SOUTH JERSEY (KYW Newsradio) — New Jersey’s attorney general says seven people in custody are charged with running two separate human trafficking operations — one in Essex County to the north, and another in Cumberland County to the south.
Attorney General Matt Platkin says four men from Bridgeton, Cumberland County, made weekly trips to Queens, New York, and Paterson, New Jersey, to recruit new groups of women under the pretense that they would be working as "dancers."
Instead, Platkin says, they were brought to a home on North Laurel Street in Bridgeton that operated as a brothel. After they arrived, the women were barred from leaving. “And while at the house, the victims also allegedly witnessed violent activity.”
According to the attorney general, police confiscated quantities of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, and more than $50,000 in cash from the brothel and from the home of Usiel Luna, 42, the alleged leader of the group.
Luna, as well as Jose Perez-Lopez, 40, Rosendo Vazquez-Hernandez, 35, and Yerson Puentes-Marquez, 28, all face charges of human trafficking, distributing drugs and several other related offenses.
Platkin says his office has made the fight against human trafficking a top priority and made more arrests this year than the combined total from 2018 through 2022.
“We do this work for the victims, for the survivors, for those who deserve justice and dignity and who deserve to be treated like human beings,” the attorney general said.
Two men and a woman are charged in the Essex County case. Khailah Meekins, 21, and Donte Barkley, 28, both of Newark, New Jersey, are suspected of trafficking two 15-year-old girls and a 13-year-old girl.
Meekins and Barkley were indicted on Monday. Charging documents allege the defendants controlled the teens by — whipping them with an electrical cord, pulling their hair, biting them, and other acts of violence
Investigators say nude photos of the girls were used to advertise them online, and Barkley arranged their sexual assaults through smartphone apps. The girls were taken to meet the patrons in short-term rentals and hotel rooms, where Barkley allegedly told them what they were expected to do sexually. He then set the price for customers and, in the end, got a portion of the proceeds from Meekins.
A third suspect, Richard Johnson, 24, of Irvington, New Jersey, was indicted in August on related charges after allegedly paying to have sex with one of the juveniles.
Maximum sentences for the most serious crimes are 20 years to life in prison if convicted.