Operation Twisted Traveler

Eric Peeters, 41 & Jack Sporich,75

A Norwalk man and two others landed at Los Angeles International Airport on Monday and walked straight into the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

Erik Peeters, 41, of Norwalk, Ronald Boyajian, 49, of Menlo Park, and Jack Sporich, 75, of Sedona, Ariz., were the first three men charged with sexually exploiting children in Cambodia under a recent federal enforcement initiative called Operation Twisted Traveler.

Although other Californians have been caught and tried for sex crimes in Southeast Asia before, the three are the first snared under the new program.

The three men, who have been previously convicted of sex offenses in the U.S., face up to 30 years per charge if convicted. The trio are charged under the 2003 PROTECT Act, which strengthened laws related to predatory crimes committed by Americans outside of the United States.

The three were arrested by the Cambodian National Police and were detained before being expelled and placed under the supervision of ICE agents.

They are scheduled to appear in federal court today.

While Cambodians arrested for crimes in the United States are subject to prosecution and sentencing here before expulsion, an agreement between Cambodian and U.S. authorities allows the men to be sent to the U.S. for prosecution.

This is important because, according to Jeffrey Blom of the International Justice Mission, a nongovernment organization
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that helps gather evidence against sex criminals in foreign countries, some foreigners convicted of crimes in Cambodia have been able to bribe their way out of prosecution or sentencing.

Peeters is accused of engaging in sex with at least three Cambodian boys, including a 12-year-old, since his arrival there in May 2008.

Boyajian allegedly had sex with a 10-year-old Vietnamese girl in a notorious sex-trafficking area outside of Phnom Penh called Kilo-11. And Sporich is alleged to have sexually abused at least one Cambodian boy.

A joint effort by ICE and the Department of Justice working with Cambodian police and nongovernment organizations in Cambodia, Operation Twisted Traveler seeks to identify and prosecute so-called “sex tourists,” who travel to Cambodia and Southeast Asia to engage in sex with children.

Calling Cambodia “ground zero” for sex tourism, U.S. Attorney Thomas O’Brien said with the help of Cambodian officials the United States was providing a new emphasis in the country.

Virginia Kice, spokeswoman for ICE, said the cooperation with Cambodian police is a new and unprecedented development, and Robert Schoch, special agent in charge for ICE, said the cooperation has allowed the U.S. to take a proactive stance in seeking out sex offenders in Cambodia. He added that the U.S. has been working with local officials on investigation and evidence-gathering techniques that will strengthen cases in U.S. courts.

In Long Beach, the news of the arrests was well-received.

Sara Pol-Lim, executive director of the United Cambodian Community, said many Cambodian immigrant parents in the United States worry for their minor children who had to stay behind for various reasons.

Zeshan Khan, who is part of the Stella Link Children’s Foundation, a nonprofit that works to fight the exploitation of Cambodians for illicit sex, said he hopes events such as Monday’s announcement will help continue to shine light on an ongoing problem in Cambodia.

John Morton, Homeland Security assistant secretary for ICE, issued a warning to would-be sex tourists.

“To those American travelers who abuse other people’s children, no matter where you go, we will follow you to the ends of the earth if need be,” he said. “We will find you, and we will prosecute you.”

source:http://www.presstelegram.com/crime/ci_13242466

When parents learn their missing daughter was a Vegas call girl

Las Vegas call girls are not likely to tell their moms and dads what they do for a living. It would break too many hearts.

Jessie Foster’s parents learned the hard way, from a private eye. He was hired after Jessie disappeared from a North Las Vegas home with all of her belongings.

And now they are numbed by fear that she is in danger, or is dead.

Jessie left her Canadian home nearly a year ago, around the time of her 21st birthday, for what her parents thought would just be a whirlwind tour of the states. She ended up in Las Vegas. With her good looks and casual conversation, she turned eyes and easily made friends here.

In short order she moved in with a fellow named Peter Todd, a 39-year-old Jamaican national who lives in a half-million-dollar tract home in a swank North Las Vegas neighborhood. A neighbor said Peter has driven home some fancy cars – a Jaguar, a Land Rover, a BMW.

