Human Trafficking

TORONTO - She was a bright university student who fell into the clutches of alleged monsters. Toronto Police say two men face human trafficking-related charges after the 22-year-old woman was allegedly drugged, beaten and forced at gunpoint to perform sex acts for money. (Toronto Sun)

LONDON - UK police have launched a murder investigation after 39 people were found dead in a truck container at an industrial park in Essex, 30 kilometers east of London. One of the victims was in their teens. (CNN)

EASTON, Pa. - A jury has convicted a Pennsylvania man of serial rape and human trafficking charges that could put him in prison for life. (Ottawa Sun)

An Asian mafia con­nec­tion is fu­elling the mul­ti-mil­lion dol­lar world of sex slaves in Trinidad and To­ba­go, in­tel­li­gence sources close to the in­ves­ti­ga­tion have re­vealed to Guardian Me­dia. (St. Lucia News)

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

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)