Police: Prostitute accidentally called 911 while offering sex for drugs

Posted: 4:06 p.m. Friday, May 11, 2012

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video 911 Call: Prostitute accidentally calls authorities while with a John

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UNION COUNTY, N.C. —

Two suspected prostitutes and their alleged John are under arrest after one accidentally called 911 while offering sex for drugs.
Officials said the operator who took the call did everything right to help catch the three suspects in the act.
The incident happened early Friday morning, when the two women got into a truck with a man at the intersection of Wolfe and Harrington-Quicke roads in Monroe.
Investigators said Crystal Adams and Damitra Sullivan began bartering with Nico Brown to trade sex for drugs.
One of the women accidentally called 911 on her cell phone, which was in her pocket.
“Where's your emergency?” the 911 operator asked. “Hello ma'am, can you hear me? You've dialed 911.”
 “She'll give you a (expletive) for…” one woman said in the recording.
“She won't do it for free?” a man replied.
“Do you have any buddies that want to freak? I want to get (expletive) naked and (expletive) high,” one woman said.
“And what do I gotta do?” a woman asked.
“I want you to (expletive) my (expletive),” the man said.
“For that?” the woman replied.
“Yeah, I'm not gonna give it for free,” the man said.
The 911 operator was able to triangulate the suspects' location based on the cell phone signal, and deputies responded and arrested all three.
Sullivan and Adams now face solicitation charges, and Brown is charged with possession of marijuana and cocaine.

9 Investigates: Human trafficking happening in Charlotte

Posted: 3:53 p.m. Thursday, May 10, 2012

By Natalie Pasquarella

CHARLOTTE, N.C. —

Human trafficking is happening in Charlotte, and some cases involve children.
Neet Childs said she remembers when her reality was broken. At 16, a 38-year-old man befriended her at her job.
“A person comes to you and tells you that they can come to you and they can provide better for you, they can be your support,” Childs said.
The man gave her rides home and, a year later, she said he offered her money for sex.
“I felt betrayed, you know, I didn't think that that could happen to me,” Childs said.
From there, she said, things got worse, and she was sold for sex.
“Lawyers, doctors, businessmen, police officers -- the people that we trust with our lives,” Childs said.
She said she felt controlled and trapped -- a common thread in human trafficking cases.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office defines human trafficking as a commercial sex act involving a minor, or an adult forced or coerced into sex.
At-risk girls are common victims, as are women brought to the U.S. with a promise of jobs and citizenship.
Right now, there are seven to 10 open human trafficking cases in Charlotte. The office acknowledged cases involving children but wouldn’t elaborate.
In January, Filemon Guzman-Martinez, a Mexican national, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in Charlotte. Court documents said he ran a brothel on Southampton Road.
State Attorney General Roy Cooper wants more public awareness.
“We know that human trafficking is a big business,” he said. “We know that people are making a lot of money.”
Charlotte is a transportation hub with close proximity to major highways. Traffickers can pick up and go with their victims, making it hard to find and prosecute them.
When events like the DNC and other sporting events come to town, attracting thousands of people, there's concern of increased trafficking.
“When there's more money to be made, people are going to take advantage of it, and that's what this is about. This is a $32 billion industry,” said Charity Magnuson, who runs the nonprofit NC Stop.
She said traffickers often drive carfuls of women in for big events.
NC Stop’s goal is to train hotel workers.
“Train them on, what is human trafficking? What does it look like and what do you do as hotel staff,” Magnuson said.
As for Childs, now four years out of the sex trade -- she started a baking business to help others.
“I'm starting a movement to support young women and prevent young women from getting into it,” she said.
She works with nonprofits like NC Stop to bring women to her kitchen and show them that there are other options.
“It's getting the message out about this being an issue amongst young women, and how can we prevent it? How can we stop it?” Childs said.
There will, of course, be a massive security presence in Charlotte during the convention.
In Denver, the site of the last convention, officials said they did not see an increase in trafficking arrests then.
To learn more about Neet Child’s catering business/nonprofit to help trafficking victims, click here.
For more information on NC Stop Human Trafficking, click here.
The nonprofit Compassion To Act is holding an expo on human trafficking on Friday, May 11. Click here for more information.
For more information on human trafficking from the FBI, click here for the website.

