assault, rape, and 

forced abortions.

Outcome: In March 1998, 16 men were 

indicted in Florida for enslaving the Mexican 

women and girls in brothels. The men were 

charged with importing aliens for immoral 

purposes, transporting women and minors for 

prostitution, involuntary servitude, visa fraud, 

conspiracy, and violation of civil rights. The 

defendants' sentences ranged from 2 1⁄2 to 6 1⁄2 

years, with one ringleader receiving 15 years. 

The judge ordered that the trafficking 

organization pay $1 million dollars in 

restitution. Several of the other key ringleaders 

had previously fled to Mexico. The United 

States is working with the Mexican 

government to secure their capture. The 

victims, who are currently living in Florida at 

either a shelter or on their own, did receive 

some money from the traffickers seized assets 

in the US.

US v. Mishulovich 1999

Background/Deception: From around October 

1996 to August 1997, a Russian-American 

named Alexander Mishulovich was involved in 

large scale visa fraud, recruiting Latvian 

women in Riga to come to Chicago, Illinois to 

dance in bikinis in respectable, sophisticated 

nightclubs. The women were told that they 

would earn significant sums of money—

$60,000 a year—and there would be no nudity. 

Mishulovich instructed the women to falsely 

represent their intentions when presenting 

themselves to the American Embassy. Upon 

arrival however, the women were forced to 

dance topless and nude. He took the women’s 

passports and visas, which he offered to sell 

back to them for up to $60,000. Later on, he 

ultimately sold the passports back to some of 

the women for $4,000 in cash.

Confinement: The women were not permitted 

to return to Latvia without paying off their 

smuggling debt. The women were also locked 

in apartments or hotel rooms, routinely beaten, 

and maltreated to secure their continued 

cooperation. Mishulovich and his coconspirators took through force and threats the 

money the young women earned from 

139 The information on the major trafficking cases listed 

below comes from a variety of sources, most notably from 

the Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal 

Section and INS headquarters. It is not an exhaustive list 

of the trafficking and slavery cases in the United States.
48

dancing. Mishulovich threatened to kill the 

young women and their family members 

through his extensive organized crime 

connections if the women failed to accede to 

his demands.

Outcome: On September 10, 1998 

Mishulovich, another Russian, and two 

Latvians were arrested for a variety of offenses 

including peonage, conspiracy to commit 

offense or fraud, and obstructing law 

enforcement. The arrests also resulted in the 

recovery of 11 weapons, ammunition, 

documents, and photographs identifying 

additional victims. The case is scheduled to go 

to trial this December. Two to three of the 

victims returned home voluntarily while others 

are living in the US on their own while awaiting 

the trial.

US v. Kwon 1998

Background/Deception: From on or about 

June 1995 until on or about January 1998, 

defendants recruited and transported ChineseKorean women from China to the 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands for the purpose of exploiting and 

abusing them for profit. They were promised 

legitimate waitressing jobs but then forced to 

work at a karaoke club and submit to 

customer’s sexual demands. Some of the 

women also complained of physical and 

sexual abuse by their bosses.

Confinement: The women were held at a 

barracks apartment. The defendants took their 

passports, visas, and airline tickets. The 

women were only allowed to leave the 

barracks apartment with permission and an 

escort. The women were threatened with 

violence, including death, if they left or 

attempted to leave without paying their debt.

Outcome: Three defendants were indicted on 

November 1998 for conspiracy against rights, 

involuntary servitude, extortion, transportation 

for illegal sexual activity, and the use of a 

firearm in the commission of a crime of 

violence. They pled guilty to conspiracy to 

violate the 13th Amendment and laws 

governing involuntary servitude, extortion, and 

transportation for illegal sexual purposes. 

Their sentences will likely range from 2 to 8 

years. The victims are currently living on their 

own in apartments in Guam working at jobs the 

Department of Justice helped them acquire.

US v. Milan Lejhanec and Ladislav Ruc 1998

Background/Deception: The defendants 

placed advertisements in a Czech newspaper 

soliciting women to work in legitimate jobs in 

the United States. Upon arrival in the US the 

women found out the legitimate jobs did not 

exist, and they were forced to work in New York 

City strip clubs where customers fondled them 

for a fee.

Confinement: The women’s passports were 

taken and they were not free to leave until they 

had paid off their smuggling debt.

Outcome: Both defendants received 

sentences of approximately five years 

incarceration for trafficking women into the US 

for prostitution or other immoral purposes, with 

two additional defendants being charged with 

witness tampering.

US v. Zheng Qiaochhai, Zheng Qioyu, and 

Lin Xiao 1998

Background/Deception: The defendants 

recruited women in China for jobs as 

waitresses in the Commonwealth of the 

Northern Marianas Islands in the District of 

Guam. Shortly after the women arrived and 

started working in the bar, they were pressed 

into service as prostitutes.

Outcome: The defendants were convicted of 

two counts of conspiracy and transporting 

women in foreign commerce for purposes of 

prostitution by a jury in Saipan.
49

US v. Paoletti 1997

Background/Deception: Since the early 1990s, 

the Paoletti family is believed to have trafficked 

over 1,000 deaf and mute Mexican women and 

men. The Mexicans were brought to the United 

States believing they would have good jobs. 

Once they arrived, they were forced to hawk 

trinkets and beg on subways and buses. They 

had a daily quota, and were beaten or 

mistreated if they did not make their quota.

Confinement: They were held under slave-like 

conditions, and not allowed to return to 

Mexico. The Paolettis held their documents 

under lock and key. Those who tried to leave 

were hunted down and returned to the 

workhouses. They were punished with 

beatings, forced menial labor, and constant 

supervision. In a few instances, stun guns 

were used on the victims as a form of 

punishment.

Outcome: Some 70 deaf Mexicans were found 

during a raid. In New York, a total of 20 persons 

were indicted on charges of: aiding and 

abetting; conspiracy; the bringing in, 

transporting, harboring, and inducement to 

enter of illegal aliens; the interference of 

commerce by threats or violence; and 

involuntary servitude. Eighteen pled guilty to 

their respective indictments. Adriana Lemus, 

the ringleader, received 14 years in prison, 

with the other co-conspirators receiving 1-to-8 

year sentences depending on their 

involvement in the criminal scheme. In 

Charlotte, two defendants in the case pled 

guilty to aiding and abetting; conspiracy; and 

the bringing in, transporting, harboring and 

inducement to enter of illegal aliens. One 

defendant received a prison term of almost 

four years, the other received three years and 

four months. It is estimated that the Paoletti 

family made some $8 million dollars before 

they were arrested, and the judge ordered $1 

million dollars in restitution in October 1998.

US v. Wattanasiri 1995

Background/Deception: In conjunction with 

Thai traffickers, Ludwig Janak, a German 

national who operated a tour guide service in 

Thailand, recruited Thai women to come to the 

United States to work. Several of the women 

were told they would have good jobs working in 

restaurants. Once in the US, Thai traffickers 

and a Korean madam forced the women into 

prostitution.

