Juveniles accounted for 428 of the overall 744 confirmed victims of human trafficking reported in Louisiana in 2018. Forty-two of those victims were age 12 or younger. Forty-two victims identified in 2018 were age 12 or younger, down from 72 victims reported in 2017. The reported ages for all victims ranged from 5 months to 65 years old.
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The number of reported juvenile trafficking victims rose by 20 percent in 2018, while the number of adult victims decreased by 17 percent, according to data submitted to the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) for its 2019 report on human trafficking.
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“This is here in our state. It is in Louisiana,” said Christy Tate with Department of Children and Family Services. “I think many times people associate trafficking as being somewhere far away, but it’s here. It’s in our backyards.”
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A total of five people were arrested in New Orleans and St. Tammany Parish as a result of an investigation into sex trafficking in which police said girls who were being pimped out were also given tattoos, including a face tattoo for one girl that read “numb,” according to court records.
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“We have to do everything we can to prevent and end the heinous crime of human trafficking,” said Gov. John Bel Edwards. “It’s the fastest growing and second largest criminal industry in the United States, with thousands of victims identified in Louisiana alone in recent years.
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Louisiana State Police Troopers have rescued a 16-year-old girl who had been held against her will for several weeks and raped repeatedly by New Orleans, LA. 42-year-old Melvin Davis. Davis is charged with Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes, Third Degree Rape, Felony Carnal Knowledge of a Juvenile and more.
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53-year-old James E. Johnson Jr. was arrested Friday morning in Covington, LA. for two counts of human trafficking, two counts of first-degree rape, and one count of sexual battery. Detectives received information Johnson had solicited sexual favors from multiple victims in exchange for bond debt relief and evidence of pornography involving juveniles.
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Louisiana State Police arrested three alleged sex traffickers in New Orleans LA. after being called and finding a 16 yr. old girl that had been beaten, drugged, raped and “pimped out” by several different men in the past several days.
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Louisiana State Police say they’ve arrested a fourth person in the abuse case of a 16-year-old girl who was allegedly raped, drugged and beaten. On Monday, police arrested 33-year-old David Perry and charged him with second-degree rape, trafficking a juvenile for sexual purposes and felony carnal knowledge of a juvenile.
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Each year, thousands of people fall victim to human trafficking in the United States. That’s not including the thousands more that go unreported. Human trafficking, also known as modern day slavery, happens everywhere… Even in Acadiana. That’s why the St Landry-Evangeline Anti-Human Trafficking Task Force is raising awareness.
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Responding to community outrage in New Orleans, LA. over what critics slammed as low bail amounts set for two sex-trafficking suspects, a judge Thursday dramatically increased the bail amounts after hearing graphic testimony from a State Police investigator. Magistrate Judge Harry Cantrell raised the bail for Jovan Martin from $20,000 to $350,000, and for Elbert Riascos from $90,000 to $900,000, declaring the suspects a “danger to the community.”
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In Baton Rouge, La. three Louisiana men have been arrested. Brian E. Thomas, 34, of Lake Arthur, and Quentin D. Coley, 57, of Greensburg, separately traveled to a hotel after they agreed to pay money to facilitate sex acts with an adult woman and a 13-year-old. While James Hankins, 55, of Sulphur also traveled to a hotel after he agreed to pay to have sex with an adult woman, a 13-year-old, and two 7-year-old children.
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New Orleans City, LA. Council members and human trafficking victim advocates are expressing outrage over what they consider low bonds set for two men accused of holding a 16-year-old girl against her will, beating, drugging and raping her. “Trafficking of minors? You just don’t see that sort of bond that low,” Williams said.
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Louisiana State Police arrested Elbert Riascos, left, and Jovan Martin both faces charges of trafficking of a child for sex purposes. The investigation started with a tip from the National Human Trafficking Hotline. A press release from the agency states the hotline caller said the teen “was being held against her will, repeatedly raped, drugged and beaten.”
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Louisiana State Troopers rescued a 16-year-old girl who was the victim of sex trafficking and was being beaten, drugged, and repeatedly raped in a Canal Street hotel room.
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“It was a really dear friend to me who was in debt to, a drug dealer, and he left me there,” our victim said. “I was 17 and because I was really naive and innocent, I started doing drugs to cope with it. I tried to commit suicide.”
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A New Orleans man is accused of beating, raping and trying to traffic a 17-year-old girl after the teen, who had run away from a volatile foster-home environment, sought the man’s help in finding a place to stay, according to arrest documents.
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Louisiana State Police Detectives assigned to the Special Victims Unit arrested Nicolas Asig, age 31, of Farmerville on Friday.
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Sex trafficking is a disturbing crime that reaches across the world. It hit home when a 16-year old boy from University City, Missouri was found a Duson motel with a 27-year-old man.
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Two Shreveport, Louisiana, men who operated a prostitution enterprise in a Tyler hotel have been sentenced to federal prison.
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A Denham Springs couple has been arrested after Troopers discovered 25 undocumented immigrants in vehicles the couple was driving in Calcasieu Parish.
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