Jessie told her parents – Glendene Grant and Dwight Foster, who have been divorced for years – that Peter was a trust-fund baby. He had enough money to take care of her so she wouldn’t have to work, she said.

Jessie used to call her father every week, and her mom even more often. She text-messaged her big sister almost daily.

The last time they saw Jessie was over Christmas, when she went home to visit her dad in Calgary, and her mom in Kamloops. She sounded happy and looked good. They asked her to think twice about returning to Las Vegas, but she wouldn’t be stopped.

In late March, Jessie’s phone calls stopped. Her parents called the fellow she had been living with, Peter. He said he last saw Jessie on April 3. Next thing he knew, he said, she was gone and so was all of her stuff.

She hasn’t used her cell phone or her credit cards since late March. Her bank accounts haven’t been touched.

Jessie’s mom filed a missing persons report with North Las Vegas police on April 9. And for the past two weeks her parents have waited for news, filled with growing dread.

In the absence of any signs of foul play, police don’t spend too much time looking for adults just because they haven’t recently talked to their families. But the cops did talk to Peter Todd.

Peter told an investigator that Jessie was a prostitute, according to the missing persons report. A local private eye, Mike Kirkman, had learned the same information, and told the parents. They were heartsick.

Police talked to Peter again this week.

I called Peter on Thursday. He was coy, and sounded a lot more concerned about his own skin than Jessie’s.

“I have no idea where she is and I told police that,” Peter told me. “She always leaves. Yeah, I’m worried, but now I’m worried more for me. I had an interview with the cops yesterday, as a ‘witness.’ What am I a witness to? I’ve got this investigator calling, making it sound like I had something to do with it, or that I’m going to be in trouble.”

I asked Peter what he knew about Jessie’s lifestyle and how she made money. She couldn’t get a legitimate job, he said, because she doesn’t have a Social Security number.

Peter said that by examining all the action on Jessie’s cell phone, it should be obvious what Jessie did for a living. But he wouldn’t elaborate.

I asked bluntly, was she a prostitute? “If she was, that was her business,” he said. “Her dad asked me that and I told him, man to man, that I don’t know, and that’s not something I’ll discuss with anybody’s parents.”

Could he explain Jessie’s disappearance? No, he said, except that she’s left before. She has other friends. She went to San Francisco once, without warning. He conceded that she would always call him after a few days and that this time, there’s been no contact.

“It’s spooky as hell and it makes me kind of nervous, her not being in contact with anybody,” Peter said. “Either something happened to her, or she has just cut everybody off.”

When asked what he did for a living, Peter did not mention a trust fund. He said he fixes, sells and races junk cars.

I told Peter that I had a photograph of him with Jessie, and would he mind if we published it because it might help trigger someone’s memory. Don’t you dare put my picture in the paper, Peter said.

“I got caught hookin’ up with the wrong chick,” Peter said. “With all the friggin’ women in Las Vegas that I’ve hooked up with, I never ran into no kind of (stuff) like this before.”

In Kamloops, Jessie’s mother, Glendene, spends her days trying to piece together clues: whom Jessie has traveled with, whom she talked about in her phone calls home, whom she didn’t get along with, fights and arguments with other women.

She struggled to reconcile that her daughter was a hooker. “At first, I thought she just had a rich boyfriend. I was sucked right into that story.

“But she wasn’t a streetwalker,” she said. “She was a top-level prostitute. She worked out of an escort service.”

“Maybe she met a customer who did something to her – but wouldn’t her stuff still be at home?” she said. “But if she decided to leave Peter, she’d have called us by now. Something is wrong.”

Dwight Foster seems to be coping less well with his daughter’s disappearance. He works for the province of Alberta as a workplace safety inspector, but he hasn’t been to work this month.

“I feel like someone has reached in and taken my heart and left me a zombie. I’ve got nothing left but anger. I have considered the fact that I’ll never see my girl again.”

