Community symposium to focus on human trafficking in Westmoreland, Western Pa.

Recent stings that led to the arrests of three Western Pennsylvania massage parlor operators garnered widespread publicity, but two local human-service workers don’t see the region’s human trafficking issues ending soon.

“A lot of times, we think of human trafficking as the van snatching a child or woman at the mall or airport, or working in prostitution rings, but it goes far beyond that,” said Dawn Hennessey, a professional counselor who is the founder and executive director of Faith Forward, a faith-based nonprofit in Latrobe that provides resources and counseling to assist human trafficking victims every day. “Often it’s the woman who’s caught in addiction and doesn’t know how to get out of it. She’s so sick within her disease that she actually starts selling her body for her next fix.”

Westmoreland County’s busy highway arteries — including the Pennsylvania Turnpike, Interstate 70 and Route 22 — make this “a gateway” to traffickers, said Kristin Bodair, education outreach program manager for the Blackburn Center, the Greensburg-based agency that provides assistance to adult and child victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

“It’s just like the drug traffic coming in on the turnpike from New York or along Interstate 70 from Columbus, Ohio,” Bodair said. “Human trafficking is linked through the highways, too.”

Hennessey and Bodair will speak Wednesday when Latrobe-based Goal Magazine holds its third annual community symposium, with a focus on human trafficking in the region. The event will be held at the Fred Rogers Center on Saint Vincent College’s Unity campus. It is free and open to the public. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The event begins at 6 p.m.

A local panel of experts will share information on the causes and types of human trafficking and prevention. Serving as moderator will be Trooper Stephen Limani of the Pennsylvania State Police barracks in Greensburg.

In addition to Hennessey and Bodair, other speakers will include Sarah Medina, regional anti-human trafficking coordinator for the Salvation Army; Laura O’Malley Mancuso, Pittsburgh ambassador of the global anti-human trafficking organization A21; and Westmoreland Commissioner Gina Cerilli, a member of the county’s human trafficking task force.

Since 2007, the National Human Trafficking Hotline (888-373-7888) as field nearly 5,000 calls that reference Pennsylvania. Those reports led to 1,211 cases, officials with the national hotline reported.

Last year, the hotline received 630 contacts involving Pennsylvania with 275 cases of human trafficking reported. In 2012, 91 human trafficking cases were reported in the state.

In 2018, Pennsylvania ranked fifth in the nation for federal criminal human trafficking cases, with 42 cases, according to the Human Trafficking Institute. Sex trafficking was alleged in 38 of those cases.

The Blackburn Center does not release what percentage of its clients are human trafficking victims, Bodair said.

She noted traffickers use a variety of methods to control victims, including force, fraud or coercion.

“We see traffickers locally often initially contact victims through social media,” Bodair said.

She said traffickers often “groom victims over time,” forging relationships that often lead to physical assaults for drugs or sexual exploitation for money.

In March, state Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the arrests of four people for operating five massage parlors in Monroeville and Murrysville.

Hui Xu, 44, of Mt. Pleasant, owned and operated four Tokyo Massage parlors; and Huicun Wei, 47, of Flushing, N.Y., owned Judy’s Oriental Massage Parlor in Murrysville, Shapiro alleged.

Also accused are Chang Yu Chen, 51, of Monroeville, who was described as a handyman and manager; and Robert Delano Yerick, 83, of Delmont, described as an administrator and handyman. The four are awaiting trial in Greensburg.

In August, federal prosecutors in Florida accused David C. Williams, 41, of Pensacola, of running a network of massage parlors from the Sunshine State to Pennsylvania — including ones in Bridgeville, Carnegie, Erie, Hempfield and Turtle Creek — that exploited undocumented women and underage girls to perform sex acts for money.

Many of them flew from China to New York, where they made their way to Flushing before being sent to his various businesses, the FBI reported in court filings. Two anonymous calls to the National Human Trafficking Hotline prompted that investigation, agents said.

Trafficking is not just a U.S., state or local issue.

In England, authorities last month launched one of that country’s largest-ever murder investigations after 39 bodies were found dead and frozen inside a tractor-trailer at an industrial park.

The New York Times reported last week police in Vietnam arrested two people in connection with the deaths as part of a continuing human trafficking probe. Police urged two brothers in Northern Ireland to turn themselves in for questioning in the case, the newspaper reported.

Bodair noted Blackburn and other groups emphasize community awareness in their fight against trafficking. Since the creation of the county’s human trafficking task force, programs have been presented to more than 13,000 school students.

Tawnya Rockwell, chief production manager of Goal Magazine, said several local nonprofits will have resource tables at Wednesday’s symposium. People interested in the event can call Goal at 724-209-8219, email info@go2goalus.com or visit go2goalus.com/2019-goal-symposium.