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Human trafficking measure qualifies for California ballot

May 10, 2012

A California proposal aimed at curbing sex slavery and other forms of human trafficking has qualified for the November ballot.
The initiative increases penalties for human trafficking violations, upping the maximum sentence to 15 years to life in prison and fines of up to $1.5 million. It would also require that sex offenders, including people convicted of human trafficking crimes, report information about their online accounts, such as email addresses or social media pages.
Validity checks by county election officials showed that proponents submitted enough voter signatures to meet the 504,760 minimum for making it on the ballot, Secretary of State Debra Bowen said today.
The signature-gathering effort was funded with $1.4 million from Chris Kelly, a former Facebook chief privacy officer and 2010 Democratic attorney general candidate who lobbied unsuccessfully for legislation that would have created similar online identity reporting requirements for sex offenders.
The anti human trafficking initiative is the sixth measure to qualify for the November election. Upwards of a dozen measures, including three separate tax proposals, could make ultimately make it on the ballot.

Categories: Election 2012

Posted by Torey Van Oot

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Florida woman named ‘Pocahontas’ faces life in prison for sex-trafficking teens

Florida

Posted on Friday, 05.11.12

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/11/2794392/florida-woman-named-pocahontas.html#storylink=cpy

Prom

BRADENTON -- A Bradenton woman faces life in prison after pleading guilty to using 15- to 17-year-old girls as prostitutes.
Neang Prom, 30, who went by the name Pocahontas, has pleaded guilty to the sex trafficking of minors in Tampa, according to a plea agreement reached Wednesday.
Authorities say Prom recruited four underage girls to work as prostitutes in Tampa and promoted the business by taking sexually explicit photos of the girls and posting them on the Internet, according to a criminal complaint filed by the U.S. attorney's office in Tampa.
Prom, whose sentencing date has not been set, faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.
Prom and her boyfriend, Eric Bell, who went by the name Santana, recruited the girls, who were ages 15 to 17, by offering them a place to live in the 3200 block of North 47th Street in Tampa, the complaint states.
Bell pleaded guilty earlier and will be sentenced June 20.
"Once the minors were living with Prom and Bell, they took sexually explicit photos of the minor victims and placed these photos on the Internet, to solicit clients for prostitution services," according to the U.S. attorney's office.
When a search warrant was executed at the Tampa residence on July 22, 2010, agents from the FBI and other agencies found firearms, ammunition, body armor, digital cameras, cellular telephones, computers, numerous suspected false identifications and numerous Craigslist documents and advertisements.
Agents learned the girls were required to hand over all of the money earned to Prom and Bell, according to prosecutors.
The girls were told to charge $125 to $200 per hour for sex, the complaint states.
In return, the girls got room and board, got their hair and nails done, and were given small amounts of money when they made requests, Prom told authorities after her arrest.
Law enforcement estimates that one of the victims, who was 15, earned $40,000 to $50,000 for Bell during the three-week period she was held, the complaint states.
After she was arrested, Prom told authorities that Bell looked for girls that were "down and out" that he could take advantage of, the plea agreement states.
He preferred younger females because "he knew they were easier to control," according to the plea agreement.
The case was investigated by the Clearwater Area Human Trafficking Task Force, the FBI, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.
The case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to target child sexual exploitation and abuse.

Read more here: http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/11/2794392/florida-woman-named-pocahontas.html#storylink=cpy

Niger worst place to be mother - Save the Children

Africa

8 May 2012 Last updated at 00:11 GMT

 

 

Nearly one third of Niger's children are malnourished and one in seven dies before the age of five

The west African state of Niger is the worst place in the world to be a mother, according to Save the Children.

The charity releases an annual index comparing conditions for mothers in 165 countries around the world.
It considers a number of factors including health, education, economic status and nutrition.
Niger is severely affected by a regional food crisis, and replaces Afghanistan at the bottom of the charity's index.
After two years at the bottom of the list, Afghanistan has moved up one position, and this is credited to greater investment in front line health workers.
This year the situation in Niger reflects the impact of nutrition.
Save the Children says the food crisis developing in the Sahel region is threatening the lives of up to a million youngsters.

The charity describes how chronic malnutrition leads mothers, who themselves have been stunted in childhood, go on to have underweight and vulnerable babies.

