"A huge human trafficking ring based in Kansas City. . . "

[ensho]

http://www.kansascity.com/637/story/1220197.html


Indictment alleges trafficking in foreign workers


A huge human trafficking ring based in Kansas City allegedly lured hundreds of foreign workers into low-paying jobs illegally and turned them into “modern-day slaves,” federal officials announced Wednesday.

Three area employment firms controlled by a Mission resident brought the workers into the United States and forced them to live in substandard conditions, an indictment announced Wednesday alleged.

Occasionally cramming eight workers into a small apartment and making some sleep on the floor or on air mattresses, the employment companies provided the workers under contract to construction firms and hotels, resorts and casinos in 14 states.

Those construction businesses and hotels were assured that their contract workers were being paid prevailing wages. But the employment firms allegedly paid the workers only a fraction of what they deserved and heaped on thousands of dollars in fees, making it impossible for them to quit or even afford a plane ticket home.

-snip-

Those named in the indictment: Abrorkhodja Askarkhodjaev, 30, Nodir Yunusov, 22, Rustamjon Shukurov, 21, citizens of Uzbekistan living in Mission; Ilkham Fazilov, 44, Nodirbek Abdoollayev, 27, citizens of Uzbekistan living in Kansas City; Viorel Simon, 27, Alexandru Frumasache , 23, citizens of Moldova living in Kansas City, Kan.; Kristin Dougherty, 49, of Ellisville, Mo.; Andrew Cole, 53, of St. Charles, Mo.; Abdukakhar Azizkhodjaev, 49, a citizen of Uzbekistan living in Panama City, Fla.; and Sandjar Agzamov, 27, and Jakhongir Kakhkharov, 29, citizens of Uzbekistan who recently left the United States.

Three companies controlled by Askarkhodjaev also were charged: Giant Labor Solutions LLC, headquartered in Kansas City; Crystal Management Inc. in Mission; and Five Star Cleaning LLC in Overland Park.
-----------------------------


bet these are not the only ones trafficking.

isn't the neo con's super highway supposed to go by Kansas City?

[patrice]

1. You should see the brand new, really cheap, motels springing up around this "trans shipping hub"nt

[ensho]

2. aahhh click, snap

thanks for info

[patrice]

8. ?

Did I do something wrong?

[ensho]

10. no, why do you ask?

nt

[patrice]

20. I didn't understand your post. Everything is so ambiguous on the internet if you're

not quite tuned into some of the jargon.

[ensho]

22. sorry, your info caused a connection in the news - thus a snap

or click. like in the brain - something like when the subconscious puts two and two together and snaps it into your consciousness.

[patrice]

23. Yes. That's what happened in my brain, after driving around for months and months and seeing

those motels go up overnight: small, right next to multiple highways, little or no landscaping, individual air-conditioning units on the rooms . . . .

Major transitions in certain area grocery stores too. I'm looking at certain lines of food and thinking "Where the heck are all of these people living? I'm not seeing them in our neighborhoods . . . ?"

[Enrique]

3. the employers should bear some responsibility

if these people are working for you, cleaning your hotels so you can make your profits, then they are your employees and you shouldn't be able to just transfer all the liability to some contractor.

[imdjh]

9. They aren't your employees, but you still have a responsibility under a reasonable person standard.

If I hire a cleaning crew to clean my hotel through a labor service, it's a legitimate way for me to avoid being the employer of those people. I don't have to do the immigration checks, the payroll, the insurance, etc... But if I see a 14 year old girl cleaning floors in a Peruvian peasant dress and bare feet (I actually saw this once) then I know something isn't right.

Here's the hitch. When I was a young man and I saw that girl cleaning the floor of my employer's kitchen, I thought about calling the cops. I didn't know who else to call at the time and didn't even think in terms of illegal immigration back then, it was a child-labor issue to me at the time. But I didn't call, because I didn't know if it would be the right thing to do. Yes, a 14 year old American girl cleaning a restaurant at 3 AM, I would have called. I would have called because I would have reason to expect that Social Services could improve her situation. With a 14 year old immigrant girl, I had no idea what she would go home to. For all I knew, cleaning floors in the US at 3AM beat the hell out of what she had in store for her in South America.

[Enrique]

11. that hitch is a real one

I've had to make similar decisions, I think you hit it right on the nose.

Regarding the reasonable person standard, imagine I have a hotel and I'm shopping around for contractors to handle the cleaning. Most contractors prices fall within a normal range, but this one contractor's prices are way lower than the others. Oh, and the workers happen to be mostly from "Jamaica, the Dominican Republic and the Phillipines" as this article says the workers were. Oh, and all the representatives are scuzzy, shady, slimebag types. The kind of slimebags that would deal in human slavery. I think a "reasonable person" would assume something is wrong.

[ChazII]

4. K&R

This is a huge problem that needs more light if we are to stop it.

[SmileyRose]

5. What kind of fucking hell hole is Eastern Europe anyway???

Every time I turn around I hear about more Eastern Europeans rescued from slave operations. For them to take that risk of "great jobs overseas" and then obey quietly for fear of the family back home being abused or killed rather than protected.


And while I'm at it - WTF is wrong with our own society that this can go on right under our noses and we don't even see it??



edit - typo to add an "N" to "eastern"

[lonestarnot]

6. K & R

[AllentownJake]

7. Slavery is alive and well in America

I always laugh at my RW friends who bitch about Illegal Immigration and try to bash me.

I say, who the fuck do you think is bringing them here, I can guarantee you it isn't the liberals. Its big business, who owns your party, and the Republicans will never, ever do anything about illegal immigration because it would piss off the businesses that support the GOP.

[RagAss]

15. Amen

[patrice]

24. And the rest of us are just a hop, a skip, and one more layoff away from being in the same truck

truck.

Don't think this WON'T happen too, especially as more and more Americans learn from Illegals how to stay under the radar. Of course, it's not a way for a family to live, but it's looking as though families are done-for anyway.

[Lasher]

12. Victims of human trafficking become eligible for federal medical, counseling, food and housing

services. Trafficking victims also may apply to remain in the United States legally. According to the article there are hundreds of victims in this case.

[xchrom]

13. recommend

[REP]

14. 5 INS agents for the entire area; do the math

[votingupstart]

19. i think you hit it right on

its a numbers game - there are x number of agents and xxx number of human traffickers, some get caught but obviously there is still enough of a demand that they set up companies and have logistical arrangements to move 100(guessing here -? exact number unknown) people around the US.

[peacetalksforall]

16. So why am I thinking about Tom DeLay who with his gang travelled to

U.S. Territories to view factories - slave factories making stuff 'in the U.S.' to gain even more profit and eligibilities.

Tom DeLay - a person should really search the connectons of these Uzbekistanians. How did they know they could get set up so easily here? Who is their sponsor, their godgather?

This country is very sick. We must get rid of the parasites and bacteria.

[ensho]

25. yeah, that traveling had me suspicious too

nt

[patrice]

26. Illegals are just the canaries in this Coal Mine. nt

[Doremus]

17. There must be one of those companies in our area.

A friend of mine used to work for Golden Corral and she said the non-English speaking staff (dozens) lived and drove together to work everyday. She said they were from eastern Europe.

[patrice]

27. Thanks for the baby!

:hi:

[sixmile]

18. The continuing third-worldization of America

Reading the threads in GD today reinforces my belief that the U.S. is devolving to meet evolving countries and economies.

[malaise]

21. Expect the Chamber of Commerce to be very upset

with the arrest of these scumbags.