Human Trafficking: Super Bowl Tourists and the Sex Trade

Authorities in Texas are teaming with the airline industry and child welfare advocates to try to put a stop to the human trafficking brought in during the Super Bowl. The "Today Show" reported this week that efforts are being ramped up as young girls from Latin America are being brought in for the Super Bowl tourist rush. Human traffickers are said to bring the girls in to take advantage of travelers with extra cash. Sometimes working with cab drivers, they set up a sort of rolling brothel in their vehicles, according to Deena Graves, executive director of child advocacy group Traffick911.

Girls are often recruited into the human trafficking rings from shopping malls, large events or online. The girls are offered the lure of easy money, then whisked away to foreign cities or countries where they are far more vulnerable. Once taken in, the girls are often raped and drugged. Shame and psychological manipulation are used to keep the kids in check. Getting arrested for prostitution is often their only hope for escape.

It's not just girls that can fall prey to human trafficking rings in the U.S. Noreen Gosch, mother of missing paperboy Johnny Gosch, is convinced her son was taken by such people.

Johnny Gosch was allegedly kidnapped from his early morning paper route on Sept. 5, 1982. Witnesses at the scene just prior to Johnny's alleged kidnapping said a man pulled up asking for directions while the boys were folding their newspapers. Johnny told one of the boys he was scared and going home. As he went off alone, the man in the car was said to have flashed his dome light three times, like a signal, before going in the direction of Johnny. After weeks of searching for the boy with no clues the case fell stagnant.

In 1989, Paul Bonacci came forward and allegedly admitted to aiding in the abduction of Johnny Gosch, but officials did not think he was credible. According to Bonacci, Johnny was taken by a ring of pedophiles and child pornographers who were "highly organized" and "very corporate." Though Paul Bonacci's credibility was thrown out by police and a grand jury refused to indict, he won a civil suit against his alleged captor Lawrence E. King. The judge awarded Bonacci $1 million when King failed to appear to refute the allegations against him. King was serving time for fraud and tax evasion at the time of the civil trial.

Noreen Gosch appeared and testified under oath that her son had come home one night in 1997, something she had never told her husband. She told the court that Johnny had come in the middle of the night with another man and was identified by a birthmark. Gosch reported that Johnny had told her the entire story of his abduction, and that he had to live under an assumed name now to stay safe since he could name his captors. In 2000, Noreen self published a book chronicling her investigation into human trafficking called "Why Johnny Can't Come Home."

In 2006, Noreen Gosch began receiving photos of what she believes is her son Johnny and other young boys bound and gagged. In at least one of the pictures one of the boys is seen in the same clothing as Johnny on the day he went missing. Police received an anonymous tip that the boys in the photo had long since been identified and that they were not of Johnny Gosch. A retired Florida police investigator backed up the tip and no new leads were investigated.

Whether Johnny Gosch was kidnapped by human traffickers remains a mystery. The shocking case changed the way parents watched their children, even in the quietest of neighborhoods in the Midwest, US.

Sources:
Super Bowl a magnet for under-age sex trade

Johnny's Birthday: Missing paperboy Johnny Gosch would have turned 41 Friday

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