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The voice was calm và quiet and desperate: "I"m in a very bad situation, & I need khổng lồ get out."
The caller, a 20-year-old woman, told a Georgia dispatcher that she was being held against her will. And it wasn"t just her.
"It"s a house full of girls and ... If I try to lớn leave, he"ll try to lớn kill me and stuff," she said, prompting the dispatcher lớn ask, "Wait — did you say you"re in a house full of girls?"
The caller"s Tuesday morning plea helped Georgia authorities lớn uncover what they believe is a case of human trafficking based out of a $1 million luxury trang chủ in the suburbs of Atlanta. The suspect, Kenndric Roberts, 33, was charged with additional felonies Friday, Sandy Springs police told NBC News.
Roberts faces five counts of false imprisonment, five counts of trafficking persons for labor và two counts for possession of a firearm in the commission of a felony. An AK-47 & a Glock .45-caliber handgun were found in the home, police said. Possible federal charges are also pending.
In total, eight women ranging from ages 19 to 22 were found at the home, said Sgt. Sam Worsham.
Roberts was renting the residence, Worsham added, and the homeowners weren"t there. The president of the local homeowners association told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the group had received complaints from neighbors about cars constantly "coming in and out."
It"s unclear how long some of the women were allegedly held at the home, which is listed as having five bedrooms & five-and-a-half bathrooms. The 911 caller said she had been there about a month.
She said she met the man holding her captive via Seeking
Arrangement.com, a website that offers "mutually beneficial relationships," và that "he had me cachseo.com get, like, plastic surgery."
Police said Roberts had lured the young women by telling them he could provide them modeling jobs.
But the promises made of easy money turned into threats of violence, detectives said in an affidavit.
Related: Flight Attendants Train to lớn Spot Human Trafficking
One woman "stated that Kendrick
Some of the women also said he forced them to lớn work at local strip clubs, và they had to lớn leave their IDs và phones at home, police said. He offered to pay them more money if they stayed with him — and threatened to hurt them or their families if they left.
Roberts waived his first court appearance Thursday. He is being held without bond in Fulton County Jail with another hearing planned for later this month.
The FBI office in Atlanta is helping khổng lồ assist the investigation, and is asking for other potential victims to come forward.
Worsham said all eight of the women have been brought khổng lồ families or placed in safe houses.
Atlanta remains one of the largest hubs in the country for sexual exploitation và human trafficking, federal authorities say.
Kasey Mc
Clure, who runs the faith-based nonprofit 4Sarah Inc., which assists victims of sex trafficking in the Atlanta area, said this latest case should be an eye-opener because it happened in an affluent bedroom community where neighbors failed lớn notify police.
Related: Human Trafficking Increased in 2016, Organization Reports
For the women, who are oftentimes desperate for money and a place lớn live, the lifestyle can seem irresistible, she added.
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"These girls think, "Well, I’m in a beautiful home. I’m getting fed. I’m getting transportation. I don’t have to lớn worry about paying bills." It’s glamorized," said Mc
Clure, who began the nonprofit in 2005 after leaving the sex industry herself.
Her organization, which began as a "strip club ministry," aims to help women turn their lives around. While some young girls and women are put off by the violence and leave on their own accord, others sometimes return because they have nowhere else khổng lồ cachseo.com, she said.
But she remains hopeful organizations such as hers can make a difference: "You change lives one girl at a time."
81 migrants in the back of a tractor trailer are seen in an handout from DOJ. U.S. Authorities announced Tuesday the indictment of eight people in connection with a sprawling alleged human smuggling operation that may have victimized thousands of migrants.Eight people were arrested Tuesday in connection with what federal authorities believe is a sprawling human smuggling operation that may have victimized thousands of migrants.
Erminia Serrano Piedra, also known as "Boss Lady," allegedly ran the operation along with seven others, federal prosecutors told reporters. The eight were arrested in Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi và Texas on charges related khổng lồ transporting a non-citizen for monetary benefit while endangering human life.
MORE: 73 migrants -- including 13 kids -- found in D.C. 'stash houses,' official says; smuggling suspected
The Department of Justice is also seeking $2.3 million in property assets allegedly connected with the operation.
"This organization was motivated by personal greed & Piedra & her co-conspirators prioritized that greed over the safety of those that they illegally smuggled," Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite told reporters Tuesday.
81 migrants in the back of a tractor trailer are seen in an handout from DOJ. U.S. Authorities announced Tuesday the indictment of eight people in connection with a sprawling alleged human smuggling operation that may have victimized thousands of migrants.
Court documents did not danh sách an attorney who could speak on Piedra's behalf. The suspects are appearing in court this week; Piedra has a detention hearing mix for Friday.
Department of Justice officials say the migrant victims, believed to be citizens of Colombia, Guatemala và Mexico, were brought lớn so-called "stash houses" where smugglers conduct and conceal their illicit activity. Authorities say that some of the victims were forced into suitcases while others were crammed into the back of tractor trailers, pick-up trucks & even water tankers as part of their journeys into và across the U.S.
Those who drove the vehicles used to transport migrants were possibly paid as much as $2,500 per person, according khổng lồ the Department of Justice.
"We have alleged that this particular organization was responsible for the smuggling of at least hundreds if not thousands of potential migrants," Polite said.
Migrants inside a wooden crate are seen in an handout from DOJ. U.S. Authorities announced Tuesday the indictment of eight people in connection with a sprawling alleged human smuggling operation that may have victimized thousands of migrants.
Agents from Homeland Security Investigations, the division of Immigration và Customs Enforcement that handles smuggling enforcement, led the probe which resulted in the arrest of Katie Ann Garcia, one of the eight suspects, on Tuesday in Laredo, Texas, where authorities say 12 migrants were found, including two minors.
"If you commit the crime of human smuggling và if you manipulate và imperil and take advantage of struggling và fearful migrants -- we are coming for you," Deputy Secretary of Homeland Security John K. Tien said Tuesday. "We will investigate you. We will prosecute you khổng lồ the fullest extent of our laws. We will leave no stone unturned until we end your nefarious practices."
The Department of Homeland Security says it has ramped up its crackdown on transnational organizations that facilitate human smuggling -- in recent months arresting nearly 5,000 people whom the department suspects of being associated with criminal trafficking.
A flatbed truck with wooden crates used khổng lồ smuggle migrants is seen in an handout from DOJ. U.S. Authorities announced Tuesday the indictment of eight people in connection with a sprawling alleged human smuggling operation that may have victimized thousands of migrants.
The Biden administration also launched a "Joint Task Force Alpha" with DHS and DOJ as part of the cachseo.comvernment's work to, as Attorney General Merrick B. Garland said Tuesday, "dismantle the most dangerous human smuggling & trafficking networks.”
"The charges announced today are just the latest example of these efforts’ success," Garland said in a statement. "The Justice Department will continue khổng lồ bring our full resources to bear khổng lồ combat the human smuggling and trafficking groups that endanger our communities, abuse and exploit migrants, và threaten our national security.”