Please take a good look at Jessie’s picture. Have you seen her?
http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/commentary/2006/apr/21/566643394.html

WEBPAGES THAT JESSIE IS ON:
Globe & Mail Newspaper: http://www.globeandmail.com

Homepages: http://www.jessiefoster.ca / http://www.FindJessieFoster.com / http://www.FindJessieFosterNewsletter.com

Vancouver Province Newspaper (available on our website): http://jessiefoster.ca/Province%20February%2026%202007.html

CFUN Talk Radio / Nik & Val Show: http://www.cfun.com/nikval.php (there is a link from this site to our Missing Jessie page)
Global TV: http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=0e1d06bb-fb11-475e-9594-75d0e7d0cb40 (this goes to where you can watch the news report from TV on video and to printable version)
Las Vegas City Life: http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/articles/2007/02/01/news/cover/iq_12290009.txt

Geraldo at Large: http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid=5643107135068549039&pr=goog-sl
Project Jason: http://www.projectjason.org/Faces.html

Project Jason: http://voice4themissing.blogspot.com/2006/12/121906-home-for-holidays-jessie-foster.html
Caroline Johnson: http://carolinejohnson.multiply.com/video/item/5 (a woman from Kamloops who made this video for us)
Porchlight USA: http://z13.invisionfree.com/PorchlightUSA/index.php?showtopic=4839%20on%20the%20USA%20board
Porchlight: http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/index.php?showtopic=13923
National Center for Missing Adults: http://www.theyaremissed.org/ncma/gallery/ncmaprofile_all.php?A200705092S
Truckingboards: http://www.truckingboards.com/trucking/upload/missing-adults/667-missing-woman-jessica-foster-nv-3-28-06-a.html
Jessie’s Missing Person Alert!: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=278181280969570811
Las Vegas Sun: http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/lv-other/2006/sep/24/566637933.html
I am Missing: http://www.iammissing.ca/missingusa/jodiefoster.htm (they list her in the index as Jodie Foster, but on the page as Jessie Foster)
Highway of Tears: http://highwayoftears.ca/
Hedley Online: http://www.hedleyonline.com/web/bulletinboard/viewtopic.php?t=2745
James Randi Swift: http://www.randi.org/jr/2006-09/091506remembering.html#i4

Vancouver Province: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=5f52dc35-6653-47be-96b5-024af0d9d012
Catch a Moment Video: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5851376373243199781
Missing Pieces: http://www.missingpieces.info (then click on Archives, then scroll down to episode #22 and you can listen to the interview)
Holly’s Fight for Justice: http://fightforjustice.blogspot.com/2007/02/help-find-jessie-foster-missing-in.html
Angelbound: http://angelboundamw.blog-city.com/jessica_edith_louise_foster__missing_person_since_march_28_2.htm

HOTT on the Trail: http://hot-on-the-trail-at.blog-city.com (mail page)
HOTT on the Trail: http://hot-on-the-trail-at.blog-city.com/jessica_edith_louise_foster_vanished_in_vegas.htm
MySpace (Glendene): http://www.myspace.com/jessiesmomglendene
MySpace (Find Jessie Foster): http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=152079874

MySpace: http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=125633709
Mike on Crime Radio Show: http://mikeoncrime.com/ (we have been on this show 3 times)
Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JessiesMom

Chris�s Crime Forum: http://www.forumspring.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=338&highlight=&sid=19a963abdb3868a99b66d0d8a747d15c&mforum=missing

Chris�s Missing Canadian Children: http://www.freewebs.com/missingcanadians/missing.htm

Crime & Justice: http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=8940

Crime & Justice II: http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=8236

Doe Network: http://www.doenetwork.us/nampn/cases/foster_jessica.html

WI Catholic Musings: http://wicatholicmusings.blogspot.com/2007/01/fwd-about-story-on-global-jessie-foster.html

Hazel8500 � Word Press: http://hazel8500.wordpress.com/2006/11/27/i-have-a-better-photo-of-jessie-foster-more-info/

