The Current

Written by: Tom Gillan in Freedom Blog (Human Trafficking) on September 18, 2012
Did you know that Florida has the third highest number of Human Trafficking cases in the United States? With almost 40,000 homeless or runaway youth on Florida’s streets at any given time, the Central Florida area draws predators from around the world. When it comes to human trafficking, the numbers are too big to fully comprehend. When you look at them—2 to 4 million persons trafficked annually around the world, 20,000 persons trafficked in the State of Florida each year, 2.8 million homeless children walking the streets of America, 39,000 children reported missing in Florida last year—you begin to lose sight that each and every number is a human being.
Predators on Every Corner
When it comes to human trafficking in the United States, experts say that pimps and predators are constantly prowling the streets looking for victims, who are usually easy to spot. These predators use a variety of methods to lure and force young people into lives of sex slavery. One such case took place in Orlando in 2006 at an apartment complex near The Mall of Millennia just off I-4. Not all immigrant victims of sex trafficking are recruited in their home countries and neither are all sex trafficking offenses the result of extensive criminal networks.

The “Telichenko” sex trafficking case involved the exploitation of a young Russian woman who was visiting her best friend in Philadelphia, Pa. The victim had come to the United States on a B-2 tourist visa and met Ukrainian national Yelena Telichenko in a family-owned Russian restaurant in the Northeast section of Philadelphia. Telichenko, who worked as a court interpreter in Orlando, persuaded the 22 year-old to accompany her back to Florida for a short business trip and to visit Disney World and Universal Studios. Upon arrival, Telichenko at first required the young woman to do all the cooking and cleaning in her Orlando apartment in exchange for her trip to Central Florida. After a week, however, the relationship became physically abusing when Telichenko didn’t like something the woman cooked; she would hit the young girl in the head or slap her face.

After arriving back to the apartment after a day at Disney World, Telichenko told the young woman that three men would be coming by to visit. When the men arrived they paid Telichenko money and she left the apartment. The men forced the young woman to have sex with them. A period of commercial sexual exploitation then began that was based on “in-call prostitution.” Upscale customers of the prostitution venture would routinely come to Telichenko’s upscale apartment where the commercial sexual transactions occurred. Telichenko was both the pimp and the enforcer of this “boutique” single-victim prostitution scheme. One night as punishment, Telichenko made the young woman strip and kneel on the hard ceramic tiled floor in the bathroom. She told the girl not to sit or lay down and locked the door from the outside. The next morning, Telichenko unlocked the bathroom door to find the young woman sleeping and began to hit and kick her. Battered as a result of the beating, the victim was ordered by Telichenko to tell customers over the next few weeks that she had been in a car accident.
Psychological coercion as well as physical assaults were employed against the young woman to ensure her continued compliance. Telichenko informed the victim that she had powerful friends in the Florida court system that would jail or deport her whenever Telichenko gave the word. She also threatened harm to the victim’s family back in her home country of Russia. Telichenko went even further, attempting to extort money long distance from the young woman’s grandmother in Germany and from her mother in Russia. In response, the mother called the Russian Embassy in Washington, D.C., prompting a law enforcement investigation. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents encountered the victim taking out the trash late one evening and detained her. ICE contacted the local Criminal Justice Office at Catholic Charities in Orlando to provide translation services during the initial interview and to provide victim service support throughout the case. The perpetrator disappeared, but was found a week later hiding in a closet of a Kissimmee home with $17,000.00 in her fanny pack. Telichenko eventually pleaded guilty at trial to forced labor violations and received a six and a half year prison sentence. Telichenko, who was already ordered to be deported previously, will face immediate removal from the United States after completing her sentence. The victim still lives in fear that her family will be hurt when Telichenko returns to Russia.

“The Israelites groaned in their slavery and cried out, and their cry for help because of their slavery went up to God” (Exodus 2:23).
So you may ask … what can we do? Pray, pray and then pray some more. Human Trafficking is the work of Satan, and we must remember that we battle not against flesh and blood!

I hope you'll continue to follow this blog for updates, informational videos highlighting the problems, stories and practical steps that you can take to make a difference right where you are!

*The information in this blog was taken from:
The Department of Justice Press Release on Tuesday, October 31, 2006.
The State of Florida Strategic Plan Report in 2010 produced by The Center for the Advancement of Human Rights at Florida State University.