Confinement: The women were held against 

their will at a brothel house and forced to work 

as prostitutes until their $35,000 smuggling 

debt was paid off. The women were kept in the 

underground brothel by bars on the windows 

and 24-hour surveillance. The defendants 

required that each woman sleep with four to 

five hundred customers to pay off the 

smuggling fee.

Outcome: A total of 18 defendants were 

indicted on charges of kidnapping, alien 

smuggling, extortion, and white slavery. 

Twelve defendants were successfully 

prosecuted; the rest had fled to Thailand. Thus 

far, only two have been extradited from 

Thailand. The defendants were given 

sentences of between four and nine years.

US v. Manasurangkun 1995

Background/Deception: Some 70 to 78 Thai 

laborers, predominantly women from 

impoverished backgrounds with little 

education, were brought to the United States. 

The Thai traffickers promised the women high 

wages, good working hours, and freedom. 

Once they arrived in the United States, they 

were forced to labor in a sweatshop, working 

some 20-hour shifts in a garment factory.

Confinement: These Thai nationals were held 

against their will and systematically abused. 

The laborers were incarcerated in primitive 

conditions in a clandestine garment factory. 
50

High perimeter walls, razor wire, and 

corrugated steel panels were erected to 

conceal the facility. Additionally, around the 

clock sentries were installed to ensure no one 

escaped from the compound. The workers 

were made to pay an indentured servitude 

debt of between $8,000 and $15,000 and 

forced to write fake letters home, praising their 

working conditions.

Outcome: Seven defendants were convicted of 

alien smuggling, involuntary servitude, and 

civil rights violations. They received sentences 

ranging from four to seven years, with one 

defendant receiving seven months. Restitution 

in the amount of $4.5 million was ordered for 

the victims. Two additional defendants remain 

fugitives.

Why Women Are Trafficked to the 

United States*

Prostitution Latin America: (Mexican victims) 

US v. Cadena 1998

Asia: (Chinese-Korean victims) 

US v. Kwon 1998

Asia: (Korean, Mexican, and Thai victims) US v. Kim, Phan, and Ortiz 1998

Asia: (Chinese victims) US v. Zheng 

Qiaochhai, Zheng Qioyu, Lin Xiao 1998

Asia: (Chinese victim) US v. Can 1997

Asia: (Thai victims) 

US v. Wattanasiri 1995

Asia: (Thai, Malaysian, and Singaporean 

victims) Operation Ling 1997

Stripping/

Sexual 

Touching

NIS: (Latvian victims) US v. Mishulovich 

1999

Central Europe: (Czech Republic victims) US v. Lejhanec and Ruc 1998

Sweatshop 

Labor

Asia: (Chinese victims) AFL-CIO, Global 

Exchange, Sweatshop Watch, Union of 

Needletrades Industrial and Textile 

Employees, and Asian Law Caucus. v. 

The Gap, The Associated Merchandising 

Corp., Cutter and Buck, Inc, DaytonHudson Corp., The Dress Barn, The 

Gymboree Corp., J.C. Penney Company, J.Crew Group, Jones Apparel 

Group, Lady Bryant, The Limited, The 

May Department, Nordstrom, Oshkosh 

B’Gosh, Sears Roebuck and Company, 

Tommy Hilfiger, Wal-Mart, Warnaco 

Group, and Does 1-400 1999

Asia: (Thai victims) 

US v. Manasurangkun 1995

Agricultural 

Slave Labor

Latin America: (Mexican victims) 

US v. Cuello 1999 

Latin America: (Mexican and Guatemalan victims) US v. Flores 1997 

Domestic 

Servitude

India: (Indian victim) 

US v. Mahtani 1996

Middle East: (Sri Lankan victim) 

US v. Alzanki 1995

Latin America: (Mexican victim)

US v. Vargas 1991

Other 

Servitude

Latin America: (Mexican victims) 

US v. Lozano 1998

Latin America: (Mexican victims) 

US v. Paoletti 1997

*This is not an exhaustive list of all of the trafficking and slavery

cases, but it does represent some of the more prominent and recent cases, and it exemplifies the various reasons why women are

trafficked to the United States. 
51

Characterization of the Traffickers in the 

United States

In the United States, trafficking in women and 

children is primarily being conducted by 

smaller crime rings and loosely connected 

criminal networks. The nucleus of several of 

these crime rings centers around a family. 

There may be additional overlaps among the 

categories as many crime rings use their 

connections abroad to contract out duties. It is 

this amorphous nature of these rings and 

networks that make combating trafficking in 

women a challenging problem for law 

enforcement.

Small crime ring:

US v. Mishulovich

US v. Ruc

US v. Cadena

Operation Ling

Family crime ring:

US v. Paoletti

US v. Lozano 

US v. Can

US v. Mahtani

US v. Kwon

Loosely connected criminal network:

US v. Wattanasiri

US v. Manasurangkun

Project Orphan

Gangs:

• Hmong case, Fresno-based gang involved in 

internal trafficking in California.

• Flying Dragons, a Chinese street gang that 

has provided protection to brothels where 

trafficking is thought to have occurred. The 

Flying Dragons is considered the 

enforcement sector of the HipsingTriad, a 

Fukienese Triad.

• Black Dragons and Koolboyz, Asian street 

gangs that have provided protection to 

brothels where trafficking is also thought to 

have occurred.

Note: The following Asian criminal 

organizations—the Sun Yee On Triad, 14K 

Triad, Wo Hop To Triad, the United Bamboo 

Gang, and Fuk Ching Gang—are involved in 

alien smuggling to the United States and it is 

likely that their activities include trafficking.

The following major Russian organized crime 

syndicates—the Izmailovskaya, Dagestantsy, 

Kazanskaya, and Solntsenskaya—are 

involved in the prostitution industry throughout 

the United States. Given the way these 

organized crime syndicates operate overseas 

and the brutality of these organizations, it is 

likely that this involvement in the US includes 

trafficking in women through the use of 

deception, threats, and violence.

General Time Span of the Trafficking 

Operations

A review of trafficking and slavery operations, 

involving sweatshop, agricultural, and other 

forms of labor, over the last eight years showed 

that these operations went unnoticed or were 

able to exist longer than sex trafficking 

operations. Labor trafficking operations 

generally lasted from 41⁄2 to 61⁄2 years, whereas 

trafficking operations for prostitution lasted 

from a little over a year to approximately 21⁄2 

years before being discovered. Trafficking 

operations for other forms of the sex industry, 

such as exotic dancing and peep and touch 

shows, were in existence for anywhere from 

ten months to three years. Once uncovered, 

trafficking and slavery cases usually take 

about a year and a half to investigate and 

prosecute, according to the Department of 

Justice’s Involuntary Servitude Coordinator in 

the Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section.
52

• US v. Wattanasiri: January 1994 – March 

1995 (1 year and about 3 months).

• US v. Can: Beginning on or about September 

24, 1994 to about April 19, 1996 (1 year and 

7 months or so).

• US v. Kwon: June 1995 to about January 

1998 (2 years and 7 months).

• US v. Cadena: February 1996 to March 1998 

(2 years and 1 month).

