Tune into this week’s episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!

You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.

In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will be focusing on two stories of sex trafficking that occured in New Jersey, not far from where we are now. 

• In January of 2018, state troopers found a 17 year old girl was found alone, in the middle of the night on the side of Interstate 295 (
• Eventually she revealed she was sex trafficked by Ashley Gardener and Breon Mickens of Trenton
• For the days before she was found, Gardener had arranged between 5 and 15 men for the teen per day
• While Gardener was the so-called mastermind of the operation, Mickens did the grunt work
• As of 2021, Mickens has been sentenced to 5 years in prison while Gardener has received 50.
• This is a reminder that sex trafficking is a very real and present threat.
• The next story will focus on the an international human trafficking ring exposed in 2021 run by a considerably larger group.

• In early February of 2021, Authorities announced the charging of 22 members of a sex trafficking operation that made its base in Bergen County.
• More than 50 women, most of them immigrants from Mexico, were caught up as victims
• Had over 1500 clients
• Victims ranged from anywhere in the late teens to the mid-30s
• They were promised jobs and shelter but were then forced into prostituion
• The crime ring was reportedly bringing in hundreds of thousands of dollars every month from the work of the captive women
• The women were compensated with half of what was paid for the prostitution, but most of it was used to pay off their “debt”
• Currently, the prosecutor’s office is coordinating efforts with the Covenant House to provide shelter and crisis care for the 50 plus women rescued from the trafficking sting.

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Tune into this week’s episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!

You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.

In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will be discussing one the most pervasive forms of human trafficking, which is sex trafficking. This crime reportedly makes up 79% of human trafficking instances all across the world. Virtually everyone knows or has heard of it, yet sex trafficking is still not given enough attention in mainstream media.

• Definition of sex trafficking is the use of force, fraud or coercion to cause a commercial sex act with an adult or cause a minor to commit a commercial sex act.

Includes prostitution, pornography, and sexual performance exchanged for any item of value.

• May occur at brothels, clubs, hotels, and other night-time locations to sell their services
• As of 2019, the National Ceter for Missing and Exploited Children has estimated thatn1/6 runaways were likely sex trafficking victims
• Sex trafficking victims are both genders, although a majority are women and girls
• Sexual assault among males is given much less attention

• Common misconception that sex trafficking only occurs in “shady dealings”; this is untrue
• By establishing trust early on and a degree of intimacy, the traffickers can exploit this later
• Prositution is often looked down upon but can often overlap with sex trafficking
• Many of these women have their appointments arranged for them by men known as pimps, who are individual traffickers
• However, not all sex work is sex trafficking. 
• In general, the stigma that exists around sex work has caused many of the workers to fear going to law enforcement 
• Contributes greatly to the insidious nature of human trafficking

• The best thing the average person could do is learn to recognize the signs of sex trafficking
• Unstable living conditions
• Imbalanced power dynamics with the employer
• Abuse, threats, or clear signs of manipulation

Tune into this week’s episode of #SpeakingfortheSilenced!

You are listening to Speaking for the Silenced podcast with your host(s) Jacqueline Sun.

In this episode of Speaking for the Silenced, we will end a two-part segment discussing organ trafficking. Today, we will focus on a real-life incident of trafficking that occurred in Kosovo in 2008.

• Victim’s name is Yilmaz Altun, located in Pristina, Kosovo
• Fainted in middle of airport due to wound from organ removal
• It was found that the organ donation was conducted a clinic in Pristina called Medicus
• Medicus was a chain of organ trafficking clinics that were designed solely for the purpose of making profit.
• Preyed on the poor and vulnerable
• Crime ring was operated by Lutfi Dervishi and his son, both Kosovo physicians.
• Actual organ removal was conducted by Yusuf Ercin Sonmez, a Turkish surgeon
• The main operators of Medicus had been on the run for some time, evading capture since their operations were exposed in 2008. 
• However, a few have been incarcerated

• The Medicus Case has an even more complex twist
• Council of Europe found connections with Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA)
• Terrorist group that sought to seprate Kosovo from Yugoslavia
• The KLA reportedly began organ trafficking in 1999
• People and authorities have even began to suspect that Hashim Thaci, Prime minister of 
• So how is the link between Medicus and the KLA established?
• Kidneys harvested from the Serbian captives were transported to Sonmez, the doctor who was involved in the transplants in Medicus
• Public hoped that Medicus could be linked back to the KLA and ex Prime Minister Thaci. 

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