New Jersey sex trafficking ring attracts new victims every week: AG

BRIDGETON, NJ – A human trafficking ring in South Jersey lured women from across the region and ran a brothel in a Cumberland County home, authorities said Tuesday.

Four people have been charged for their roles in the criminal organization that forced victims into prostitution from a home on North Laurel Street in Bridgeton, according to the state Attorney General’s Office (OAG).

Usiel Luna, Jose Perez-Lopez, Rosendo Vazquez-Hernandez and Yerson Puentes-Marquez – all Bridgeton residents – were charged.

According to authorities, the criminal organization took in new women every week and forced them to have commercial sex with hundreds of men. They recruited the victims with the lie that they would work as “dancers,” according to the BA.

After being taken to the house, Luna told the victims they were not allowed to leave the house, authorities said.

The victims were drafted from Queens, New York, and Paterson, New Jersey.

The suspects also dealt drugs outside the home, authorities said. Police discovered “distribution quantities” of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, as well as more than $50,000 worth of cash at the brothel and Luna’s home.