Police Stop Three Human Trafficking Operations

Montgomery County Police arrested 6 people involved in various human trafficking businesses that generated thousands of dollars across the D.C. area.

Police said 34 year-old Rodney Hubert, of New York, used three female associates to get a 15-year old girl to commit sex acts. The victim reportedly thought she was going on a modeling photo shoot. Instead, Hubert advertised the girl on Craigslist for prostitution, police said.

The women transported her from New York City to a Comfort Inn hotel in Silver Spring, Md., but police were able to track the group down with the help of some alert hotel employees.

"They saw a lot of foot traffic going in and out of one particular room," said detective Sgt. Ken Penrod.

Arrests Made in Human Trafficking
WATCH
Arrests Made in Human Trafficking
The three women and Hubert were arrested on several charges including human trafficking of a juvenile for prostitution, sexual abuse of a minor and second-degree child abuse.

On Feb. 24 police arrested 24-year-old Deangelo Bynum, of northeast Washington. Court documents show that Bynum used Facebook to try and recruit at least one minor for prostitution. Police said he communicated with the recruit through the social networking Web site, but when he traveled to meet her, the minor actually was an undercover Montgomery County detective, and Bynum is now behind bars.

Montgomery County detectives' last arrest came on Friday, when they nabbed 31-year-old Arash Koraganie Ghulam Abbas, of Germantown.

He is charged with multiple counts of human trafficking for running an Internet escort service that police said was really used for prostitution.

"He is the master of Internet escort sites," said Penrod.

Abbas is allegedly the son of an Afghan government official. Police said he also used Craigslist.

"With the blatant advertisement of prostitution, tou are just a fish in a barrel for us," said Penrod.

All of the suspects face a maximum of 10 years in jail for the human trafficking charges. If the charges involve minors, it goes up to 25 years in jail.


By ARLENE BORENSTEIN