Three more charged in Texas human trafficking case

Three more defendants have been charged in the ongoing Texas human trafficking conspiracy involving young runaway girls. 

In a recent release, the U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Texas states that Chantel Deshay Collins, Asia Monae Hailey and Michael Gonzalez each had an initial court appearance recently and are currently awaiting trial. Charges include sex trafficking of a child, kidnapping, sexual exploitation of a child, attempted obstruction of justice and attempted coercion/enticement of a child.

According to ICE, the defendants allegedly recruited teenage girls and forced them engage in sex acts for payment in an area of Houston called “The Blade.” 

“This is an area near Southwest 59 Freeway and Bissonnet Street in Houston where traffickers commonly place their victims, according to the charges,” the release states. 

Victims were allegedly passed from defendant to defendant, who instructed each other in what they called “the pimp game” and forced the girls to sell their bodies. The defendants are alleged to have kept the money victims received for sex acts and are also accused of setting daily quotas for their victims and beating or humiliating them if they failed to make enough money from selling their own bodies.

“The superseding indictment further alleges if any of the girls wanted to switch between pimps, they would have to pay an exit fee or get “beat out” to do so. In one instance, a minor girl had allegedly wandered onto a rival pimp’s territory. The charges allege she was kidnapped and raped as a consequence,” the release reads. 

Previous defendants in the Houston-based human trafficking case include Clarence Chambers, Javon Opoku, Damarquis McGee, Jerreck Hilliard, Vanessa Sillabi and Andres Portillo, who each face some combination of the aforementioned charges.

The Houston trafficking case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Richard Bennett and Kate Suh, and was investigated by the Houston Police Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, the release states.

According to a 2016 report from the University of Texas at Austin, there are 78,996 minor and youth victims of human trafficking and 234,457 victims of labor trafficking in Texas at any given time, totaling 313,453 victims of human trafficking.

If convicted, all defendants could face up to life in prison.