In Texas, four people were arrested for running a “forced labor” scheme in a nondescript home on a quiet residential street, stunning neighbors.
The home in Princeton, about 45 miles northeast of downtown Dallas, was found to be home to 15 women who had been on welfare checks and were forced to sleep on the floor when they were not working. According to Fox 4 News.
The house was basically empty of furniture, just some blankets and a computer and other electronic devices. The police In an announcement on Monday.
According to the affidavit obtained by the outlet, the women were reported to police by a pest control company that was called to their home to remove bedbugs.
“Each room had between three and five young women sleeping on the floor,” the inspector said, adding that there were “a large number of suitcases.”
Chandan Dashireddy, 24, Dwaraka Gunda, 31, and Santosh Katkoori, 31, all of Melissa, Texas, and Anil Mehil, 37, of Prosper, were arrested in March and charged with human trafficking.
Police said the women were forced to work for Khatkoori and several shell programming companies owned by him and his wife Gunda.
A search of the home uncovered multiple laptops, mobile phones, a printer and forged documents.
Investigators later learned that the forced labor activities took place at multiple locations in Princeton, Melissa and Kukiny, and involved dozens of victims, including adult men. Electronic devices and documents were seized from the other locations.
Princeton Police Sergeant Carolyn Crawford told Fox 4 that “over 100 people” were involved, more than half of whom were victims.
Police say more arrests are expected.
“The circumstances under which we encountered this situation were very unique,” Princeton Police Chief James Waters said.[Investigators] “It will unlock a lot of other clues and a lot of other scenes that are going on there.”
Neighbors are shocked that such behaviour is taking place on their street.
“I never thought something like this would happen just a few doors down from me,” neighbor Herbert Logan said.
“I don’t know anything,” said another neighbour, Steven Watkins.
“What on earth happened before we moved here? It’s pretty dark when you think about it,” he said.
Police did not say where the victims were from or whether they had ever tried to flee.