Vancouver Missing Guest Book: http://www.e-guestbooks.com/cgi-bin/e-guestbooks/guestbook.cgi?action=view&user=Renegade98

Charley Project: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/f/foster_jessica.html

Sex Trade Workers of Canada � Missing People: http://www.sextradeworkersofcanada.com/sex%20trade/Pictures/default.asp?iChannel=3&nChannel=Pictures

The Missing Project (Brandi & Silvia): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gda1f1d31KY

Spiritual Relic: http://www.spiritualrelic.com

Globe & Mail Newspaper: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20070404.BCVEGAS04/TPStory/TPNational/BritishColumbia

Calgary Sun article: http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2007/03/28/3852693-sun.html – TITLED: Woman missing a year

Kamloops This Week article: http://www.kamloopsthisweek.com – TITLED: She vanished a year ago today

Kamloops Daily article: Mom Still Holds Out Hope For Daughter’s Survival

Mike on Crime interviews: http://www.mikeoncrime.com/

Missing and Murdered Women: http://missingwomen.blogspot.com/2007/04/have-you-seen-this-woman.html

Flickr – Jesse Foster – Have you seen this woman? http://www.flickr.com/photos/joshuatree/451759736/

source: http://missingpeople.net/jessie_foster.htm

Missing Jessica Edith Louise Foster

This is an Urgent Appeal for Help. It will only take you a minute of your time.

Visit the following websites for more detailed information about what we know happened to Jessie Foster and to
download Missing Person Posters for distribution in your area. Every single person helping can make a significant
difference. There is a $5,000.00 Reward being offered by the Jessie’s family. You will be able to read all the
Newspaper Stories and watch the Television News Report through the links. There is a link to a feature story done
by Geraldo Rivera. The most recent development is the FBI is determining whether they should be looking into
Jessie Foster’s Disappearance. Visit the websites for ongoing updates on the status of the investigation. Jessie’s
disappearance is considered very suspicious and there is a possibility of foul play. We urgently need the public’s
help. Please circulate this video to everyone you know. Go to http://www.FindJessieFoster.com and the parent’s
information website at http://www.jessiefoster.ca Jessie disappeared on March 28, 2006. Anyone with information
about Jessie Foster or anyone else that she may have associated with that may help us locate Jessie.

please contact: Mother: Glendene Grant Stepfather: Jim Hoflin
City: Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada
Phone: (250) 374-6137

Father: Dwight Foster Stepmother: Tracy Foulds
City: Calgary, Alberta , Canada
Phone: (403) 275-9474
Detective Dave Molnar North Las Vegas Police Department
Phone: (702) 633-1779

National Center For Online Safety
Jason@nationalcenterforonlinesafety.org

Stoppers (for anonymous tips) TOLL FREE: (800) 222-8477

ACORN Pulls Its Colbert Card

After losing HUD money and making more enemies on Capitol Hill, ACORN tried to fight back again Tuesday against hidden camera interviews that may have ruined the organization’s credibility and reputation.

ACORN said a video involving a fake pimp and taken by James O’Keefe at the San Bernardino office was manipulated and that the organizer in the tape was trying to be funny with her responses.

“With their provocative costuming and outlandish scenario, she could not take them seriously,” ACORN said in a statement. “So she met their outrageousness with her own personal style of outrageousness. She matched their false scenario with her own false scenarios.”

The organizer, Tresa Kaelke, said she summoned the spirit of comedian Stephen Colbert to respond to the claims made by the fake pimp and ho.

“I decided to shock them as much as they were shocking me,” Kaelke said in the ACORN statement. “Like Stephan [sic] Colbert does -– saying the most outrageous things with a straight face.”

ACORN said Kaelke told the couple that she had been abused by her former husband, which was true, and that she shot and killed him, which is not true.

ACORN said another part of the exchange was cut out of the edited version of the conversation that was distributed:

When the actors talked about bringing 12-13 year olds in from another country, supposedly because they needed a lot of money fast for a political campaign, Ms. Kaelke said, “You are going to need it for a lawyer!”

