Oct 4, 2007 9:08 pm US/Eastern
Md. Cracks Down On Human Trafficking
by Alex DeMetrick
BALTIMORE (WJZ) ―
Twenty-five years in prison. That's the penalty of a new law in Maryland for anyone convicted of turning children into sex slaves.
Alex DeMetrick reports it's part of a crackdown on the business of human trafficking.
Earlier this year,
Eyewitness News examined a crime below the surface in Maryland--human trafficking. It's where immigrants are forced into prostitution or free labor.
One who escaped told her story with the condition that she not be identified.
"We were kept in one room, me and my daughters," said the woman.
Their passports taken, her children were forced to work in the home without pay while she worked on the outside.
"We've had a number of significant cases in the Washington suburbs, mostly women, who have been held in basements doing labor at no charge. Domestic labor," said Rod Rosenstein, U.S. Attorney for Maryland.
Now, prosecutors and police are forming a joint state and federal task force to go after human traffickers.
Right now, no one knows how widespread the problem is and even though a Maryland law went into effect this week carrying a 25-year prison sentence for trafficking children in prostitution, it is only a misdemeanor to traffic adults.
Because federal punishments are harsher, adult cases may be bumped up to federal courts.
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