{"id":734,"date":"2010-10-12T13:34:36","date_gmt":"2010-10-12T13:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/redletters\/2010\/10\/charlotte-nc-home-of-teen-sex-traffickers.html"},"modified":"2010-10-12T13:34:36","modified_gmt":"2010-10-12T13:34:36","slug":"charlotte-nc-home-of-teen-sex-traffickers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/2010\/10\/charlotte-nc-home-of-teen-sex-traffickers.html","title":{"rendered":"Charlotte, NC Home of Teen Sex Traffickers"},"content":{"rendered":"

These stories are becoming disheartening. It seems that every time I turn around there is another news article about traffickers luring girls into the sex trade in the major cities of the US. Next city? Charlotte, North Carolina. <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
This is a disturbing story. The special agents can’t believe has extensive of a network this is:<\/div>\n
“I don’t think we really realized how big this was,” says Delbert Richburg, assistant special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Office of Investigations in Charlotte. “We’re probably just scratching the surface.<\/span>“The growth is so extensive that this month ICE stationed a team of agents in Charlotte to focus on human trafficking, smuggling and exploitation. Across the Carolinas, immigrant sex rings have been broken up in Monroe, Durham and Columbia.”<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/p>\n

Girls arrive at the apartment of Jorge Flores, an immigrant from Mexico, eight to ten girls at a time. Ladies and gentlemen, these are people who live next door to us. Their clientele are local businessmen, teachers, doctors, construction workers. People who have access to children every single day. This is not a movie, it’s happening in Charlotte. What was found and what happened to the girls? From the report:<\/p>\n

“Two pairs of children’s sneakers, pink and green, now sit outside Flores’ old apartment off Sharon Amity Road near Eastland Mall. It was one of two apartments where, just a year ago, he hid his teenage victims.<\/p>\n

\n

Authorities say he brought customers there, but mostly took the girls to hotels and brothels set up around the city.<\/p>\n

He favored teenagers because he could charge more. Clients paid $25 to $30 for 15 minutes with one of the girls. One teenage victim testified in court that, on many occasions, Flores would drive her to a house or an apartment where men would be waiting.<\/p>\n

An undercover agent says the teenagers would be made to have sex with up to 100 men a week.”<\/p>\n

I’m sick to my stomach just reading about the horrors these girls have gone through. We must pray, the churches in our cities have to be involved, and everyone of us should call our local police to see how we can be part of our local Human Trafficking Taskforce. These girls are someone’s daughters for crying out loud. There stories are becoming too common. We should be outraged!<\/p>\n

\n

“One girl forced into prostitution thought she was coming to North Carolina to be a nanny, says Stuart of Legal Aid, which gives free legal services to low-income people.<\/p>\n

Another 14-year-old from Mexico, who thought she was to work at a restaurant, was forced to have sex with men in Greenville, S.C., Columbia and Charlotte.”<\/p>\n

Read more: http:\/\/www.charlotteobserver.com\/2009\/10\/04\/983851\/teens-become-prey-in-charlotte.html#ixzz12AS8q7ja<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

These stories are becoming disheartening. It seems that every time I turn around there is another news article about traffickers luring girls into the sex trade in the major cities of the US. Next city? Charlotte, North Carolina.  This is a disturbing story. 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A tireless advocate for fatherless children, Davis has spent most of his adult life calling U.S. believers to become the hands and feet of Jesus Christ to the 143 million orphans living around the world. Through those connections, thousands of orphans now have the bright and hopeful future--one that is filled with opportunities and the love of the one true Father. Davis speaks hundreds of times each year at churches and conferences, mobilizing the church to action on behalf of the poor. He is the author of four books. His most recent novel, SCARED is a fictionalized account of his first-hand experiencing living and working with orphans in Swaziland, Africa. Davis' blog is the premier resource for the latest developments in Christian orphan ministry. Davis also currently teaches courses as adjunct professor at George Fox University in Newberg, OR. When not traveling the globe, Davis resides in the mountains of Colorado in the small community of Palmer Lake. He and his wife Emily have seven children, including two adopted daughters from Russia.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/author\/tdavis"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/87"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/734\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/redletters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}