Colbert-esque, it was not.

As unfunny as that alleged attempt at Comedy Central was, ACORN must be laughing even less at the reaction to the videotape on Capitol Hill. On Monday the Senate voted 83-7 to strip ACORN of more than $1.6 million in federal housing money. The move came after the U.S. Census Bureau severed ties with ACORN on Friday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that four employees seen in the videos have been fired, so apparently not all ACORN workers are trained to be comedians. Kaelke, however, has not been fired, probably because of the Colbert defense.

ACORN said the videos were a form of entrapment and vow to battle for its reputation in court. One suggestion: don’t bring the funny.

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/politics/ACORN-Pulls-Its-Colbert-Card-59448747.html

Fatal Promises: A Look at Human Trafficking

It is absolutely unacceptable that we have a slave trade in the 21st century. It is beyond belief – Emma Thompson

I saw Fatal Promises on Saturday and I have not stopped thinking about the topic. It’s not because Emma Thompson was there and was so passionate about the issue, it’s because I felt — and still feel — really ignorant on the topic.

To me it’s unfathomable to believe and understand how people can feel that’s it’s ok to sell other people. They sell people and make money at it. All day, every day. This is a huge business. Bigger than arms and drugs, yet we all want to get rid of drugs and keep trying unsuccessfully to deal with the arms topic, but the selling of people — mostly women and girls — just passes us by as we go about our every day lives.

The film tells the story of several people — both men and women — who have escaped from slavery. Yes, they are slaves. It’s not what we think of as slavery, but they are held against their will, lots of time transported to foreign country, lots of time sexually abused, not fed and made to do work that they are not paid for. That’s slavery.

Emma Thompson became moved by the issue because she met a woman, Elena, who worked in a massage parlor on Emma’s street in London. It was a place she and her family passed every day and joked about and behind the glass window was a young woman who was a slave.

Lots of people who are trafficked are women and girls who are forced into sex work. Girls are kidnapped or sold and young women are lured lots of times by other women into situations they can’t escape from. Fundamentally as Emma Thompson said:

I suppose that it has to do with the fact that in the world there is not enough safety for women. Women are not safe in many places and that’s a huge and complex issue but in essence the undervaluing of the female is at the root of all of this.

As an individual, the whole issue seems so overwhelming because there is so much that is unknown. It’s an underground issue that is about power, sex and money. But you can do something. First, think about the people around you. Lots of times people who have been trafficked are hidden in plain sight. If something looks fishy call the cops. Problem is that lots of times the women who have been trafficked are treated like criminals because there are no good laws to deal with persons who are in another country against their will without proper papers.

Another thing to do is to learn about the issue. That’s on my list. If you are in New York, go and see this film. It opens tomorrow at the Cinema Village.

In November, Emma Thompson who is the chair of the Helen Bamber Foundation, an organization that works with survivors of human rights abuses, will bring to NY Journey an installation that,

…[B]rings the reality of the sex trafficking industry to the forefront of social consciousness and empower people to take action. Shackles bind perpetrators to victims, and victims to the punters who exploit them.

Here are some tidbits (courtesy of Charlotte Cooper and her Flip Cam) from Emma and director Kat Rohrer talking about the issue after the screening on Saturday.

You can check out the trailer for the film on the Fatal Promises site

source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/melissa-silverstein/fatal-promises-a-look-at_b_288540.html

This Trafficking Is Nuts

By now the only people who have not heard about the undercover video reports that expose the radical housing and election fraud group ACORN as human trafficking enablers are those who limit their news consumption to the formerly mainstream media. That is few.

The rest know about the damning evidence captured by activists James O’Keefe and Hannah Giles, who (as of this writing) have shared via the new Big Government website (has one ever seen a more splashy debut?) the criminal intentions of ACORN tax and housing specialists in Baltimore, Washington, Brooklyn and San Bernardino, Calif.