• US v. Mishulovich: October 1996 to about 

August 1997 (10 months).

• US v. Ruc: Mid-1995 to about July 6, 1998 

(About three years).

• US v. Manasurangkun: From about April 

1989 to about August 2, 1995 (6 years and 

4 months).

• CNMI labor suit: 1993 to the present 

(6 years).

• US v. Flores: From the late 1980s to fall 1996 

(over 6 years).

• US v. Mahtani: Early 1995 to February 8, 

1996 (roughly 1 year, 1 month).

• US v. Paoletti: From approximately January 

1993 to about July 1997 (4 years and 

6 months).

• US v. Lozano: From about June 1992 to 

about 1998 (6 years).

Routes to and within the United States:

• US v. Wattanasiri: Bangkok to Bowery area 

of New York City, New York. 

Staging areas: Connecticut, Brooklyn, and 

Chinatown. Women also sent to: San 

Francisco, Dallas, Charlotte, and Kentucky.

• US v. Can: PRC to Mexico to Washington, 

DC to New York to Los Angeles, California.

• US v. Kwon: PRC to Saipan, Commonwealth 

of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).

• US v. Cadena: Veracruz state, Mexico to 

Houston, Texas to Florida. Once in Florida, 

the women and girls were rotated among 

brothels in the following Florida cities: Avon 

Park, Ft. Myers, Ft. Pierce, Haines City, Lake 

Worth, Okeechobee, Ocoee, Orlando, 

Tampa, and Zolfo Springs. They were also 

rotated between Lake City and John’s Island 

in South Carolina.

• US v. Mishulovich: Riga, Latvia to Chicago, 

Illinois. Defendants also tried to recruit 

women in Minsk, Belarus.

• US v. Ruc: Prague, Czech Republic to 

Brooklyn and New York City, New York.

• US v. Manasurangkun: Bangkok, Thailand to 

Los Angeles, California to El Monte, 

California.

• US v. Paoletti: Mexico to California to Los 

Angeles to Queens, New York and Chicago, 

Illinois. The Mexican victims were also 

transported to Boston, Massachusetts, 

Washington, DC, Baltimore, Maryland, Los 

Angeles, California, and Philadelphia, 

Pennsylvania, Sanford, North Carolina.

• US v. Lozano: Mexico to El Paso, Texas and 

elsewhere in the US, including Albuquerque, 

New Mexico. The victims were transported 

among various cities including but not limited 

to Sanford, North Carolina, Los Angeles, 

California, Albuquerque, New Mexico, 

Tucson, Arizona, and Phoenix, Arizona.

• US v. Flores: Chandler Heights, Arizona at 

the US/Mexico border to Clarendon County, 

South Carolina.

• US v. Mahtani: Bombay, India to Florida.

• US v. Alzanki: Kuwait to Quincy, 

Massachusetts.
53

B1/B2 Visa Time Length from Major Source 

Countries for the US140

B1 (Business) B2 (Tourism)

Country: Fee:

Russia: Multiple-entry visa valid for up to 

12 months $150

Multiple-entry visa valid for up to 

36 months $450

Ukraine: One entry valid for up to 6 months $30

Two entries valid for up to 6 months $60

Multiple-entry valid for up to 36 months 

$120

Latvia: Multiple-entry valid for up to 120 months 

no fee

The Czech 

Republic:

Multiple-entry valid for up to 120 months 

no fee

Poland: Multiple-entry valid for up to 120 months 

no fee

Thailand: Multiple-entry valid for up to for 120 

months no fee

The Philippines: Multiple-entry valid for up to 120 months 

no fee

China: Multiple-entry valid for up to 6 months no 

fee

Mexico: Multiple-entry valid for up to 120 months 

no fee

Note: Citizens wishing to travel to the United States from 

any of these countries—including those which say no 

fee—must pay an additional $45. This fee covers the 

costs associated with the machine readable visa equipment. 

140 Information from the Department of State, Bureau of 

Consular Affairs, Visa Office.
Intentionally Left Blank
55

APPENDIX II: 

International Organized Crime and 

its Involvement in Trafficking 

Women and Children Abroad

A review of US embassy, press, and nongovernmental reports show that international 

criminal organizations are much more heavily 

involved in trafficking in women and children 

overseas than they are in the United States. 

The international trafficking trade appears to 

be highly organized, involving sophisticated 

international networks of procurers, document 

forgers and providers, escorts, organizers, 

financiers, corrupt officials, and brothel 

operators. International organized crime has 

capitalized on weak economies, corruption, 

and improved international transportation 

infrastructure to traffic some 700,000 to two 

million women and children globally each year. 

Southeast Asia comprises nearly one-third of 

this global trade. The Newly Independent 

States and Eastern Europe have risen to 

roughly one-fourth of the world’s trade, making 

it one of the faster growing regions in the 

world.141 The number of organized crime 

groups engaged in trafficking is likely to 

continue increasing, given the high profit 

potential and relatively low penalties.

Asian Organized Crime

On April 23 1999, ministers from eighteen 

Asia-Pacific countries issued the Bangkok 

declaration stating that they are gravely 

concerned by the increasing activities of 

transnational organized criminal groups who 

are profiting from trafficking in human beings, 

especially women and children. They also said 

that the participating countries should be 

encouraged to pass legislation to criminalize 

trafficking in human beings, especially women 

and children, in all its forms and purposes, 

including as sources of cheap labor. They 

called for countries to cooperate as necessary 

in the prosecution and penalization of all 

offenders, especially international organized 

criminal groups.142

Regional destination countries, such as 

Australia, have noticed a rise in women 

trafficked to their countries and the 

involvement of organized crime in the industry. 

Australia’s Justice Minister stated last year that 

there had been a noticeable increase in the 

number of Asian women lured to Australia with 

the pretense of legitimate jobs only to find 

themselves working in virtual slavery in legal 

and illegal brothels. International crime 

syndicates, some with links to the drug trade, 

are arranging the women’s movement.143 The 

American consulate in Sydney reports that 

Southeast Asian women are being trafficked to 

Australia by international organized crime 

syndicates, such as the 14K, a Chinese triad. 

There is evidence of organized crime groups 

making multi-million-dollar profits from 

prostitution, much of it untaxed and moved 

offshore.

The Triads

Major Asian organized crime groups are 

involved in trafficking women and children. In 

China, the Sun Yee On, 14 K, Big Circle Boys, 

and Wo On Lok Triads have all repeatedly 

been linked to smuggling illegal immigrants 

and prostitution rackets. The American 

Embassy in London reports that Chinese 

Triads are the primary traffickers of women and 

girls from Southeast Asia, South America, and 

Eastern Europe to Britian. Press reports 

indicate that Chinese Triads have also worked 

with Russian organized crime groups in 

trafficking. Upon arrival, the victims are held 

prisoner until further money is paid or they are 

141 Central Intelligence Agency briefing, Global Trafficking 

in Women and Children: Assessing the Magnitude, 

April 1999.

142 Cable from the American Embassy in Bangkok, 

005518, April 23, 1999.

