Disney employees among 108 arrested in human & child trafficking ring
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Police in Florida arrest 108 people suspected of child trafficking and soliciting women to work as prostitutes.
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The arrest was successful following an undercover operation
During an operation called "March Sadness 2", police officers arrested 108 people on a number of charges related to prostitution, human trafficking, and soliciting prostitutes, including three child sexual predators.
Police identified four Disney employees among those arrested, one of whom, Xavier Jackson, sent sexual content to an undercover agent posing as an underage 14-year-old.
Three suspected child predators were among those arrested, and are also Disney employees: Wilkason Fidele, age 24, who worked at Disney World's Tomorrowland, Shubham Malave, age 27, a software developer, and Ralph Leese, age 45, an IT employee.
As for the others, a former judge was among those arrested. Daniel Peters, 66, had moved to Florida after his retirement, and was suspected of soliciting a prostitute.
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Four Disney employees and a former judge were among those arrested in "Operation March Sadness 2"
“The arrests of a human trafficker and four child predators alone makes this whole operation worthwhile. The online prostitution industry enables traffickers and victimizes those who are being trafficked. Our goal is to identify victims, offer them help, and find and arrest those who are profiting from the exploitation of human beings,” Sheriff Grady Judd said.
Human Trafficking in the US
Slavery is still alive in the United States, seeping through the cracks and loopholes of US labor laws that barely ever hold authorities accountable, leaving room for human rights abuses, exploitation, rape, and harassment.
A December report by The Guardian exposed this harrowing reality.
In June 2021, a farmworker from Mexico, who demanded that he remain anonymous in fear of retaliation from the abusers, revealed that he was trafficked through a 'labor' network from Mexico to Georgia, USA.
The victims paid around $950 to the traffickers - money that they borrowed from their mothers - and took trips back and forth between Mexico and the US before the traffickers told them that it'd be finally safe to leave Mexico and work in the US.