There’s plenty to nauseate taxpayers who, according to a Washington Examiner analysis, have seen $53 million in federal funds flow to the organization and its affiliates since 1994. Nudging the ACORN employees into territory with which they seemed all-too-comfortable, James and Hannah requested help obtaining a home for their brothel while seeking advice on how to deceive the government, avoid paying taxes, hide their illegal business, file false documents, violate campaign finance laws, and likely a host of other felonies.

That list is an infuriating peek into where the mind of a publicly funded crook would go. As elicited by the “pimp and the prostitute,” the ACORNers came off as routine, wink-and-a-nod corruption condoners, if not perpetrators.

Then you get to the child sex trafficking. Did James and Hannah know something ahead of time about the depths of these sick minds? Convicted predators are unacceptable even among their fellow prisoners, often getting beat up or killed behind bars. But the ACORN workers acted as if sexual abuse of kids was just another hurdle to overcome for their potential clients.

To refresh, after James and Hannah recorded a stupefying amount of desire to aid and abet, they posited the following at the Baltimore ACORN office:

James: Well here is the problem: Not only does Kenya (Hannah) have her business, do her thing, but she works with girls who are like 14, 15.

Kenya (Hannah): Well there are like 13 girls from El Salvador that I have kind of gotten wind on the street that they are coming and I have let the right people know that I am interested in taking care of them and getting them used to the area and getting them used to society.

Shira (ACORN worker): That you keep to yourself.

Later came more advice to keep the prostitution ring quiet:

Shira: No, no, no, no, you don’t bring that up. [Kenya/Hannah] is purchasing a house. Do not. She is buying a house to live in….

James: We understand.

Kenya: Okay no phones, no El Salvadorian girls…

Shira: No nothing.

James: Well they still exist but you just don’t talk about it….

Shira: That is between you and whatever. What ever you do you do not you do not discuss it…

Similar scenarios played out during the duo’s visits to the other ACORN offices. How does the Obama Administration, the top beneficiary of ACORN’s efforts over the years, feel about this? Here’s what Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in a Washington Post op-ed upon the June release of the State Department’s 2009 Trafficking in Persons report:

To some, human trafficking may seem like a problem limited to other parts of the world. In fact, it occurs in every country, including the United States, and we have a responsibility to fight it just as others do. The destructive effects of trafficking have an impact on all of us. Trafficking weakens legitimate economies, breaks up families, fuels violence, threatens public health and safety, and shreds the social fabric that is necessary for progress. It undermines our long-term efforts to promote peace and prosperity worldwide. And it is an affront to our values and our commitment to human rights.

The Obama administration views the fight against human trafficking, at home and abroad, as an important priority on our foreign policy agenda. The United States funds 140 anti-trafficking programs in nearly 70 countries, as well as 42 domestic task forces that bring state and local authorities together with nongovernmental organizations to combat trafficking.

How ironic: activity condoned by ACORN contracts human rights. Meanwhile, the annual TIP report assesses each nation’s efforts to combat trafficking and assigns grades based on their laws, enforcement, successes and failures. In his introduction to this year’s report, Ambassador Luis CdeBaca wrote:

Sadly, there are thousands who are trapped in various forms of enslavement, here in our country…oftentimes young women who are caught up in prostitution. So, we’ve got to give prosecutors the tools to crack down on these human trafficking networks….It is a debasement of our common humanity, whenever we see something like that taking place.

What does the TIP report say about the country invoked by James and Hannah?

El Salvador is a source, transit, and destination country for women and children trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and forced labor. Most victims are Salvadoran women and girls trafficked within the country from rural to urban areas for commercial sexual exploitation…. Salvadorans have been trafficked to Guatemala, Mexico, Belize, the United States, Spain, and Italy, for commercial sexual exploitation.

The State Department verifies the activity is occurring, and the rotten ACORN enables it. Yesterday House Republican leaders called upon President Obama to halt all funding and break government ties with ACORN. Considering their radical propensity to weaken civil society and undermine national security, that and a cruise ship to Gitmo sound commensurate for their behavior.

source: http://spectator.org/archives/2009/09/16/this-traffic-is-nuts/

2 men plead guilty in teen prostitution ring

BOSTON – Two men pleaded guilty Tuesday to participating in a ring that forced teenage girls to work as prostitutes in a half dozen states , Florida, Massachusetts, Maine, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.

