For weeks, Michelle Kaighn thought her daughter might be dead.
The
20-year-old ran away from an Egg Harbor City drug rehabilitation house
with at least two other women around mid-October, Kaighn said. Then
Kaighn's daughter suddenly stopped answering phone calls.
The
three women ended up at a Circle K gas station in Atlantic City, where
they met El Joshua, a 36-year-old man who offered them food and drugs,
according to Kaighn. Joshua allegedly forced the women into prostitution
out of his Mays Landing home. He was arrested Feb. 21 and charged with
human trafficking, with his next court appearance scheduled for Tuesday.
It's a case that exemplifies how sex
trafficking can thrive around Atlantic City, a resort town built on
catering to vices and where a seasonal tourism industry lends itself to
the often misunderstood crime. Traffickers take advantage of the area's
many hotels and use force, drugs and coercion to prey on vulnerable
victims, experts say.
In
Atlantic County, there have been 24 human trafficking complaints and 14
indictments and accusations from 2005 to 2018, according to the state
Attorney General's Office. Atlantic County has seen almost the same
number of human trafficking cases as Bergen County, even though its
population is significantly smaller.
Atlantic
County Prosecutor Damon G. Tyner said in a news release after Joshua's
arrest that human trafficking "is a serious problem that plagues our
community."
"Whether through prostitution or other forms of forced labor, such as restaurants and nail salons, we as a community must recognize the signs and report suspected incidents to law enforcement immediately," he said.
Street prostitution and trafficking were more open in the early 2000s, he said. But the stereotypical image of women offering sex for payments on corners has changed with the advent of the internet. Now, traffickers set up dates for their victims online, making it harder for officials to investigate.
"Whether through prostitution or other forms of forced labor, such as restaurants and nail salons, we as a community must recognize the signs and report suspected incidents to law enforcement immediately," he said.
The Prosecutor’s Office declined to be interviewed for this story.
Kaighn
said her daughter has a drug addiction, and Joshua fed it. He arranged
“dates” for the women at casinos and along Atlantic Avenue in exchange
for drugs, court documents show.
“She’s
not the same girl as before,” Kaighn said of her daughter, whose name
is being withheld because she received threats from Joshua. "My kid will
never be the same"
Atlantic City can be a hot spot for such activities, said FBI Special Agent Dan Garrabrant, who has 14 years of experience working human trafficking cases. He is part of the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Task Force, an FBI unit that tries to arrest those who force people into prostitution.
Atlantic City can be a hot spot for such activities, said FBI Special Agent Dan Garrabrant, who has 14 years of experience working human trafficking cases. He is part of the Human Trafficking and Child Exploitation Task Force, an FBI unit that tries to arrest those who force people into prostitution.
“It’s
a great area for sex trafficking,” Garrabrant said in his Northfield
office Wednesday. “It’s a destination city, somewhere where sex
traffickers make more money than other cities.”
It’s a crime that’s evolved with the times.
Street prostitution and trafficking were more open in the early 2000s, he said. But the stereotypical image of women offering sex for payments on corners has changed with the advent of the internet. Now, traffickers set up dates for their victims online, making it harder for officials to investigate.
For
years, the FBI could locate 25 to 50 minors a year who they thought
were involved in human trafficking in South Jersey, Garrabrant
said. That number has decreased in recent years.
Garrabrant
described sex traffickers as “incredibly good talkers” and “a step
above a con man." They assess potential victims to see whether they
would make good workers and use fear, fraud, force and coercion to
control them.
Their victims are
vulnerable men and women of all ages, races and incomes, he said, who
need basic food and shelter or have substance abuse issues. It becomes
difficult for victims to break the cycle of abuse and dependence, he
said.
Traffickers usually tightly control their victims, Garrabrant said. He recalled one case in which a woman made $1,000 in a night but had to ask permission from her trafficker to buy a bottle of water.
In 2017, Three Massachusetts residents allegedly brought a 23-year-old woman to Atlantic City and forced her into prostitution. Prosecutors said the suspects initially gave the victim gifts but later took her ID and abused and threatened her. The traffickers once attacked her at the Baymont Inn & Suites Atlantic City Madison Hotel, prosecutors said, in an assault that was caught on camera.
Traffickers usually tightly control their victims, Garrabrant said. He recalled one case in which a woman made $1,000 in a night but had to ask permission from her trafficker to buy a bottle of water.
In 2017, Three Massachusetts residents allegedly brought a 23-year-old woman to Atlantic City and forced her into prostitution. Prosecutors said the suspects initially gave the victim gifts but later took her ID and abused and threatened her. The traffickers once attacked her at the Baymont Inn & Suites Atlantic City Madison Hotel, prosecutors said, in an assault that was caught on camera.
"(There
is) a significant psychological component of what we are
investigating,” he said. “They convince their victims that they’re doing
this for ‘us.’”
Even after victims escape their traffickers, psychological torment may continue.
Beverly
Graham-Foy, a former public defender in Atlantic City and a fellow at
Covenant House, a shelter for homeless and runaway youth, said it's
common for victims to blame themselves or not view their "pimps" as
perpetrators of a crime.
"You can imagine the psychological torture that they go through," Graham-Foy said. "That's where professionals and advocates come in. ... They really are victims, even if at the time they may not be aware."
"You can imagine the psychological torture that they go through," Graham-Foy said. "That's where professionals and advocates come in. ... They really are victims, even if at the time they may not be aware."
Two months after escaping Joshua's home, Kaighn said her daughter is fighting the belief she deserved what happened to her.
She's now in another rehabilitation center in North Jersey receiving counseling.
"She kept saying she deserves this," Kaighn said. "I know that's not true."
Are you or someone you know a victim of human trafficking?
Are you or someone you know a victim of human trafficking?
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