Note: This article is the second article in a two-part series, involving an interview with a former gang member about gang life. This article covers gang involvement in human trafficking.
Throughout my career, I have spoken to a variety of people regarding human trafficking. I have talked with imprisoned human traffickers, human trafficking victims, advocacy groups for victims and prosecutors who focus on prosecuting human traffickers.
Recently, I conducted an interview with someone who shared an in-depth and insightful perspective of human trafficking, providing information that was new to me. Keen is a former gang member from the Los Angeles area. Today, he talks with groups, working hard to encourage current gang members to see their mistakes and separate themselves from gang activity.
Keen said, “I have personally witnessed several levels of human trafficking.” During his time as a gang member in Los Angeles, he saw how a cartel treated girls who were human trafficking victims.
The Connection between Human Smuggling and Human Trafficking
Keen explained that in smuggling people across the southwest border of the U.S., “You will see a lot of trafficking involving people from Asia, Africa, South America, Pakistan and Venezuela.” He also shared insights about the difference between human smuggling and human trafficking through Mexico into the United States.
Keen noted that typically, gangs only smuggle drugs and guns. It is the cartels that are smuggling and trafficking human victims to the United States.
Human smuggling is transportation based on when someone pays to be smuggled to the United States. Human trafficking, which is labor-based, involves sex trafficking, domestic slavery and forced labor.
Keen added that when groups of people are smuggled to the United States, intelligence is collected from within the group. Previously, I was not aware of this fact.
For example, Keen stated, “You’ll have a coyote [smuggler] mixed with those being transported for intel purposes. The victims are not aware that the coyote is among them and if the coyote finds that they don’t have the money to be smuggled, he will sell them to the traffickers for sexual exploitation. Cartels exploit people who cannot pay to be transported, and they are sold like cattle into the sex trade.”
I asked how coyotes find a buyer. Keen explained that everyone knows who is involved as those that work in smuggling and trafficking work closely together.
He said, “When a coyote finds out that a group does not have the money to pay, he will make an arrangement with the trafficker such as, ‘Hey, I have four girls for you. How much will you give me?’ The trafficker will say, ‘I’ll give you $1,000 each,’ and the coyote will take it because he knows he will get paid.”
Human Trafficking Involving Juvenile Organs
One element of human trafficking that is not well known is organ harvesting. Keen noted, “There is a market for juvenile organs.”
He explained that the reason why organ harvesting has a market is due to buyers’ personal needs. For instance, Keen said that a buyer may “have a family member who is dying, and they will pay anything for their loved one. It is like making a custom order. Organ traffickers view this exploitation as a ‘job’.”
I asked Keen how a child becomes a victim of human trafficking. Keen explained, “If someone does not love their child and allows them to wander on the street, and the trafficker has the opportunity to take them, then he will. If he doesn’t, someone else will.”
Keen spoke of one organ trafficker who operated out of Mexico, Venezuela and the Philippines. This organ trafficker would frequent homeless places, shelters, encampments and drug houses where families camped with their kids. He would offer money to the parents to take the kids out of that environment and would never return with those children.
The last child this organ trafficker kidnapped was 12 years old, and someone paid him $15,000 for the child’s eye. Moving children from one point to another was easy because the organ trafficker never had to show documentation.
All the organ trafficker had to do was pay officials money. He did not receive resistance from the kids because the child’s parents had given permission for the children to be with him. They harvested the child’s right eye in Mexico.
Trafficking in Central America
Keen said, “In Central America, smugglers will go to the immigration office and will sit there. They can tell where people are from.
“They will approach them and say, ‘Where you trying to go?’ Someone may say ‘L.A.’
“The trafficker will say, ‘How much money do you have?’ The immigrants may say that they have $2,500 and are trying to get their visa with that money. The smuggler will tell them they can be transported to L.A. for only $1,000 and they have connections who will smuggle them through Mexico across the U.S. border to San Diego.”
Keen added, “You would be surprised how many people fall for that.” Once the victim gives the smuggler money, demands are typically made for more money because the smuggler claims that there were unforeseen expenses.
If the immigrants don’t have a way of getting extra money, then they are sold to human traffickers. If they are women, they are often forced into sex trafficking. If they are men, they are often coerced into forced labor.
Keen explained a recent situation involving a friend. He said, “I have a female friend who just applied for a U.S. visa. Her daughter has special needs. She said, ‘I am going to Houston with a guy that I just met….I am getting ready to cash out, sell my car and go with him instead of waiting for the visa.”
Keen explained to her that from his experience, he has seen other women do this same thing. When these women get to their destination, they are forced into a house. The women are beaten, forced to sell themselves for sex and told that the traffickers will kill their child in front of them if they don’t comply.
Related: Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling at Our Southwest Border
Sex Trafficking Relies on Concealment
In regard to sex trafficking, Keen said that it is all about concealment. Traffickers often target girls who are hooked on drugs.
He explained that when girls are transported for sex trafficking, they either go easily or resist. Girls who don’t resist will often get transported to more distant locations than those who resist.
Keen noted, “If you have to use force to transport a girl, then you would typically only transport them to a nearby location because they are going to have bruises. You may have to use so much force that they will have to go to the hospital, and it could draw attention to yourself. In this situation, you would want to only take her four to five blocks to a safe house.”
Keen also said that sex traffickers are in acute danger when they go to prison. Keen explained, “When a gang member comes across a trafficker who does this to kids, normally, the trafficker is going to get targeted and killed. If the trafficker is in prison, gang members will get the green light to kill him for hurting kids.”
Human trafficking continues to grow as a global crime due to its profitability. When a drug dealer makes a profit through selling drugs, he has to continually obtain more product to make another sale. In the case of sex trafficking, the same victim can be used repeatedly to make a profit.
Related: Gaining Insight into the Mentality of Human Traffickers
Human Trafficking Resources
The National Human Trafficking Hotline is available 24 hours, 7 days a week in both English and Spanish. To reach this hotline, call 888-373-7888 or text INFO to 233733.
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