Shaun Leoney, 28, of Boston, and Aaron Brooks, 25, of Quincy, were among six men who were indicted in 2007 for participating in a Boston-based prostitution ring that operated from 2001 to 2005.

Leoney and Brooks originally were charged with conspiracy and transportation for prostitution. Leoney also was charged with sex trafficking of children.

Both men pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of conspiracy. Brooks reached a plea deal with prosecutors, who will recommend a sentence of four years. Leoney faces a maximum of five years in prison.

Sentencing for both men was scheduled for Dec. 15.

As part of their guilty pleas, Leoney and Brooks admitted they drove a teenager to Orlando, Fla., during Memorial Day weekend in 2005 for prostitution activity sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned by two convicted sex traffickers.

Brooks faced a maximum of 15 years if he had gone to trial on the original charges, said his attorney, Raymond O’Hara.

“He just wants to put this behind him,” O’Hara said.

Leoney’s lawyer, James Dilday, said Leoney faced a maximum of 40 years if he had been convicted of the original charges.

“He wants to go back to school when he gets out and try to be a small business owner and turn his life around,” Dilday said.

Three other men are scheduled to go to trial next month. The sixth person charged, Trueheart Peeples, of Portland, Maine, pleaded guilty in June and is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 5.

source: http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/ap/news/state/pennsylvania/20090915_ap_2menpleadguiltyinteenprostitutionring.html

Facts About Child Sex Trafficking

A study done in Thailand found that 60-70% of child prostitutes are HIV POSITIVE.

Every year, approximately one million children are sexually exploited in Asia.

An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked each year for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The trafficking industry generates $9.5 billion of revenue each year.

SEX TRAFFICKING = the recruitment, harboring, transportation, provision, or obtaining of a person for the purpose of a commercial sex act in which a commercial sex act is induced by force, fraud, coercion, or in which the person forced to perform such an act is under the age of 18 years.

Two people arrested in KANSAS CITY for sex trafficking of three young girls, all under the age of 15.

About 700,000 to 4 million women and children in the world are trafficked each year, meaning every thirty seconds another person becomes a victim.

Over the last decade, 750,000 women and children have been trafficked into the United States.

The maximum for trafficking offenses is only ten years imprisonment whereas distributing one kilo of heroin is life imprisonment, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Wasn’t slavery abolished in 1865?

There have been reports of trafficking instances in at least 20 different states, with most cases occurring in New York, California, and Florida.

There is a predicted 27 million slaves world wide, TODAY.

2004: 7000 traffickers prosecuted, 3000 convicted. Justice?

In 1850 slaves cost $40,000 (today’s dollar), today they only cost $30…

Did you know that you can buy a slave for only $30?

In October 2000, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 was enacted. Prior to this legislation, there was no Federal law that protected victims of trafficking or prosecuted their traffickers for their wrongdoings.

Today, 27 million people are enslaved, more than at the height of the transatlantic slave trade.

“The more you learn about how the most innocent and vulnerable among us are savaged by these crimes, the more impossible it becomes to look the other way.” – Colin Powell, Former U.S. Secretary of State

Justice for Children International (JFCI) works toward the abolition of child sex trafficking and exploitation through aftercare, prevention and advocacy. JFCI trains aftercare workers, multiplies safehomes, aids socioeconomic development programs in high-risk communities and provides a voice for these victims of modern-day slavery.

Please help the victims of sex trafficking through JFCI!

source: http://tinyurl.com/pojpxq

Child sex tourism

Child Sex Tourism [CST] entails tourists, mostly men, engaged in sex trafficking by purposely traveling to known sex destinations, seeking anonymity in pornography or prostitution, or engaging in pederasty with young children and homosexuality with young and older adults.

