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In 2018, 127 cases of human trafficking were reported in Pennsylvania, according to the National Human Trafficking Hotline. At the 2019 Rural Human Trafficking Summit hosted by the Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health at Penn State Tuesday, advocates said that to target and stop trafficking, the public needs to first recognize the situation.
In Doylestown, Pennsylvania victims, law enforcers and anti-human trafficking groups describe the uphill battle they face in seeking justice.
Several locations in the Pittsburgh area were raided in an investigation of an alleged human trafficking ring that authorities say was being run through massage parlors in Florida, Pennsylvania and Virginia.
Collins was convicted on four counts of trafficking individuals, three counts of involuntary servitude, one count of rape, one count of aggravated assault, and one count of strangulation. It’s the first-ever conviction involving trafficking of adults in the city.
The arrests were made as part of an undercover sting, the second this year in the Youngstown, PA. area. The investigation was by the Mahoning Valley Human Trafficking Task Force led to the arrests of 16 in all.
A woman arrested in Allentown last week on prostitution charges is also facing accusastions in a three-year-old child abuse case.
Allentown police arrested Lisette M. Mercado at a Super 8 motel last Friday during a prostitution sting. Authorities discovered an arrest warrant issued by the Easton Police Department in March 2016 against the 26-year-old, who was accused of drunkenly punching her 2-year-old daughter in the face.
Eight alleged Reading, Pa. gang members were indicted on federal sex trafficking charges. Authorities said they conspired to recruit, entice, harbor, transport, provide, obtain, and maintain by any means females to engage in commercial sex acts. Some of the victims, they said, were under the age of 18.
Human trafficking is taking the country by storm. In Pennsylvania, law enforcement officials are finding many of the victims are local.
Lawsuits filed Wednesday on behalf of two young women who had been forced into prostitution when they were teenagers say three Philadelphia hotels turned a blind eye to human trafficking and profited from the alleged victims being used as sex slaves.
Investigators say Xu, of Mt. Pleasant, owned four Tokyo massage parlors where the prostitution was happening and Chen, of Monroeville, would pick up young women at a bus stop and take them to the parlors.
Finding new and innovative ways to combat the demand for purchased sex, raise awareness to this nationwide epidemic, and provide safe environments for victims.
