Some Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCO), with direct ties to the People’s Republic of China (PRC), engage in human trafficking to staff their cultivation sites for workers in the United States. These victims of human trafficking are often deceived by traffickers with promises of good work and money by tending plants in the United States. Once they arrive at a cultivation site, they are often threatened and coerced to live and work in deplorable conditions for little to no money.
Human trafficking associated to drug dealing is not specific to the United States and can be found in other countries around the world. The trafficking of foreign nationals for the illicit sex market is also a problem associated to the act of human trafficking.
This summary offers a brief look at Transnational Criminal Organizations linked to the People’s Republic of China and their ongoing involvement in the domestic cultivation of illicit cannabis in America. To date, these scenarios have played out from the West Coast to the East Coast. Human trafficking cases present unique problems to law-enforcement from language barriers, recognizing human trafficking victims, and access to resources, to help safeguard those victims.
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Photo: MIG A.I. and unsplash.com / bkaraivanov