These sexual offenders come from all different cultures and socio-economic levels, many holding positions of government and religious leadership, faithfulness, and trust. The U.S. Department of State reported previous cases of CST involving U.S. citizens that included a pediatrician, a retired Army sergeant, a dentist, and a university professor. Many times, the sex tourists travel with illegal drugs purposely to control the minor’s will or to bait and solicit sex with the minor.

The Vatican has recently warned in a new Document, ‘Pastoral Care For The Liberation of Women of the Street’ [street prostitutes], that men who are clients of prostitution have deep-seated problems as they, too, are enslaved in sex and domination. The document reveals that the largest numbers of men are over 40 years of age, but there are an increasing number of younger men, between 16-24, involved as well. The Vatican reported that 500,000 women from Eastern Europe are enslaved into prostitution on the streets of Western Europe, alone.

Pope Benedict XVI warned the Bishops of Sri Lanka in May 2005: “No effort must be spared to encourage civil authorities and the international community to fight child abuse and assure young people the necessary legal protection.”

Child sex tourism study ‘blames Aussies’

With a middle-class background and an internet connection, the Australian man is keen to explore travel deals advertised across the web.

He is the co-worker, relative and mate who awaits cheap flights to Southeast Asia that the economic downturn has made all the more plentiful.

But he is drawn to such tropical places not for the beaches, cheap drinks and a brief escape from the rat race.

He is the customer in a growing global issue that sees over 1.8 million children as young as eight years old being sold for sex – sometimes up to ten times a day – until they’re considered “worthless” before they reach their 30th birthday.

And new studies reveal this man has more mates than ever who think and act just like him.

Australians make up the largest portion of foreign sex offenders against children in Thailand, according to research at John Hopkins University in Baltimore that studied patterns of arrests and prosecutions between 1995 and 2006.

His money is fuelling a $US31.6 billion ($A36.5 billion) industry in trafficking in what a recent report by a global network of groups against child sex slavery concludes is a “massive human rights violation that is currently going largely unnoticed around the world”.

Bernadette McMenamin, CEO of Child Wise Australia, says child sex trafficking remains a hidden problem that most Australians have become complacent about – even though a main root of the global crime is the Australian offender.

“People tell us, ‘It happens overseas. Isn’t that an issue we talked about years ago?’ But what we’ve found is that … the supply and demand factors fuelling child sex slavery have actually grown,” she told AAP.

“The number of children entering the trade has grown. Efforts to combat this problem have not succeeded despite pouring money into overseas governments.”

A new global campaign called “Stop Sex Trafficking of Children and Young People,” will be launched on Monday to help reverse the trend and bring the issue back into the homes of the average Australian.

Being run across 45 countries, the campaign aims to raise awareness, conduct a survey on people’s attitudes and lobby national governments.

In February, Child Wise will step up the campaign by backing stalled amendments to child sex tourism laws in the federal parliament.

Rather than seeing authorities wait for child sex to occur before acting, the amendments seek out preparatory offences: stopping sex offenders from travelling overseas, buying flights and possessing child pornography.

“We’ve waited long enough,” Ms McMenamin says of the proposed changes. “We’re simply not keeping up with travelling sex offenders.”

Only small changes are required to save Asian girls from being sold into a life of slavery, she says.

The Body Shop has already joined the Child Wise campaign by selling a hand cream that directs profits to Cambodian outreach programs.

Such programs can provide support for girls and keep them in school with books, pens and bicycles.

It may not seem like a lot but the average child sex slave is sold for only a few hundred dollars by a family or boyfriend in poverty desperate for cash, she says.

In Cambodia children are brought in from Vietnam or taken from village to village, then off to Thailand.

All these victims suffer lifelong mental and physical damage. Some contract HIV/AIDS while most find it hard to reintegrate into society after a decade of such slavery.

Ms McMenamin says most Australians view the price of petrol as a greater concern than the welfare of foreign children.

“We have increased awareness and there have been some arrests but overall we’re not putting a dent in the problem,” she says.

“We need people to try and think beyond what’s going on in their lives.”

source: http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-national/child-sex-tourism-study-blames-aussies-20090914-fme1.html