It warns that if a mother is "impoverished, overworked, poorly educated and in poor health, she may not be able to feed the baby adequately, with largely irreversible effects".
The director of policy, Brendan Cox, said: "We urgently need global leadership on malnutrition that results in key nutrition projects being rolled out for mothers and babies to ensure health and survival".
Save the Children believes that measures focusing on the first 1,000 days of a child's life, starting from pregnancy, could help to break the vicious cycle.
BBC Africa analyst Martin Plaut says the reports shows that wealth is not the sole criteria for a nation's position in the survey.
He says a poor country like Malawi has done significantly better than might have been expected for one key reason: children are breastfed by their mothers within an hour of their birth and they keep on breastfeeding them for up to two years.
Our correspondent says Nepal, Pakistan and Mali have trained tens of thousands of health visitors to roll out best practice and, as a result, breastfeeding has risen and the number of poorly nourished children has fallen sharply.
Save the Children identifies Norway as the best place to be a mother, while the UK comes 10th.

Index rankings

Worst places

• Niger
• Afghanistan
• Yemen
• Guinea-Bissau
• Mali

Best places

• Norway
• Iceland
• Sweden
• New Zealand
• Denmark

Related Stories

• One in 10 babies born premature
• Niger's complicated hunger crisis
• Niger profile

S Korea 'to target powdered human flesh capsules'

Asia

 

7 May 2012 Last updated at 08:27 GMT

The capsules containing the powdered flesh were found both in luggage and in the post

South Korea says it will increase customs inspections targeting capsules containing powdered human flesh.

The Korea Customs Service said it had found almost 17,500 of the capsules being smuggled into the country from China since August 2011.
The powdered flesh, which officials said came from dead babies and foetuses, is reportedly thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina.
But officials said the capsules were full of bacteria and a health risk.
"It was confirmed those capsules contain materials harmful to the human body, such as super bacteria. We need to take tougher measures to protect public health," a customs official was quoted as saying by the Korea Times.
Inspections are to be stepped up on shipments of drugs arriving from north-east China, Yonhap news agency reported.
The Dong-a Ilbo newspaper said that capsules were being dyed or switched into boxes of other drugs in a bid to disguise them.
Some of the capsules were found in travellers' luggage and some in the post, customs officials said.
Allegations that human flesh capsules were being trafficked from north-east China into South Korea emerged last year in a South Korean television documentary.
At the time China's Health Ministry said it was investigating the claims raised by the programme.
Ministry spokesman Deng Haihua, quoted at the time in China Daily, said China had "strict management of disposal of infant and foetal remains as well as placentas".
"Any practice that handles the remains as medical waste is strictly prohibited," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

More on This Story

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• Korea Times
• Dong-A Ilbo

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Are Koreans smuggling ground-up dead babies from China?

THE WEEK 

World Opinion

South Korea says it has seized thousands of capsules filled with a horrifying powder, calling attention to a gruesome practice that has shocked the world

posted on May 7, 2012, at 3:29 PM

Since last summer, South Korea says it has confiscated 17,500 capsules (not pictured) filled with the powdered flesh of dead babies. Photo: Courtesy Shutterstock

Since August, South Korea has confiscated 17,500 capsules containing the powdered flesh of dead babies, which smugglers had tried to bring into the country from China, officials say. South Korea refuses to elaborate on where the dead babies were procured or who manufactured the capsules, "citing possible diplomatic friction with Beijing," says Hyung Jin Kim for The Associated Press. But the crackdown has turned the world's attention on a heinous practice, and brought to light some of its gruesome details. Here, a guide to the controversy:

Why would anyone want powdered baby flesh?
The capsules are "thought by some to cure disease and boost stamina," says the BBC. However, nothing could be further from the truth. South Korean officials say that the capsules contain "super bacteria" that are harmful to humans, and that the crackdown is necessary to protect the South Korean public from a health hazard.

Where do the capsules come from?
The capsules seized by South Korea "were made in northeastern China from babies whose bodies were chopped into small pieces and dried on stoves before being turned into powder," says Kim. The manufacturers are reportedly ethnic Koreans in northeastern China, near the border with North Korea. It's thought that they obtained the remains from hospitals and abortion clinics, using both dead infants and fetuses. 

Has anyone been prosecuted?
No. The smugglers say they were tricked into believing the capsules were "ordinary" stamina enhancers. They have not been punished because the capsules were meant for personal consumption, not sale, and the amount of contraband was considered too small to press charges. The capsules were reportedly smuggled in luggage or by international mail.

Have similar allegations been made before?
Yes. In 2011, a South Korean television network reported similar claims, saying it had found a hospital that sold baby remains, and had filmed the capsules being produced. The network said DNA tests showed that the material in the capsules was a 99.7 percent match with humans. 

What does China say?
The Chinese government says it is investigating the claims. However, it insists that it strictly oversees the disposal of infant and fetal remains. 

Sources: Associated Press, BBC, China Daily