143 “Australia to Crack Down on Asian Sex Slaves,” 

Agence Fance Presse, April 14, 1998.
56

forced into bonded labor, such as sweatshops 

or prostitution.144 Italian prosecutors maintain 

that Chinese, Albanian, and Nigerian crime 

groups dominate the trafficking and slave trade 

in Italy, with the Chinese largely involved in 

slave labor.145 Thirty-three members of the 

Serpents Head—the Milan cell of the Grand 

Dragon Triad, were sentenced in Italy in 

September 1998 for trafficking.146

Malaysian police and non-governmental 

organizations believe that ethnic Chinese 

criminal syndicates are behind most of the 

trafficking in their country. Trafficked women 

are usually fed into an extensive system of 

Chinese owned lounges, nightclubs, and 

brothels that exist throughout much of Asia.147

Chinese criminal organizations have also been 

involved in abducting and selling women and 

children in China itself. For example, the Song 

clan group in Lixin county in Anhui set up 

special operations in Chengdu under the guise 

of hiring people to go to Shanghai to get 

apparel or go to Anhui to purchase traditional 

Chinese medicines. Lured under false 

pretenses, the young women were then 

kidnapped and delivered to buyers.148

The Yakuza

The American Embassy in Tokyo reports that 

Japanese organized crime or the Yakuza are 

involved in trafficking in women and the adult 

entertainment industry. Local brokers 

approach women in their home country and 

offer well-paying jobs in legitimate professions 

abroad. Once in Japan, they are funneled to 

their actual employers by intermediaries, 

primarily Japanese, who often have purchased 

the rights to these women from the source 

country brokers. The usual pay for these 

women is 2 million yen or approximately 

$14,000 to $15,000 at 1998 exchange rates.

According to a Wellesley College professor 

who is researching trafficking in women and 

traveled to Japan last spring, the Yakuza have 

increasingly become involved in the trafficking 

of persons since the bubble economy burst in 

1992 and they had to look for additional means 

of income. She reports that the Yakuza view 

trafficking in women as a business and protect 

their “investment” by detailing a “bodyguard” to 

monitor the movements of each woman or girl. 

They will post pictures of a woman or girl who 

has escaped, and encourage members or 

affiliates to turn her in if found. This professor 

claims that corruption is a problem as the 

police are often the ones who turn the escapee 

in to the mob. The US Legal Attaché serving in 

Manila reports that those Filipinas who have 

tried to flee in Japan have been killed. Nongovernmental organizations also claim that 

several shelters for escapees had been 

vandalized severely by the Yakuza in the last 

few years. Subsequently, the shelters changed 

locations and now operate under cover.

The Japanese National Police Agency concurs 

that there has been a rise in foreigners forced 

into prostitution in Japan. The women, mostly 

from Asia and Latin America, are commonly 

recruited to be bar hostesses, but on arrival are 

forced into prostitution. They are kept under 

constant surveillance and all earnings are 

turned over to the traffickers.149 Investigations 

by the non-governmental organization Global 

Survival Network, reveal that the Japanese 

Yakuza are involved in the trafficking industry, 

often in cooperation with the Russian mafia. 

The Yakuza not only force Russian women, 

144 Bennetto, Jason, “Triads Target British Sex Trade,” The 

Independent, August 11, 1997, Johnston, Philip, “Triads 

and Mafia Cash in on Illegal Immigrants,” The Daily 

Telegraph, November 27, 1997.

145 Discussions with the US-Italy Bilateral Working Group 

on Trafficking in Women, July 1999.

146 Cable from the American Consulate in Milan 00828. 147 Cable from the American Embassy in Kuala Lumpur 

000950, April 21, 1999.

148 “China: How Criminal Organizations Acquire Illicit 

Wealth,” Daily Report China, August 12, 1997.

149 “Japan Reports Rise in Foreigners Forced Into 

Prostitution,” Agence France Presse, April 6, 1998.
57

who thought they were going to work in Japan 

as hostesses, into prostitution but also traffic 

Thai and Mexican women to Japanese 

brothels. The Thai women are frequently 

bought from Thai traffickers, while the Mexican 

women are duped into thinking they would be 

singers or actresses in Japan. The Yakuza 

have also been known to traffic women from 

the United States to Japan.150

The Yakuza also work with Filipino recruiters to 

traffic Filipina women to Hong Kong and 

Japan, according to the legal attaché in 

Manila. The Yakuza use local illegal recruiters 

to get the women to go to Japan to work as bar 

hostesses, but many are then forced into 

prostitution. Batis, a Manila non-governmental 

organization, agrees that the Yakuza are 

working with local recruiters in Manila. Batis 

reports that a variety of sex establishments are 

owned by the Yakuza in the Philippines and in 

Japan. Women are held in these clubs in 

Japan under the supervision of the Yakuza. A 

recruiter gets paid $6,000 to $10,000 per 

woman he recruits to go to Japan. The club 

then pays the recruiter. Batis claims that the 

recruiter often targets the most vulnerable 

women, who are usually from the typhoon 

areas.

Thai Criminal Networks

Besides the Triads and the Yakuza, Thai 

criminal networks are involved in trafficking in 

women. Law enforcement reports that there 

are at least seven “families” in Bangkok, 

Thailand who recruit, sell, and smuggle Asian 

women throughout the world, including the US, 

to serve as prostitutes. These families secure 

identity/travel documents, arrange travel 

itineraries, and then broker the women to 

agents representing brothels in the US, Japan, 

Canada, and Australia. The agents charge the 

women roughly $40,000 to effect entry into the 

US. Upon entry, the agent is responsible for 

paying a fee to the smuggling organization in 

Thailand. The female’s debt is repaid by her 

engagement in prostitution. Until the payment 

is made, the woman is under the control of the 

agent and is frequently sold, battered, or 

exchanged. The women are smuggled into a 

foreign country utilizing photo-substituted or 

impostor Thai passports. After arrival the 

passports are usually returned to the smuggler 

in Thailand and recycled. The Thai smugglers 

use escorts called “jockeys” to transport the 

females to the US. The jockey is paid $1,000 

per person for the trip. He assists in getting the 

non-English speaking women through the INS 

and Customs inspection process. After 

clearing Customs, the jockey delivers the 

women to the domestic agent who will then 

place her with the brothel.

