The bill, named after a local lawmaker who died of cancer earlier this year, carves out exceptions for some licensed traders and is a result of years of contentious political wrangling between ocean conservationists and Florida’s fishing industry. Americans are Buying More Guns than Ever During the Pandemic, Record Shows, President Trump Scheduled to Visit Kenosha, Where Jacob Blake Was Shot, Amid Unrest, Horror Movies of the 90's: Scary Films to Watch this Halloween, How to Vote in the US Presidential Election, How Injury Settlements May be Impacted by COVID-19, Donut Flavors That Are Unique, Where to Find Them in America, Razor Blades Found Inside Pizza Dough, Authorities Arrest Suspected Man Responsible, Best Sushi in America: Where to Find Authentic Sushi in the Country, Nobel Prize in Literature Awarded to Cambridge Poet Louise Gluck. Channel 2′s … A two-week mission to rescue endangered and missing children in Georgia led to the recovery of 39 juveniles and the arrests of nine suspects, the U.S. Demand for shark fin soup has been declining in China, and in an interview with Mongabay, shark conservation expert David Schiffman said that the focus on fins is misguided, with bans like the one in Florida overshadowing more effective approaches to protecting sharks from being overfished. After each tweet, please post the most persuasive online evidence you know of. (commentary), Brazil moves toward transfer of deforestation and fire monitoring to military. Antarctic ice melt related to tropical weather shifts: Study, Forest degradation outpaces deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon: Study, Could disruptions in meat supply relieve pressure on the Amazon? Good job cleaning up the streets, FBI and boys in blue. Secret Trump Operation Makes Huge Bust In Human Trafficking Ring By Michael Ruiz August 28, 2020. Type above and press Enter to search. The Trump administration has achieved the largest international sex trafficking ring bust in U.S. history, prosecutors have announced. It's interesting how many foreign names you hear in the daily crime reports. The charges against Wu and his associates point to murky waters in state and federal regulations on the shark fin trade. It noted that the authorities had “investigated, prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers” than last year, and rang alarm bells about the lack of proactive measures taken to prevent human trafficking or protect victims. According to agents with the USFWS, the case is part of a broader effort to disrupt wildlife trafficking networks working inside and outside of U.S. borders. Aug 7, 2020 123 missing children found in just ONE DAY in the United States after sex trafficking ring busted, Global 247 news The U.S Marshalls Service said they found the missing victims of the trafficking ring during the one day operation. The nine suspects face a total of 26 charges, including sex offender violations. Washington said that rescuing children is the most meaningful work that law enforcement does. Bruce Harvey, an Atlanta-based attorney for Terry Xing Zhao Wu, 45, who is alleged to have operated Serendipity Solutions out of his home in Burlingame, California, said it was too early to issue a statement about the case. US Marshals find 39 missing children in Georgia in ‘Operation Not Forgotten’, Trump’s Economy Puts Rust Belt Wasteland Back On The Map, Liberal Governor Exposed In Outrageous Pandemic Fraud, Big Tech Censors Official Government Website To Protect Biden, President Trump To Receive Total Vindication — Giuliani Reveals Biden Family Bombshell, Fake News Outlets ‘Forget’ To Ask Biden Tough Questions, Trump Remains Confident Tariff Threat Will Lead To Progress Between US And Europe On Trade. by Ashoka Mukpo on 28 September 2020 . Because of its key position in the global shipping economy, the U.S. often serves as a waypoint for hauls of shark fins collected from Latin American and Caribbean waters before they are shipped to buyers abroad. All the accomplices were also from Harrisburg. Six arrests were made in the raids in Saxony and Berlin and four other German states, federal police spokesman Axel Bernhardt said. Moldova’s Pro-Russian President under Pressure in Re-Run of 2016 Election, British Whistleblower Arrested in Croatia Tells of ‘Nightmare’ Extradition Wait, ‘A Hero Returns’: How Freed War Criminals are Glorified in Kosovo, ‘Model’ Camps’ Closures Fuel Fears for Greek Island’s Migrants, Hungry Berlin Learns to Love Taste of the Balkans. “Operation Not Forgotten” involved months of planning before it began, authorities said. Kirby also said that it is difficult to put into words what they feel when they rescue a missing child, adding that the operation has impacted every single one of them. BERLIN -- More than 700 police officers searched 30 homes and businesses across Germany on Tuesday in a crackdown on human trafficking from Vietnam, authorities said. The governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, praised the operation in a tweet, saying that the state will continue to work around the clock to bring an end to human trafficking and to make sure that the perpetrators of the evil industry know that they have no place in the state. California, however, took a different tack. 700 police bust Vietnamese trafficking ring in Germany, Some Kansas City hospitals forced to divert ambulances as COVID-19 cases jump, Grandfather pleads guilty in fatal cruise ship fall of granddaughter, Senator's mispronunciation of Kamala Harris' name called 'incredibly racist', Melania Trump strikes back at former friend who secretly recorded conversations. Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said that his office has helped place the children in rehabilitation centres. Some conservationists say they aren’t all wrong. Prosecutors say the charges are a milestone in efforts to combat illegal shark fin trafficking in the U.S. “United with our partner agencies, we have shut down an operation that fed a seemingly insatiable overseas appetite for illegally traded wildlife, and seized ill-gotten assets derived from that despicable criminal enterprise,” U.S. Attorney Bobby Christine said in a press release. BREAKING: Leader Of Child Sex Trafficking Ring Busted By The FBI Sentenced To 25 Years In Prison, MEDIA SILENT The Editors - September 05, 2020 By John Paluska, Founder of … While the cruel practice of removing a shark’s fins and leaving it to drown in the ocean looms large in the public consciousness, it’s not the primary threat to global shark populations. He added that the children are not for sale and that they are not ever forgotten. In a press conference on August 27, Donald Washington, the director of the United States Marshals Service, said that a similar operation in Cleveland has recovered 15 children and led to the arrest of two people. Notably absent from the indictment are any specific charges for violating federal or state wildlife laws – instead, they include allegations of wire and mail fraud, drug trafficking, and money laundering. The police broke up a “human-trafficking” ring that was centered at a private reproductive clinic in Kiev.. Further details on the case were shared by the Deputy Interior Minister Anton Gerashenko on his Facebook page. The Marshals assisted state and local authorities in a number of separate cases during the operation. In an indictment released Sept. 4 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Georgia, prosecutors allege that 12 people took part in a national smuggling operation that falsified documents and committed wire fraud to hide the fact that a Florida-based shark fin exporter was operating out of California. Other agencies involved include the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Georgia’s Office of the Attorney General, the state’s departments of Family and Children Services and of Juvenile Justice, the FBI and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. According to the Department of Justice, three of the victims were minors, and one 14-year-old victim was a key testimony in taking the leader down. The more we shut down, the closer we get to a sex trafficking free society. Catch up on the developing stories making headlines. The raids focused on 13 suspects, all Vietnamese, who were alleged to have illegally trafficked at least 155 of their fellow country people into Germany. “We’re going after these criminal organizations the same way we’ve gone after others involved in illegal activities,” Hubbard said. The article didn't say whether they were Muslim, BLM or Antifa--or maybe all three. Romania, together with Ireland, is the only EU country put in the so-called Tier 2-Watch List of the US Government’s 2020 Trafficking in Persons Report. A statement on Friday from the prosecution body set up to combat organised crime said: “In this case, it has been established that, between March and July 2020, the members of the criminal group recruited, through the lover-boy method, several minor female victims who were threatened and obliged to practice prostitution in the Giurgiu county and the Bucharest municipality.”. © Copyright 2020 HNGN. “It is our understanding that any activity that occurred in this case was undertaken by duly licensed and approved operators.”, Bans gain steam in the U.S., but disputes linger over their effectiveness. U.S. authorities say they’ve broken up a conspiracy to traffic shark fins in and out of Florida by a company based in California, where their sale and export is banned by law. hbspt.cta.load(5981609, 'ffe07749-0055-4a95-85b3-bce123fc330c', {}); Mongabay is a reader-supported conservation and environmental science news service. But in an email to Mongabay, he pointed out that removing and selling fins from sharks isn’t necessarily illegal in Florida.