I have worked in Juvenile Court, as a lawyer, for over 12 years and have represented many young girls who are probably involved in the sex trade.  For a variety of reasons, many girls run from their homes.  On the street they are easy prey for pimps.  Even if the girls are picked-up and sent temporarily to St. Joseph’s Shelter in south Minneapolis, it’s not a locked facility and the girls can run pretty easily.

It’s sad and difficult work for law enforcement to try and protect these girls.  It certainly doesn’t help that a web site advertises how to find them.  The web site defends itself by actually saying they are “providing a service” because law enforcement can track the johns through their emails and purchases on line!

When I started practicing law as a Public Defender, many of my cases involved representing young girls (over 18) charged with prostitution.  Most were lost, not too smart, and desperate.   The johns got off completely.

Since then, both federal and state law in Minnesota have changed all that.  Juvenile prostitutes are now considered victims by law and are not prosecuted.  This may not sound like much, but it’s a big deal because it changes the entire focus of law enforcement.  Many non-governmental groups operate to find these victims and offer them shelter and an escape from the life of a prostitute.

To give you an example of how sad these situations can be, I’ll relate the story of a young, female client I defended years ago.  She was 18, had just arrived in Minneapolis from a rural Minnesota area, and didn’t have much money.  She turned to prostitution.  At that time, they were arrested as “criminals.”  An undercover male cop picked her up in his unmarked car and, as he drove directly to the police station, asked what she was doing.  The girl immediately said she was looking for sex for money.  It took just about the same time to drive her to jail as it did to get the words out of her.

I represented her the next morning in court.  She plead guilty and the judge released her on probation.

The very next morning, the same girl was in court, arrested again for prostitution.  Not only that, she’d been on the same corner, the same undercover cop had picked her up, and he’d taken the same direct route to jail!!

Here’s the ending:  The judge gave her the maximum sentence over my strenuous objections and sent the young girl to the workhouse. Without telling me, he called the workhouse the next day and ordered her released after she’d had some food, a good night’s sleep, and, hopefully, learned something.

Thank goodness, vulnerable juvenile girls are no longer considered criminals.  It’s a huge step forward for everyone.

The post The Child on the Corner appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

The disappearance of almost 20 men here in Minneapolis in the last few years alerted officials and the FBI to the possibility of recruitng to fight in Somalia. Since Ethiopia (Christians) attacked Somalia (Muslims) some of these men left the Twin Cities to go back to fight in a group called El-Shabaab. (People think) It’s a form of human trafficking.

You may ask why law enforcement here was worried about what happened in Somalia. If the Somali young men could be recruited to fight in Somalia, could they be recruited to fight back here for a war on America.

Having represented the Somali community for many years in the courts, I’ve found them to be warm, intelligent people. However, they do not trust many others outside their own tribe. Even within the Somali community, there are disagreements among the tribes, with some people feeling they are better than others.

If I have difficulty communicating with them (many speak English) because of this distrust, imagine how difficult it is for law inforcement to get reliable, accurate information about the disappearance of the young men. To a great degree, law enforcement depends on informants for information. The word sounds bad but can include almost anyone with access to the community.

So the common theory is the young men are recruited to fight in their homeland. What if this theory is correct but incomplete?

Could there be more to the disappearances than we’ve discovered so far?

Let me know if you think there’s more going on than merely freedom fighting in Somalia. I’ve got an idea that formed the plot for my new book, “The Concealed Enemy,” coming out in Fall of 2010. What do you think was really going on with the disappearing men?

The post Somali Women Wonder Where Their Boys Went appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

In previous posts, I’ve talked about the vast underground world of international criminals who traffick in many illegal items–including humans. Most are women and children who are sold into prostitution, the sex trade, and slavery for labor. The criminals operate in a world wide web–but not the one you’re familiar with.