Russian Organized Crime

Russian organized crime’s traditional 

involvement in prostitution has grown to 

include trafficking. Russian organized crime 

provides “the roof,” or cover for trafficking 

operations, while lower-level Russian criminals 

manage recruitment and logistics. Russian 

criminals often operate behind the facades of 

employment, travel, modeling, and/or 

matchmaking agencies. The Global Survival 

Network concurs that traffickers use 

matchmaking or marriage agency databases 

to identify women looking for a better life 

abroad. Another American non-governmental 

organization, MiraMed, says traffickers in 

Russia have gone so far as to set up “career 

day” booths in institutes and universities, 

promising profitable work abroad. Traffickers 

often provide women with counterfeit travel 

documents or assist them in obtaining genuine 

documents through fraud. Russian organized 

crime groups are reportedly cooperating with 

Albanian, Turkish, former Yugoslavian crime 150 Global Survival Network, “Crime and Servitude: An 

Exposé of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the 

Newly Independent States,” October 1997.
58

groups, Chinese Triads, and the Japanese 

Yakuza to traffic women to Western Europe 

and Japan.151

The International Organization for Migration 

and the Global Survival Network report that 

Russian organized crime groups control 

European prostitution industries, such as 

those in Poland, Germany, and Italy. Bulgarian 

Interior Ministry Chief Secretary Bozhidar 

Popov has also said that Russian criminals are 

trafficking Russian, Ukrainian, Georgian, and 

Chechen women through Bulgaria to Turkey, 

Greece and elsewhere in Western Europe for 

prostitution. One major Russian criminal 

syndicate, the Mogilevich organization, owns 

night clubs in Prague, Riga, and Kiev and has 

engaged in trafficking in women for forced 

prostitution at these clubs.152 The powerful 

Izmailovskaya syndicate is under intense 

investigation by a variety of European law 

enforcement structures for involvement in 

trafficking in women and children as well as 

drug trafficking and counterfeit cigarette 

manufacturing. Lithuanian Member of 

Parliament Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene 

reports that Russian organized crime groups 

are heavily involved in trafficking women for 

the sex industry in Lithuania. In Russia’s Far 

East, Russian criminals reportedly supplied 

Russian women to brothels and clubs in Hong 

Kong and Macao.

Commander Ina Volf of the Israeli national 

police believes that Russian organized crime is 

involved in trafficking from the Newly 

Independent States. 153 A report by Israel’s 

Women’s Network found that Russian 

organized crime controls the sex industry 

throughout Israel. There are roughly nine to 

ten Russian prostitution rings operating in 

Israel. Territory has been divided among the 

crime bosses. It has become a whole industry; 

recruiting the women, bringing them to Israel, 

and distributing them to the various brothels.154

Knesset member Marina Solodkin claims that 

local Israeli mafioso are also involved in the 

trafficking industry.155

Israel’s Women’s Network also reports that a 

protection racket has grown up around the 

trafficking and prostitution business in Israel. 

There is a symbiotic relationship between the 

police and pimps in which pimps may provide 

useful intelligence to police on criminal activity 

in Israel. The police see them as valuable 

sources of information and work to turn the 

pimps into collaborators. Overall, trafficking 

and prostitution is a lucrative business in Israel 

where Soviet-immigrant Israeli bosses make 

anywhere from $1,000 to $4,000 a day off the 

women.

Elsewhere in the Middle East, police and other 

sources in the United Arab Emirates generally 

believe that crime organizations from Russia 

and the Newly Independent States are 

involved in local prostitution involving women 

from their countries, according to the American 

Embassy in Dubai.

Besides Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, 

Russian organized crime is involved in 

trafficking women to Canada, according to the 

American Embassy in Toronto. Russian 

criminals ran a trafficking ring in 1991 in 

Canada involving eleven women from the 

Newly Independent States. The women came 

to work as models but were compelled to 

become strippers. They were forced to turn 

over their return airline tickets, passports, and 

cash for “safekeeping.” Their handlers also 

reportedly kept them confined and forced them 151 Global Survival Network, “Crime and Servitude: An 

Expose of the Traffic in Women for Prostitution from the 

Newly Independent States,” October 1997.

152 University of Pittsburgh, The Matthew B. Ridgway 

Center for International Security Studies, September 

1999.

153 Cable from the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, 008375, 

June 23, 1998.

154 Vandenberg, Martina, Trafficking of Women to Israel 

and Forced Prostitution, A Report by the Israel Women’s 

Network, November 1997.

155 Cable from the American Embassy in Tel Aviv, 008375, 

June 23, 1998.
59

to turn over their earnings. They were made 

them to comply by threats of death and bodily 

harm to their loved ones in the Newly 

Independent States. Russian organized 

criminals have also been involved in extortion 

from women who have tried to come 

forward.156

Ukrainian Criminal Syndicates

Ukrainian organized crime groups are heavily 

involved in trafficking of women, according to 

the American Embassy in Kiev. Organized 

crime syndicates bribe Ukrainian immigration 

officials to look the other way, or in some 

cases, to facilitate the illegal entry or exit of 

undocumented or improperly documented 

women.157 The International Organization for 

Migration reports that the majority of young 

Ukrainian women and girls are first recruited 

for ostensibly legal, mainly unskilled jobs 

before being forced into the sex business. The 

majority of the recruiters, who initiate the first 

contact with the victims, are young males 

between the ages of 20 and 25 years old. The 

recruiters are usually friends or acquaintances, 

or have made considerable efforts to gain their 

trust.158

Ukrainian crime groups reportedly control the 

prostitution markets in Hungary and Austria. A 

Ukrainian mafia boss was arrested in June 

1997 at the Austrian/Italian border at Tarvisio. 

In cooperation with Albanian criminals, he had 

been trafficking dozens of Ukrainian girls to 

Italy and forcing them into prostitution.159 The 

American Embassy in Ankara reports that 

there are allegations that the Ukrainian mafia 

is turning women over to the Turkish mafia for 

$2,000 to $3,000 a woman.

Georgian Crime Groups

The American Embassy in T’bilisi reports that 

Georgian trafficking rings with strong ties to 

Russian organized crime traffic women 

through employment agencies used as fronts. 

Some rings specialize in trafficking women for 

the sex industry while others concentrate on 

labor exploitation. These organized rings traffic 

young women, between the ages of 16 and 30, 

to the United States for prostitution, while older 

women, 45 and above, may be trafficked for 

indentured servitude. The older women are 

aware they will be working as maids and 

nannies but unaware that they will be doing it 

for virtually no remuneration. The traffickers 

often supply the victims with counterfeit 

documents to obtain genuine visas and 

arrange for their travel to the US. Someone 

from the trafficking organization will meet them 

upon arrival at an US airport and confiscate 

their passports, stranding them in the US. 

Next, the women are placed in strip clubs, 

massage parlors, brothels, or households. 

They are expected to repay the traffickers for 

living expenses, transportation costs to the 

US, the costs of obtaining fraudulent 

documents, plus a penalizing interest on their 

debt. These women become in effect 

indentured servants, bound to work for free 

until their debts to the traffickers are repaid. 160

Polish Crime Groups

In addition to being a source country, Poland is 

a transit country for women trafficked from 

other countries, such as Bulgaria, Romania 

and the Newly Independent States. The 

American Embassy in Warsaw reports that 

156 Cable from the American Embassy in Toronto, 001349, 

June 30, 1998.

157 “Sources of Trafficked Women, Country Survey,” Fraud 

Digest, Bureau of Consular Affairs, August 1998.

158 International Organization for Migration, Information 

Campaign Against Trafficking in Women From Ukraine, 

Project Report, 1998.

159 “Ukrainian Mafia Boss Arrested At Austrian Border,” 

Rome Rai Uno Television Network, June 19, 1997.

