Gay Sex Slave Ring in NYC & Miami: Hungarian Men Charged in Alleged Human Trafficking Case
Three Hungarian nationals have been arrested for allegedly forcing three young gay men to work in the United States as "sex slaves" in New York City and Miami.
Viktor Berki, 28, Andras Janos Vass, 24, and Gabor Acs, 31, were charged in Miami-Dade state court with human trafficking and racketeering.
Officials say that the suspected ringleaders met two of their victims in Hungary through GayRomeo.com. The other victim was a male prostitute whom they met via on Facebook. The pimps then solicited the men to work in the U.S. through the promise of making easy money through a legal means. Instead, the three victims were forced to put on a show of sex acts for 20 hours a day, the Miami Herald reported.
"Berki told (one of the victims) he was a policeman in Hungary with a lot of contacts there which (the victim) understood to be a threat to him and his family," said an agent in the police warrant.
When another victim attempted to return to Hungary, Berki said he would be "able to make them all disappear as if they never existed."
"These individuals may have come from a different country to exploit the vulnerable," said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to the Miami Herald. "But they used the same basic trafficker tools of fear and intimidation to make their profits."
The sex ring began in New York City and moved to Miami in 2012. The suspects took the victims' passports and didn't pay them a lot.
On Friday, officials arrested Berki and Vass in New York City and took them to a detention facility in the Bronx. Acs was busted in Miami and transported to a federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement facility, NBC Miami reported.
"This case serves as a reminder that sex trafficking is not limited to any particular race, gender, age or sexual orientation," Alysa Erichs, a federal agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in Miami, told the Miami Herald.
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