Teen Charged With Sex Trafficking

MEMPHIS, TN -(WMC-TV) - A 19-year-old Lilmikea Hunter was charged with sex Trafficking. 

She invited a 15 year old runaway over for a sleep over and forced her into prostitution. Shelby County Investigators say, Lilmikea invited the girl over in early December for a sleepover after meeting her at skating rink and multiple men paid Lilmikea to have sex with the young girl. 

Her mother said, her daughter called home Christmas Eve and said she was being held against her will. Now, Lilmikea Hunter is being charged with Sex Trafficking. 

How scary to think your child can be lured home by another teen and forced into prostitution. Kids think of everything now a days. 

Fugitive Charged With Human Trafficking



Veniamin Gonikman, 55, a US citizen, was arrested in the Ukraine Wednesday and deported back the United States to be charged. Gonikman fled the country before he could be formally charged with 22-count indictment with trafficking in persons, forced labor, alien smuggling, money laundering, extortion collection and conspiracy, among other charges. He was on the top ten most wanted by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for smuggling women from Eastern Europe into the United States and forcing them to work in the strip clubs in Detroit. Gonikman came to the attention of federal agents in 2005, when his victims escaped and it was confirmed he was operating a company out of Detroit called Beauty, Inc. The indictment alleges that Gonikman and his associates developed Beauty, Inc. as a cover for human trafficking. They smuggled the women into the United States and forced the women to work long hours in the strip clubs. Gonikman and his associates, took all of the women's money and kept them under their control through through threats, coercion and isolation. Gonikman's associates, including his son Aleksandr Maksimenko, Duay Joseph Jado, Evgeniy Prokopenko, and Michail Aronovo, were previously convicted and sentenced on similar charges. They are currently serving prison sentences ranging from seven to 14 years.
Personally, I feel that serving seven to to fourteen years is not a long enough sentence. It's time for the American government to make an example of people like Gonikman and his associates. Let the Gonikmans of the world know the United States Government will not let you slide by with a slap on the wrist for human trafficking and enslavement, because if these men are capable of smuggling women into the country then what is stopping them from kidnapping our young girls and enslaving them in the human sex trade. We know it already happens.

Human Trafficking- The Sex Slave Trade Industry

Human Trafficking has become a billion dollar business. Ad posting pages like CraigsList has aided in the industry growing in the United States. The same place where you look for furniture or cars also has young girls and children for sale. The adult services on CraigsList make it easier for them to move the girls and children selling them to the highest bidder as a sex slave. Men prey upon young girls in foreign countries who wish to come to the United States in pursuit of the American dream, young runaways and young girls traveling alone. The traffickers fly the young women to the United States promising to help them find a place to live and a job so they can send money to their families.  Once they get the women or young girls here, they put them up in an apartment, get them jobs at local strip clubs or put them in pornography or on the streets to prostitute for them. Some of the young girls are brought here and forced to work in sweat shops or braiding hair for long hours. They tell the women they have to work off what it cost to bring them here and if they don't their families will be hurt or killed. Many of these young women are forced to work long hours and are raped. Right here in Metro Detroit a strip club on 8 Mile, Cheetahs On The Strip have been guilty of working young girls who have been victims of the sex trade.  The club works the girls from 2:00 pm until 2:00 am six days a week. Then the girls are forced to turn over every dollar they make to their captors. The number of girls and young children sold into the sex slave trade is higher than you think.

100,000 American children or more are victims of child prostitution and trafficking each year said Ernie Allen, CEO for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, in testimony before Congress in July.

12-14 is the average age range in which girls become prostitutes.

11-13 is the average age range in which boys become prostitutes.

1,100 children or more have rescued from June 2003 to  September 2010, through an FBI effort know as Project Innocence Lost.

600 offenders have been convicted through Project Innocence Lost.

388 arrests and 148 Indictments

165 human trafficking convictions were obtained by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2009