Ukraine, Georgia and the Urals. Most of these girls weren’t very sophisticated-very little education, never been far from their village, and no hopes of any job to support themselves or their families. After the economic crash, the choices went from bad to worse for these women. Ads started appearing in the local papers for models, dancers, restaurant workers, or nannies to work in Europe and the United States.”
“And I’m guessing what they signed up for wasn’t exactly what they found when they got to their destination?” asked Rivera.
“Exactly,” said Miller. “These girls were interviewed in the villages and if they were young and pretty were sometimes smuggled out of the country within hours. Once they arrived, their sponsor informed them he would keep their passports until they could repay the thousands of dollars they owed for travel expenses. Instead of the job they were promised modeling or working in a restaurant, they usually ended up working in a strip club or massage parlor. They could never get ahead-the expenses just kept adding up for food, clothes, and rent. Those initial jobs were on the job training to ease them into the real business.”
“Prostitution,” said Rivera.
“Exactly; after a few months of intimidation, rape and beatings, they would be turning dozens of tricks a day in a whorehouse or if a girl was really pretty, she might be used for escort services for the tourist trade.
Miller cleared his throat and resumed, “We were working with the Italians trying to figure some way to get one of our guys working on the inside. For once, we managed to catch a lucky break-the manager for some clubs owned by the Camorra was nailed with a couple of kilos of coke one night after he accidentally ran over a tourist with his scooter. Usually, he would have beat feet and left the tourist in one of the neighborhood garbage piles. That night, he had the great misfortune to do the deed right in front of one of the few Polizia Municipale who couldn’t be bribed or threatened.”
“We persuaded him that it was in his best interests to make some introductions on our behalf. Kyle was presented as a money man-if someone had fifty or sixty million Euros from dubious sources and needed to have it come up clean on the other side, he was the ‘go to’ guy. Took a few meetings and a lot of documentation to provide his bonafides, but it was beginning to payoff. Kyle started off small, but after a couple of months he was introduced to an Ukranian General named Popov who seemed to be the spider in the center of the web. He started using Kyle for larger transactions and was talking about getting him involved with a new venture in Florida.”
“Who was Popov involved with in Florida?” asked Rivera. “Other Russians or the Columbians?”
“Columbians. This guy was a freakin’ one man, multinational corporation,” said Miller. “We were getting regular weekly reports from Kyle while he was in Italy, but he cut back the flow of information after he came back to the states-said he was getting word of some cops being paid off in South Florida. All just rumors the low level guys talked about after a few drinks, but it sounded like information was being leaked from law enforcement back to Popov.
Miller paused to let the implications of that sink in. “Kyle’s been here for about two months working his way into Popov’s operations-mainly the strip clubs and new operation with the Columbians. He thought he could get enough information to shut down the entire network on both continents. Everything moving smoothly until last week when he completely dropped off the radar.”
Miller nodded at Davis. “Agent Davis works out of our Miami office-I’ll let him pick up the story from here.”
Davis cleared his throat and took over the conversation. “Our local office really wasn’t really in the loop until ten days ago, because we had pretty much been left in the dark on the details of the operation.”
“And I’m guessing what they signed up for wasn’t exactly what they found when they got to their destination?” asked Rivera.
“Exactly,” said Miller. “These girls were interviewed in the villages and if they were young and pretty were sometimes smuggled out of the country within hours. Once they arrived, their sponsor informed them he would keep their passports until they could repay the thousands of dollars they owed for travel expenses. Instead of the job they were promised modeling or working in a restaurant, they usually ended up working in a strip club or massage parlor. They could never get ahead-the expenses just kept adding up for food, clothes, and rent. Those initial jobs were on the job training to ease them into the real business.”
“Prostitution,” said Rivera.
“Exactly; after a few months of intimidation, rape and beatings, they would be turning dozens of tricks a day in a whorehouse or if a girl was really pretty, she might be used for escort services for the tourist trade.
Miller cleared his throat and resumed, “We were working with the Italians trying to figure some way to get one of our guys working on the inside. For once, we managed to catch a lucky break-the manager for some clubs owned by the Camorra was nailed with a couple of kilos of coke one night after he accidentally ran over a tourist with his scooter. Usually, he would have beat feet and left the tourist in one of the neighborhood garbage piles. That night, he had the great misfortune to do the deed right in front of one of the few Polizia Municipale who couldn’t be bribed or threatened.”
“We persuaded him that it was in his best interests to make some introductions on our behalf. Kyle was presented as a money man-if someone had fifty or sixty million Euros from dubious sources and needed to have it come up clean on the other side, he was the ‘go to’ guy. Took a few meetings and a lot of documentation to provide his bonafides, but it was beginning to payoff. Kyle started off small, but after a couple of months he was introduced to an Ukranian General named Popov who seemed to be the spider in the center of the web. He started using Kyle for larger transactions and was talking about getting him involved with a new venture in Florida.”
“Who was Popov involved with in Florida?” asked Rivera. “Other Russians or the Columbians?”
“Columbians. This guy was a freakin’ one man, multinational corporation,” said Miller. “We were getting regular weekly reports from Kyle while he was in Italy, but he cut back the flow of information after he came back to the states-said he was getting word of some cops being paid off in South Florida. All just rumors the low level guys talked about after a few drinks, but it sounded like information was being leaked from law enforcement back to Popov.
Miller paused to let the implications of that sink in. “Kyle’s been here for about two months working his way into Popov’s operations-mainly the strip clubs and new operation with the Columbians. He thought he could get enough information to shut down the entire network on both continents. Everything moving smoothly until last week when he completely dropped off the radar.”
Miller nodded at Davis. “Agent Davis works out of our Miami office-I’ll let him pick up the story from here.”
Davis cleared his throat and took over the conversation. “Our local office really wasn’t really in the loop until ten days ago, because we had pretty much been left in the dark on the details of the operation.”
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