TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey authorities announced Tuesday that they had dismantled two human trafficking networks, one of which was compel children as young as 13 to engage in sexual relations with adults in exchange for cash.
According to Attorney General Matt Platkin, seven people have been charged in connection with the operations. Horrifying facts concerning children and others allegedly being coerced into sexual interactions in Cumberland County, in the southern part of the state, and Essex County, which encompasses Newark, are included in the indictments presented in state superior court.
According to Platkin’s remark, there is no room for anyone to be exploited, particularly in this demeaning manner.
According to the indictment, Newark residents Khailah Meekins, 21, and Donte Barkley, 28, participated in the trafficking of juveniles from approximately last December to April. According to Platkin, the couple used a smartphone app to set up sexual encounters between two 15-year-olds and a 13-year-old after advertisements featuring the kids appeared online. According to the attorney general, the victims were subsequently taken to lodging facilities and short-term rentals where they were paid to be sexually assaulted.
Barkley’s lawyer, Douglas Mitchell, stated that his client will fight the charges and maintain his innocence. A request for response from Meekins’ lawyer was not immediately answered.
In August, a 24-year-old male from Irvington was charged with assault in the Newark case. The man allegedly paid for sex with one of the children, according to Platkin’s office.
According to the attorney general, Usiel Luna, 42, of Bridgeton, Jose Perez-Lopez, 40, Rosendo Vazquez-Hernandez, 35, and Yerson Puentes-Marquez, 28 of Bridgeton, recruited individuals to work as dancers in Cumberland County, after which they were offered for commercial sex. According to the accusation, the victims were taken to a Bridgeton home between March 2022 and this September, commanded not to leave, and made to have sex with hundreds of men every week.
Requests for comment on Tuesday were not immediately answered by the lawyers for Luna, Perez-Lopez, and Vazquez-Hernandez.
According to Platkin, the indictments were made two years after the attorney general’s office established a human trafficking unit.
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