160 Cable from the American Embassy in T’bilisi, 03462, 

May 29, 1998.
60

Polish criminal networks recruit, transport, and 

deliver women from these countries into the 

hands of organized prostitution rings in 

destination countries. They may sell these 

women for about $30,000 each to Vietnamese, 

Ukrainian, Armenian, and Turkish gangs that 

dominate prostitution markets in Germany and 

other Western European countries. The new 

owners confiscate the women’s travel 

documents and use beatings, gang rapes, and 

drugs to force them into prostitution. The 

women become virtual prisoners in the 

brothels, and are required to serve 10 to 20 

clients a day.161 There is also a growing 

tendency for victims to be drugged and 

kidnapped from public places, such as discos 

or pubs.162 In Spain, Polish and Czech 

organized crime groups operate under the 

guise of travel agencies, according to the 

American Embassy in Madrid. They recruit the 

women and deliver them to their new handlers 

in Spain but are not involved in local 

prostitution. They use the threat of arrest and 

deportation to control the women.

Trafficking is also an efficiently cruel enterprise 

in Poland, which is increasingly becoming a 

destination country. Once the women and girls 

are brought to Poland, traffickers take away 

their passports and force them into prostitution 

to work off their debts and earn back their 

travel documents. Girls who resist are raped, 

beaten, or confined with minimal food and 

water until they comply. In some cases, girls 

have been killed for resisting trafficker’s 

demands. Traffickers sink profits from their 

prostitution rings into illegal narcotics, 

weapons, or stolen cars.163

Many trafficking and prostitution enterprises 

are conducted by small organized rings of five 

to six persons, with criminal contacts. In some 

cases, these small rings are operated on the 

side by bigger trafficking rings. Generally, 

traffickers in both the origin and destination 

country have links to professional criminal 

organizations, which provide protection for the 

trafficker and brothels, and are used to 

intimidate the women. Many of the recruiters, 

who form the first contact with the victims, are 

young males between 20 and 25 years old, 

while the trafficker who runs the operation is 

generally between 20 and 55 years old.164

Albanian Crime Groups

Albanian criminal groups are rapidly 

expanding their organized drug networks to 

include prostitution rings that operate in 

northern Italy. The Executive Director of 

UNICEF, Carol Bellamy, says there is growing 

evidence of trafficking in girls from Albania to 

Italy.165 Criminal clans, often based on family 

ties, target orphans and young girls from large 

families in Albania and lure them abroad with 

promises of marriage and/or jobs as 

waitresses or domestics. The American 

Consulate in Milan reports that a recent 

development is the increase in trafficking of 

minors, primarily Albanians, spawned by the 

hope that young girls are free of AIDs. 

Typically, the criminals smuggle the girls by 

rubber dinghy from Valona in southern Albania 

to Puglia in southern Italy. From there, they 

transport them to northern Italy via taxi, train, 

or semi-trucks.166

Albanian criminals are also taking advantage 

of broken-up families and confusion in the 

refugee camps in neighboring countries to 

target and traffic Kosovo minors for adoption or 

the sex industry.167 Girls have ended up in 

161 “Sources of Trafficked Women: Country Survey,” Fraud 

Digest, Bureau of Consular Affairs, August 1998.

162 Cable from the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, 

002745, March 19, 1999.

163 Cable from the American Embassy in Warsaw, Poland, 

002745, March 19, 1999.

164 Report of the Mission of the Special Rapporteur on 

violence against women and her mission to Poland on the 

issue of trafficking and forced prostitution, June 1997.

165 “UNICEF Sees Prostitution Among Kosovo Albanians,” 

Reuters, May 20, 1999.

166 Cable from American Consulate Milan 000757, 

September 11, 1998.
61

prostitution and child exploitation rings in 

northern Italy, especially Turin and Milan. The 

American Consulate in Milan also reports that 

there is growing evidence of torture and terror 

by the Albanian criminals in order to keep 

these girls in line. Uncooperative girls have 

been killed. Dr. Pier Luigi Vigna, Italy’s 

National Anti-Mafia Prosecutor, concurs about 

the extreme violence of the Albanian crime 

groups, noting a case where Albanian girls 

were tattooed with the crime group’s symbols. 

In other cases, the Albanians have burned 

their victims for punishment.168

General Francesco Saverio Polella, head of 

the National Investigation Division of Italy’s 

Anti-Mafia Directorate, said in July that 

Albanian and Italian crime groups are 

cooperating in transporting drugs and 

trafficking women and girls into Italy. Once in 

Italy, the Albanians are managing the selling of 

the women and girls into prostitution. One 

Albanian women’s organization concluded in a 

study that Albanian gangs sell the girls to 

criminal organizations in Italy and/or Greece 

for $10,000. To facilitate their business and 

these transactions, Mr. Polella also claims that 

the Albanian crime groups have divided up 

specific tasks, such as recruitment, 

transportation, and prostitution, amongst 

themselves in their trafficking operations.

Some experts claim that Albanian criminal 

organizations are also recruiting directly in 

Belgian refugee centers. Albanian criminal 

groups are taking control of prostitution 

networks in Belgium, particularly Antwerp and 

Brussels. These gangs have now established 

territorial control of the streets and districts 

where they are free to develop other criminal 

activities, such as drug trafficking and 

racketeering. Girls brought to Belgium by other 

criminal organizations are being “stolen” from 

them by the Albanians. By some accounts, the 

Albanians are believed to be working as 

subcontractors for the Turkish mafia, whose 

members are increasingly distancing 

themselves from the operational level, for 

heroin trafficking. The traditional 

intermediaries, previously French, Moroccans 

and Turks, have been supplanted by 

Albanians, either from Albania or Kosovo.169

Nigerian Crime Rings

The American Embassy in Lagos reports that 

trafficking in women tends to be more of a 

localized cottage industry than an organized 

racket involving Nigerian criminal 

syndicates.170 Italian prosecutors believe that 

Nigerian rings are trafficking women to and 

within Italy for the sex industry. The American 

Consulate in Milan reports that a Nigerian 

slave trade operates in Genoa, Italy. Nigerian 

women and men have been involved in 

abetting illegal immigration, reducing girls to 

slavery, forcing them into prostitution, and 

exploiting them for profit. Girls from Africa are 

lured to Italy with promises of work as bar girls, 

waitresses, or models. They are then forced 

upon arrival to undress and promenade nude 

before fellow Nigerians who pay $9,000 to 

$30,000 depending on the girls’ age and 

physical attributes. The women and girls are 

kept in submission by threats, voodoo, and 

magic.171 In Naples, Italy’s National Anti-Mafia 

Prosecutor said in July that the Camorra, an 

Italian organized crime group, rent streets to 

Nigerians whom have trafficked Nigerian 

women to Italy for prostitution. In Spain, the 

American Embassy in Madrid reports that the 

African trafficking rings are the least organized 

and sophisticated of the trafficking 

organizations operating there. They rely on 

force to maintain discipline.

167 “UNHCR Chief Says Refugees Forced Into 

Prostitution,” Reuters, May 5, 1999 and cable from the 

American Embassy in Rome 02493, April 19, 1999.

