Category: Massachusetts

Two charged with human trafficking after Hudson massage parlor bust

Two charged with human trafficking after Hudson massage parlor bust

Oct 6, 2020 | , , , , ,

HUDSON — Police say a downtown massage parlor was a front for a prostitution and human trafficking ring.
Hudson police, in a joint investigation with the FBI’s Boston Division’s Child Exploitation-Human Trafficking Task Force, arrested three people Thursday at the Anjun Spa, 157 Main St., after an investigation, Police Chief Richard DiPersio said.
“Our detectives do a great job of monitoring these type of cases,” he said. “We received several tips from the communities, and we began this investigation several weeks ago.”
The police and FBI task force worked with the state Division of Professional Licensure Investigations to identify businesses that exploit children or traffic in adults for sexual purposes.

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Man Sentenced To More Than 20 Years For Sex Trafficking

Man Sentenced To More Than 20 Years For Sex Trafficking

Mar 5, 2020 | ,

A man from Haiti, used two of his houses from Boston, Massachusetts for sex trafficking and has been sentenced to 21 years and 10 months in prison. This 51-year-old used social media to locate his four victims and he convinced them to live with him. All four of the victims were from Maine, and he picked them all up. He trafficked these women from 2012-2016. He was convicted of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion. He was ordered to pay his victims $728,000 in restitution.

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Ware man sentenced for sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor

Ware man sentenced for sex trafficking and sexual exploitation of a minor

Mar 2, 2020 | , , , ,

BOSTON – 74-year old Walter Brown was sentenced to 15 years on Friday in federal court in Springfield on sex trafficking and sexual exploitation charges.
On Oct 11, 2019, co-defendant Claire Poole was sentenced to 10 and a half years (125 months) in prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and two counts of sex trafficking. Poole moved to the Springfield area in early 2017 and later helped Brown have sex with a teenage girl.

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Human Trafficking Survivor Settles Lawsuit Against Motel Where She Was Held Captive

Human Trafficking Survivor Settles Lawsuit Against Motel Where She Was Held Captive

Feb 20, 2020 | ,

Nine years ago, a woman from Maine went down to Seekonk, Massachusetts to help a man that he knew. Once they checked into a hotel the man turned violent. She was held against her will for days and was sexually assaulted. Once she escaped, she did something that nobody has ever done at the time. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act she sued the hotel for its role in the crime. She said they knew that she was needed help, but they did nothing. She won the lawsuit and now more victims are suing hotels for the same thing.

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Former Worcester DA candidate Blake Rubin, attorney Angela Cavanaugh indicted, accused of witness intimidation with convicted human trafficker Fabian Beltran

Former Worcester DA candidate Blake Rubin, attorney Angela Cavanaugh indicted, accused of witness intimidation with convicted human trafficker Fabian Beltran

Jan 6, 2020 | , ,

Beltran was found guilty by a Worcester, MA. Superior Court jury last year of human trafficking and deriving support from a prostitute. Judge Daniel Wrenn sentenced Beltran to 6 to 8 years on the human trafficking charge and 4 to 5 years for the deriving support from a prostitute charge. The sentences run concurrently.

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Doctor charged with paying 14-year-old boy for sex

Doctor charged with paying 14-year-old boy for sex

Apr 19, 2019 | , ,

An Attleboro, Mass. doctor Sujan Kayastha, 37 was in court Thursday on several charges, including trafficking of a person for sexual servitude, possession of child pornography, and two counts each of electronic enticement of a child for prostitution, paying a minor for sex and disseminating obscene matter to a child. The boy is 14 years old. Kayastha’s bail was set at only $75,000..

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Trafficked in Massachusetts: Exploitation, violence and the struggle to get out

Trafficked in Massachusetts: Exploitation, violence and the struggle to get out

Apr 3, 2019 | ,

“The demand is what drives all of this,” said Nikki Bell, founder and CEO of LIFT Worcester, which works to empower survivors of sexual exploitation in central Massachusetts. “A pimp isn’t going to sell a woman if nobody’s going to buy her, right? You’re not going to stand on a corner if nobody’s going to come to pick you up, right? So, it’s very clear that’s where our efforts should be focused.”
For the women caught up in “the life,” it is a seedy and violent reality that can often be hidden or overlooked by the rest of society.

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‘Bodyworks’ spas face new regulation as Worcester moves against sex trafficking

Apr 2, 2019 | ,

Chen Chen, one of nearly a dozen bodyworks spas in Worcester alone, had 59 reviews as of this past week at one so-called “john board” online, where massage-parlor customers describe the sexual services offered at spas across the country. Mentions of the place at another online board go back to 2013. The business operates behind drawn blinds in plain sight. A pink plastic flamingo marks the side entrance to the spa in the former Ricciardi Bros. contractors’ building, on a dead end bordered by a junkyard a block off Shrewsbury Street’s restaurant row. In the window is a light-up sign that reads, “OPEN.”

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Massage parlors still overlooked in fight against human trafficking, advocates say

Massage parlors still overlooked in fight against human trafficking, advocates say

Mar 18, 2019 | , , ,

When state Rep. Vincent Pedone, D-Worcester, stepped up to Statehouse podium in 2006 to call for the regulation of massage therapy, he was quickly met by laughter and catcalls that filled the chamber and cut him short. The bill that passed that day — despite lawmakers’ laughter, but policymakers and society still don’t take massage, and the human traffickers who increasingly hide behind it, seriously.

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