Burning Atlanta

These stories sicken me and, I think, are happening much more often than we know. Whether it's promises of a job and a better life or trying to work off a debt to smugglers, humans are being used as meat. Money making meat. Neo-slaves.

Something lower than low. 

The picture, with its implicit threat, was all it took.

It was taken just before Christmas 2004. She had been thinking about running away from the windowless bar on Houston's northwest side, where he kept her and other women, forcing some of them into prostitution while they paid off their "debts."

But Maximino "Chimino" Mondragon knew of her plans.

Carrying a camera and Christmas presents for the woman's daughter, he had appeared unannounced at her family's home in El Salvador. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, told investigators that Mondragon had talked his way into the home by saying the gifts were from her.

"By the way," Mondragon reportedly asked her parents, "would you mind taking a photo of me with the little girl?"

There were no more plans of escaping.

Gallagher said human trafficking is often confused with smuggling, but differs substantially. To fit the legal definition of human trafficking, a crime must involve using force, fraud or coercion. Recent cases in Houston have ranged from domestic servitude to forced prostitution rings.

"In many cases, they are brought into modern-day slavery," Gallagher said. "They are exploited repeatedly, and they are treated as a commodity rather than a human being."