168 Discussions with the US-Italy Bilateral Working Group 

on Trafficking in Women, July 1999.

169 FBIS, April 15, 1998. 170 Cable from the American Embassy in Lagos, 007146, 

July 16, 1999.

171 Cable from the American Consulate in Milan, 000942, 

November 10, 1998.
62

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65

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66

• Visayan Foundation, Manila, Philippines, 

February 1999.

• Women, Law, and Development, December 

1998.

Academia

• Dr. Louise Shelley, American University, 

Director, Transnational Crime and Corruption 

Center, and Dr. Sally Stoecker, Human 

Trafficking Director and Research Professor, 

American University, Transnational Crime 

and Corruption Center, May 1999.

• Dr. Laura Lederer, Harvard University, The 

Protection Project, November 1998, July 

1999.

• Dr. Kathryn McMahon, California State 

University, Associate Director Southeast 

Asian Studies Center, Professor 

International Studies and Women’s Studies, 

February 1999 (T).

• Dr. Katharine Moon, Professor, Department 

of Political Science, Wellesley College, 

March 1999.

Foreign Government Officials

• Vilija Aleknaite-Abramikiene, Lithuanian 

Member of Parliament, October 9, 1999.

• Roundtable discussion in Vancouver, 

Canada on trafficking in women and children 

with representatives from the RCMP Criminal 

Investigations Unit, RCMP Immigration and 

Passport Section, RCMP General 

Investigation Section, British Columbia 

Ministry of the Attorney General, Canadian 

Citizenship and Immigration agency, 

August 1998.

• Met with South Asian (Bangladesh, India, 

Nepal, and Pakistan) trafficking experts, 

Washington, DC, September 1998.

• Roundtable discussion with trafficking in 

women experts from Russia, March 1999.

• Roundtable discussion with the Philippines 

Overseas Employment Administration, 

Filipino National Police Criminal 

Investigation Group, Philippine 

Anti-Organized Crime Task Force, Philippine 

Task Force on Illegal Recruitment, Manila, 

Philippines, February 1999.

• Philippines Department of Foreign Affairs, 

Office of European Affairs, and ASEAN 

office, Manila, Philippines, February 1999.

• Philippines Department of Justice, Bureau of 

Immigration, and Intelligence Division, 

Manila, Philippines, February 1999.

• Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Manila, 

Philippines, February 1999.

• The Netherlands, National Criminal 

Intelligence Division, Alien Smuggling Unit, 

Washington, DC, April 1999.

• Roundtable discussion, US/Italian Bilateral 

Working Group on Trafficking in Women, July 

14-16, 1999.

Press

• Agence France Presse, “Japan Reports Rise 

in Foreigners Forced Into Prostitution,” 

April 6, 1998.

• Agence France Presse, “Australia to Crack 

Down on Asian Sex Slaves,” April 14, 1998.

• Associated Press, “Indictment Charges 23 

Hmongs with Series of Rapes,” October 20, 

1999.

• Associated Press, “Police Bust California 

Sex-Slave Ring,” November 19, 1998.
67

• Associated Press, “Police Break Up SexSlave Ring That Preyed On Immigrant Girls,” 

November 13, 1998.

• Associated Press, “Two Plead Guilty in 

Mexican Baby Smuggling Case,” July 15, 

1999.

• Associated Press, “Adoptions of Smuggled 

Mexican Babies,” July 25, 1999.

• Associated Press, “Prostitution Lord Admits 

Smuggling Mexican Women in the US as 

Sex Slaves,” January 19, 1999.

• Associated Press, “Sisters Sentenced to 

Eight Years in Prison in Slave Labor Case,” 

January 16, 1999.

• Barry, John, Miami Herald, “Tortured Au Pair 

Finds A New Life,” July 31, 1998.

• Bennetto, Jason, “Triads Target British Sex 

Trade,” The Independent, August 11, 1997.

• Booth, William, The Washington Post, “13 

Charged in Gang Importing Prostitutes,” 

August 21, 1999.

• Branigin, William, The Washington Post, 

“Modern-Day Slavery? Imported Servants 

Allege Abuse By Foreign Host Families in 

US,” January 5, 1999.

• Branigin, William, The Washington Post, “A 

Life of Exhaustion, Beatings and Isolation,” 

January 1999.

• Branigin, William, The Washington Post, 

“Human Rights Group Urges Action on 

Saipan,” May 4, 1999.

• Daily Report China, “China: How Criminal 

Organizations Acquire Illicit Wealth,” August 

12, 1997.

• Johnston, Philip, “Triads and Mafia Cash In 

On Illegal Immigrants,” The Daily Telegraph, 

November 27, 1997.

• Kleinfield, N.R., The New York Times, “Five 

Charged With Holding Thai Women Captive 

for Prostitution,” December 20, 1995

• Korecki, Natasha, Chicago Daily Herald, “FBI 

Breaks Crime Rink Linked to Russian Mafia,” 

September 19, 1998.

• Lardner, George, The Washington Post, “16 

Charged With Forcing Mexicans Into 

Prostitution,” April 24, 1998.

• Mercyhurst, “UN Representative to Travel to 

Guatemala to Assess Sale of Children,” 

July 13, 1999.

• Miami Herald, “Haitian Girl Illegally Residing 

in the US, Sexually Abused and Forced to be 

a Maid,” September 30, 1999.

• Navarro, Mireya, The New York Times, 

“Case of Florida Au Pair Reflects Wider 

Problem,” December 12, 1998.

• Nicholson, Kieran and Wheeler, Sheba, 

Denver Post, “Three Held in Alleged Sex 

Slave Ring,” November 13, 1998.

• Reuters, “Illegal Alien Heads Miami Forced 

Prostitution Ring,” January 15, 1999.

• Reuters, “UNHCR Chief Says Refugees 

Forced Into Prostitution,” May 5, 1999.

• Reuters, “UNICEF Sees Prostitution Among 

Kosovo Albanians,” May 20, 1999.

• Shroder, Lisa, Sun-Sentinel, “The Servant’s 

Tale,” November 12, 1998.
68

• Smith, Stephanie, Palm Beach Daily, 

“Women Smuggled into US, Forced into 

Prostitution Try to Recoup $1 Million,” 

April 8, 1999.

• “Not in This Country, They Can’t,” Editorial, 

The Washington Post, January, 7, 1999.

Reports and Papers

• Ad Hoc Committee on the Elaboration of a 

Convention against Transnational Organized 

Crime, revised draft Protocol to Prevent, 

Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, 

especially Women and Children, 

Supplementing the United Nations 

Convention against Transnational Organized 

Crime, Fourth Session, Vienna, June 28 – 

July 9, 1999.

• Coalition Against Trafficking in Women, 

Trafficking in Women and Prostitution in the 

Asia Pacific, 1996.

• Congressman George Miller and the 

Democratic Staff of the House Committee on 

Resources, “Beneath the American Flag: 

Labor and Human Rights Abuses in CNMI,” 

March 26, 1998.

