Houston Area Trafficking Ring Busted

by Amanda Kloer · 2009-03-18 07:26:00 UTC
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On Monday, police busted a Houston-area human trafficking ring, which was based in a suburban home.  On the scene, officers arrested 6 individuals and identified 13 people as victims.  As of yesterday, 23 people associated with the trafficking ring had been detained for questioning.  The raid was the result of a tip,

Police received a call around 3:35 p.m. from a man who said his father was kidnapped by three men who were holding him hostage for ransom at a house in the 1400 block of Hillsboro, Harris County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Thomas Gilliland said.

No word yet on what has happened to the victims, but the news peices indicated that the traffickers were Mexican and Salvadoran.  Statistically speaking, this means the victims were likely from the same countries.

The use of suburban homes in trafficking is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon.  More often, they are used as brothels, where victims are housed and exploited in the same building.  This method is convenient for the traffickers, because they don't have to risk moving victims from place to place and attracting unwanted attention.  Plus, suburban rents are cheap and the houses relatively spread out and thus, more anonymous.

However, since this raid was conducted based on a tip about an abducted man, I would be inclined to think this man and others were being held in the house but forced to work elsewhere.  We rarely hear about adult men trafficked into brothels.  In fact, in my six years working in this field I have never heard of that happening. 

The Houston area has a significant trafficking problem, but they also have one of the best-educated and most active human trafficking task forces in the country, and law enforcement officials have handled complex cases in the past with great dexterity.

Image from Panoramio.com

Amanda Kloer is a Change.org Editor and has been a full-time abolitionist in several capacities for seven years. Follow her on Twitter @endhumantraffic
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