News & Press

Sex Trafficking

Kanubhai Patel owned the Riviera Motel. While he never personally recruited or coerced anyone into trafficking, he regularly rented rooms to pimps and traffickers known for forcing women into prostitution. He charged the pimps and traffickers higher rates for their rooms in exchange for his silence. He knew that the women were often beaten, and on at least one occasion, agreed to turn a blind eye to damage caused to a motel room during a beating in exchange for money. He also knew that the pimps and traffickers confiscated the women’s drivers licenses, because they used the licenses to check out the hotel rooms. Patel was the first person in the United States to be convicted of sex trafficking because he financially benefitted from the exploitation as the motel owner.

If you are in the United States and you need help or you want to learn more about human trafficking:

Call: 1 (888) 373-7888
National Human Trafficking Hotline
SMS: 233733 (Text “HELP” or “INFO”)
Hours: 24 hours, 7 days a week
Languages: English, Spanish, and 200 more languages
Website: humantraffickinghotline.org

 

humantrafficking@umich.edu

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