They link themselves together for business pusposes, hooking up and dropping links, as they are needed. The criminal networks require a variety of job skills: transportation, logistics, financing, inventory control, labor, knowledge of border penetration points, and knowledge of laxity of law enforcement efforts. The profits from this trade worldwide, run into the billions. So, that makes something obvious: with the potential profits in a fairly low-risk endeavor, wouldn’t these networks attract the best and brightest criminals?

The answer is yes!

Governments around the world know of these networks of course, but what is being done to stop them and their activities?

Unfortunately, many countries lack the resources and will to fight them. Often, the officials in many countries are bribed or even work for the networks. In 2000, the United Nations passed the protocol against “Smuggling of Migrant People by Land/Sea/Air.” It hasn’t been ratified yet because most countries don’t even have laws against smuggling!

In the United States, we defend our borders and work hard to stop the criminals, but we’re hampered by a number of disadvantages that the criminals don’t face. Even our most sophisticated federal agencies, dedicated to sealing our borders and finding the criminals, are modeled on organizational forms that are decades old. For instance, when organized crime ran rampant during Prohibition, the criminals formed themselves into top-down pyramid-shaped groups that mirrored the federal agencies seeking to destroy them. Both criminal and official groups operated slowly, methodically, and efficiently.

Today, the criminal networks are web-like, flexible, morphing into new organizations by the minute, as the needs change. People, money, contraband, and purposes can change rapidly. For instance, criminals used to specialize in one product, drugs, let’s say. The federal agencies could investigate that network with time on their hands and predictable activities by the criminals. Now, the web-like networks may traffick drugs one day and stolen monkeys the next day.

It’s difficult for bureaucracies to keep up with the changes. Most of the federal agencies are the old top-down management in pyramid form. They react slowly to change.

Is it possible to form net-like organizations in the federal agencies? Remember, we’re dealing with power brokers, budgets, Congress, pressure groups, unions, and many other players in order to effect change. As you can imagine, it’s difficult and takes a lot of time. And when we go beyond our borders to third-world countries, the situation is much worse.

At least, in this country, we recognize the necessisity to seal our borders…something that’s really impossible to do. But I think the awareness of the need, gives us some protection. We coordinate between local and federal law enforcement so if a criminal net pops up somewhere, the feds can be alerted quickly.

Still, it remains a challenge that will only increase in effectiveness. We must figure out ways to fight back. Do you have any ideas?

The post Tracking Human Traffickers appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

In my last post, I recommended you read Ji-Yeon Yuh’s excellent blog at http://womensmediacenter.com about the journalists former President Clinton helped release from North Korea. Ms. Yuh speculated the two were investigating illegal human trafficking of Koreans into China. Although interesting, many Americans might feel this is half-way around the world, unfortunate, but it’s not a problem here. They’re wrong.

In the past, I have represented children in Juvenile Court who have come to America, sponsored by adults, inticed with school, homes, jobs, or better living conditions. When the young people arrive, mostly girls, they are forced into the sex industry in a variety of ways. The Juvenile Court attempts to intervene to rescue the young women. Often, it’s successful, but many times the girls, for whatever reasons, cannot escape.

A human trafficking problem like this is the tip of the iceberg, concealing vast, international networks of criminals who traffick in dozens of different products. Besides humans, organ parts, drugs, illegal plants and rare wood, animals (including the a rare protected monkee from Africa, delivered to a Saudi prince), weapons, and nuclear material are all moved around the globe each day. When the price of these items rises, it attracts huge profits and the best criminal minds in the world.

In our country, the FBI estimates the human trade out of Mexico alone to be $6-9 million a year. Although we patrol our borders more than other countries, as one of the richest in the world, we also attract more criminals trying to sell their products. The dollars at stake are so huge, corruption of border security is possible. The technological resources of the criminals are top of the line.

