Human Trafficking

OTTAWA - An unlicensed “touch therapy” spa in downtown Ottawa has been closed and a man arrested for human trafficking at the end of a lengthy investigation by the Ottawa Police Service Human Trafficking Unit. (Ottawa Citizen)

North Bay police joined 45 other police services across Ontario to crack a huge case of human trafficking, say the OPP in a news release today. The Greater Sudbury Police Service was also involved. (The Bay Today)

More:

Province-wide blitz leads to 45 charges against 15 people including human trafficking

NEW YORK - A Long Island man ran a prostitution ring out of his elderly parents’ sprawling suburban home, enticing women with drugs and locking them in a basement where he forced them to use a bucket instead of a bathroom, prosecutors said Thursday. (The Province)

A couple in their 50s have been charged with human trafficking after girls and women were procured for sex in the Edmonton area, says the province’s police team. (Edmonton Sun)

NEW YORK - For two years, she said she was kept in a single room with blacked-out windows. She had only one set of clothes, which she wore for weeks at a time without washing. And she barely had any contact with the outside world. (CNN)

LONDON, ONT. -  London police are urging the public for any information in locating a suspect wanted for a number of human trafficking charges. Police say in June of this year, they started an investigation into the trafficking of a 16-year-old girl that went on for about a year and a half. (CTV)

NEW YORK - An heiress pleaded guilty on Friday in a sensational case accusing a cult-like upstate New York group of creating a secret harem of sex slaves for the group’s self-anointed spiritual leader. (The Province/AP)

TORONTO - A violent human trafficker admitted he preyed on and exploited teenage girls, using promises of luxury cars and violence to get them to work as escorts. (Toronto Sun)

Lawrence V. Ray showed up at his daughter’s elite college, in a New York City suburb, in late 2010, shortly after being released from prison, and moved into her dormitory. Soon, he started doing “therapy sessions” with her roommates, convincing them he could help with their problems. (New York Times)

A years-long investigation by federal authorities has uncovered an elaborate “human smuggling network” that may have helped close to a thousand Chinese migrants cross the Canada-U.S. border via a public park just steps away from a busy B.C. port of entry, according to newly unsealed court documents. (Postmedia)