• Foundation Against Trafficking in Women, 

International Human Rights Law Group, 

Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, 

“Human Rights Standards for the Treatment 

of Trafficked Persons,” 1999.

• Federal Bureau of Investigation, Asian 

Criminal Enterprise Unit, Trafficking of Asian 

Aliens, July 1998

• Global Survival Network, “Trapped: Human 

Trafficking for Forced Labor in The 

Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 

Islands, a US Territory,” 1999.

• Global Survival Network, “Crime and 

Servitude: An Exposé of the Traffic in 

Women for Prostitution from the Newly 

Independent States,” October 1997.

• Hughes, Donna, and Roche, Claire, Making 

the Harm Visible, Global Sexual Exploitation 

of Women and Girls, Coalition Against 

Trafficking in Women, Kingston, Rhode 

Island, February 1999.

• Hughes, Donna, The Coalition Against 

Trafficking in Women, “Pimps and Predators 

on the Internet, Globalizing the Sexual 

Exploitation of Women and Children,” Rhode 

Island, March 1999.

• Human Rights Watch, United States, 

“Locked Away: Immigration Detainees in 

Jails in the United States,” Vol. 10, No. 1, 

September 1998.

• Immigration and Naturalization Service, 

Backgrounder on Trafficking Enforcement 

Case Summaries, October 23, 1998.

• Immigration and Naturalization Service, 

Operation Lost Thai Special Report, 

September 28, 1999.

• International Criminal Police Organization, 

(Interpol), Bird, Yoshi, “The Challenges 

Posed by Insufficient Collaboration and 

Communication in the Pro-Active Fight 

against Trafficking in Women, A VictimCentered Approach to Anti-Trafficking Work,” 

Lyon, France, September 1999.

• Interpol, Bird, Yoshi, Draft copy, “The 

Trafficking of Children for Sexual Exploitation 

and Foreign Adoption: Background and 

Current Measures,” Lyon, France, 

September 1999.

• Interpol, International Conference on 

Trafficking in Women, Vienna, Austria 20 – 

October 21, 1998.
69

• International Center for Migration Policy 

Development, “Draft Study on the 

Relationship Between Organised Crime and 

Trafficking in Aliens,” Prepared by the 

Secretariat of the Budapest Group, Vienna, 

Austria, January 1999.

• International Organization for Migration, 

“Feasibility Study on Rapid Information 

Transfer Aiming at Preventing and 

Combating Trafficking in Human Beings, in 

Particular Women and Children, for Sexual 

Exploitation in the European Union,” 

European Commission, Task Force Justice 

and Home Affairs, STOP-Programme 

1998/99.

• International Organization for Migration, 

“Information Campaign Against Trafficking in 

Women From Ukraine,” Project Report, 

July 1998.

• International Organization for Migration, 

Subregional Office for East Asia and 

Oceania, Support to Trafficked and Other 

Vulnerable Women Migrant Workers in the 

Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands.

• Israel Women’s Network, Trafficking of 

Women to Israel and Forced Prostitution, 

November 1997.

• Lederer, Laura, Dr., The Protection Project, 

“The Sex Trade: Trafficking of Women and 

Children in Europe and the United States, 

report for the Commission on Security and 

Cooperation in Europe,” June 1999.

• Lederer, Laura, Dr., The Protection Project—

Creating an International Framework for 

Legislation to Protect Women and Children 

from Commercial Sexual Exploitation.

• Information on the legislation, information on 

national and international legislation 

protecting women and children from 

commercial sexual exploitation.

• Miller, Ali and Stewart, Alison, International 

Human Rights Law Group, “Report from the 

Roundtable on The Meaning of Trafficking in 

Persons: A Human Rights Perspective,” 

Women’s Rights Law Reporter, Rutgers Law 

School, Fall/Winter 1998, Volume 20, 

Number 1.

• Pilkerton, Chris, “Traffic Jam: 

Recommendations for Civil and Criminal 

Penalties to Curb the Recent Trafficking of 

Women from Post-Cold War Russia,” 

Michigan Journal of Gender and Law, 1999.

• Report of the Mission of the Special 

Rapporteur on Violence Against Women and 

Her Mission to Poland on the Issue of 

Trafficking and Forced Prostitution, May 24 – 

June 1997.

• Skrobanek, Siriporn, Boonpakdi, Nattaya, 

Janthakeero, Chutima, The Traffic in 

Women, Human Realities of the International 

Sex Trade, Zed Book Ltd., London and New 

York, 1997.

• The Hague, Ministerial Declaration on 

European Guidelines for Effective Measures 

to Prevent and Combat Trafficking in Women 

for the Purpose of Sexual Exploitation, 

Ministerial Conference, The Hague, April 24-

26, 1997.

• Trends in Organized Crime, Special Focus: 

Modern Slavery: Trafficking in Women and 

Children, Transnational Periodicals 

Consortium with the National Strategy 

Information Center, Summer 1998, 

Volume 3, Number 4.

• UNIFEM, Trade in Human Misery, Trafficking 

in Women and Children, Asia Region, 

November 1998

• United Nations, Report of the Secretary 

General, “Traffic in Women and Girls,” 

September 1997.
70

• UN Crime Commission: Report on the 6th 

Session of the UN Commission on Crime 

Prevention and Criminal Justice, April 1997.

State Department Cables

US embassies around the world have reported 

on trafficking in women and children. 

Trafficking reports have been sent in from 

embassies in the following countries:

• Austria, Australia, Bangladesh, Belarus, 

Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burma, Canada, 

Czech Republic, Dominican Republic, 

Georgia, Greece, India, Indonesia, Ireland, 

Israel, Italy, Japan, Laos, Lithuania, 

Luxembourg, Malaysia, Moldova, Nepal, 

Nigeria, Pakistan, the Philippines, Poland, 

Romania, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South 

Korea, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, The 

Netherlands, The Vatican, Turkey, 

Turkmenistan, UAE, Ukraine, United 

Kingdom, and Vietnam.

Videos, Films, and Documentaries

• Bruno, Ellen, “Sacrifice,” (Trafficking in 

Women and Girls in Southeast Asia), 1998.

• Department of Justice, Office for Victims of 

Crime, “A Balance to Maintain,” INS 

Informational Training Video.

• Global Survival Network, “Bought and Sold,” 

(An Exposé of the Traffic in Women for 

Prostitution from the Newly Independent 

States), 1998.

• Gupta, Ruchira, “The Selling of Innocents,” 

(Trafficking in Women and Girls in South 

Asia), December 1996.

• Soki Paulin Ballesteros, International 

Organization for Migration, “Sex Trafficking: 

We’re So Syndicated, Ma’am,” public 

education video in the Philippines.

• Transnational Seminar on Trafficking in 

Women, Budapest, June 1998.

Others

• Attended the Global Conference on 

Trafficking and Sexual Exploitation, January 

26-29, 1999, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

• Debrief of a trafficking victim from the Czech 

Republic, New York, December 1998.

• Debrief of a trafficker, West Palm Beach, 

Florida, April 1999.