The criminal organizations don’t resemble those of old. Groups like the Mafia, with top-down management and pyramid shaped forms, look similar to large legitimate organizations. A small group of management gives orders to be carried out by the larger group underneath. Communication is slow, change is slow, ability to react to problems is slow, and technological upgrades lag. Today, many organizations thrive using this structure, like the US military. But the new criminal networks look more like a spider’s web. Why?

These groups don’t have a central management location. It’s closer to the internet web design. If a criminal identifies a buyer for organ parts in the US, he will make contact in the criminal “web” (not the Internet) which will put him in contact with a choice of suppliers around the world. The first to supply the organ at the right price, will make the sale. Then, other unknown people can plug into the net to provide transportation, financing, warehousing, bribing of border security, planning ideas, technical tools needed, weapons (if needed)…all of them, perhaps, unknown to each other.

Can you imagine how difficult if becomes for law enforcement to find out who’s involved? For each organ sold in the US there could be an entirely new net of people supplying it. Add to this the fact most illegal products cross several international borders and you get an idea of the diplomatic, military, political, and law enforcement problems with each transfer. If one border or product is stopped, the nets simply move or switch to a differenct product within a few days.

What’s the US doing to stop these networks? What resources do we have? Can we ever hope to match their flexibility and brains? I’ll post more about that. In the meantime, if you have experience with this phenomenon, please let me know.

The post Tracking Human Traffickers appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.

Former President Bill Clinton successfully lobbied for the release of journalists Laura Ling and Euna Lee from North Korea. Writing about this at the Women’s Media Center blog, Journalist Ji-Yeon Yuh raises a fascinating and probably accurate question: What were the two journalists really doing in North Korea?

The North Korean government caught and convicted them of illegally entering the country. They had to enter illegally because they were tracking the trafficking story of women out of North Korea and into China. It seems like a problem far away with little we can do to make a difference. That’s wrong.

The US State Department estimates that as many as 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders every year and that a total of perhaps 27 million are presently enslaved because of trafficking. Here’s the scary part for us: the majority of profits generated ($15.5 billion according to the International Labor Organization) from trafficking comes from industrialized countries–like the United States.

Eighty percent of humans trafficked are women and girls, usually sold into the sex industry. I know from personal experience…well, let me explain that!

As a lawyer, I have worked in the juvenile courts in Minnesota. Like all other states, we have a child protection effort, supported by laws, child protection social workers, and prosecutors to enforce the laws. Most cases involve local parents who are not parenting adequately or present harm to the children. I have been invovled in cases where several young girls have come to Minnesota on a “temporary” basis, mostly from countries in Africa. They’ve been promised jobs and good schools. When they get here, instead of the promises, they find themselves coerced into the sex industry.

Ironically, instead of police finding them, they show up in child protection. Every girl I’ve ever represented has come here, sponsored by an “uncle” who offers them a home, food, and clothing. When the igirls fail to show up for school, are referred for medical problems, or are stopped as runaways/vagrants, the county government reacts by protecting them from their “families.”

The girls are offered counseling, safe housing, education, and support. Usually, that works to get them out of the trafficking trap. But often, I’ve had clients who say they want to get out, are frightened of their “uncles,” and start to take advantage of services. But then, they fail to come to the next court appearance. The “parent/uncle” who has been ordered to return and accept services to stop the child abuse disappears also. My suspicion is they simply move to a different county. For instance, in Minnesota, if the uncle were to move across the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to St. Paul, he’d be in another county jurisdiction and could start the network all over again.

Some ask, “Can’t the uncle be prosecuted for being a pimp?” Sure, if you can find anyone to testify against him. Child protection at least offers the girls an opportunity to escape–if they can and want to.

Internationally, human trafficking generates #32 billion a year in profits according to the Internatinal Labor Organization. Think about that…doesn’t it seem likely to attract the best criminal minds in the world? And besides women, what other things are they bringing into the US? Could they threaten our national security? Is our government capable of fighting them? More about this in my next post.

The post Tracking Human Traffickers in Korea appeared first on Colin T. Nelson.