You see special reports and Dateline specials investigating human trafficking in the United States and internationally but you never think human trafficking is occurring in your state, much less in your city. South Carolina child injury lawyers want to you to know that South Carolina’s first human trafficking case has just been discovered.
Human trafficking is when a person, in most cases a minor, is taken against their will and forced to work or perform acts against their will. The trafficked person usually only receives a very small portion of the profit they earn, if they actually receive any profit at all. Many pimps or drug lords that traffic minors and citizens from other countries control traffic persons by taking them to a location they are unfamiliar with, making them reliant on their kidnapper. Unfortunately, United Nations officials have estimated that human trafficking profits $32 billion dollars around the world.
Columbia, South Carolina, the state’s capital is now the home of the state’s first human trafficking case. The child injury victim was a 14-year-old girl from Mexico. The girl was taken from Mexico and trafficked into the United States, where she then was held captive in a trailer a few miles outside of Columbia city limits. The girl called her sister in Mexico for help and tried to giver her a description of the trailer and her surroundings. The description was vague but her sister contacted Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
ICE agents investigated the lead for and put the trailer under surveillance. February 27, 2007, ICE agents and Richland County Police raided the trailer. When they knocked on the door, standard protocol before raiding a home, to their surprise the 14-year-old abused child answered the door. They lead the girl out of the trailer and into custody. Her abductors are currently in custody and awaiting trial.
Source: WIS 10 News, Columbia- “14-year-old girl was state’s first human trafficking case.” March 2, 2010.
