Human Trafficking in New York: 69 Peruvian immigrants were smuggling and enslaving.
Human Trafficking in New York
Under U.S. Federal human trafficking laws, trafficking victims are treated as refugees, rather than illegal immigrants to be deported. Because federal officials cannot police the enormous immigration and trafficking issues alone, they have urged the individual states to participate as well. Nine States have passed anti-trafficking laws. In 2004, the U.S. Department of Justice awarded $13.1 million to U.S. municipalities to fight trafficking, as well as provide food, clothing, and shelter to win slave victims' trust and cooperation in prosecuting organized crime leaders. It is not surprising that U.S. trafficking victims were found in the States of Texas, Arizona, California, Illinois, New York and Long Island, New York.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has launched the "Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking" campaign to help identify and assist victims of human trafficking in the United States. HHS has focused on the help of faith-based organizations, health care providers, social service organizations, law enforcement agencies, and the citizens of the United States.
Human Trafficking
69 Peruvian immigrants including 13 children were lured by Peruvian compatriots.
by: Jorge Yeshayahu Gonzales-Lara
The second largest trafficking and slavery ring ever prosecuted in America was busted on posh Long Island, NY. Sixty-nine Peruvian men, women, and children were lured by three Peruvian compatriots (husband, wife, and daughter crime ring) with promises of America's riches. They were trafficked to Long Island, a major immigrant gateway, to work 16 hours a day in a factory.
A typical case of forced labor, the Peruvians were told they each owed traffickers $12,500 in smuggling fees. Unable to pay down their debt while earning little or no money, they existed for four years in subhuman conditions inside three small houses with no outside contact allowed. While the victims have been rescued and are free, they remain terrifies of their traffickers’ retaliation.
Between June 1, 1999 and June 21, 2004, Zavala and Ibanez assisted the victims in fraudulently obtaining tourist visas by providing them with false documents and coaching the victims on how to lie to U.S. Embassy officials. They charged the victims smuggling fees ranging from $6,000 to $13,000 per person.
Zavala and Ibanez forfeited a residence located at 3524 Great Neck Road, Amityville, New York, valued at $220,000, and approximately $30,000 in currency from operating accounts into which they deposited their victims' paychecks and from which they made monthly mortgage payments on the houses the defendants used to harbor their victims.
The federal agents executed search warrants at three Long Island residences owned by the couple, located at 5 Felway Drive in Coram, 4 Fourth Avenue in Brentwood, and 3524 Great Neck Road in Amityville, and rescued 69 Peruvian nationals, including 13 children, who had been living in cramped, squalid conditions. The agents also seized a large quantity of phony identification documents, including social security cards, alien registration cards, and New York State drivers' licenses
The victims said Zavala and her husband held them as virtual slaves. They had to hand over their paychecks in return for meager rations. The victims were forced to turn over their passports and almost all of their earnings to the defendants, who used the money to purchase vehicles and real property on Long Island and in Peru. In addition to the smuggling fees, the victims were required to pay the defendants for over-crowded and unsanitary living space; frequently eight to ten persons per room with only one or two mattresses, and no more than two bathrooms for use by 30 or more individuals
The first of the three traffickers, the wife, was successfully prosecuted, sentenced to 15 years imprisonment for conspiring to obtain forced labor, conspiring to recruit, harbor, transport, and house undocumented workers, engaging in extortionate credit transactions, and transferring false alien registration cards.
Catholic Charities provided the victims with comfortable housing and 25 persons were housed at the local Catholic seminary, medical attention, counseling, and legal status application. The Peruvian victims have been granted 'continued presence' status in the United States, which eventually may enable them to obtain permanent legal status.
