Several area police agencies working to stop human trafficking on Friday announced a sting that arrested two men for soliciting prostitution.
Working at hotels in Roseland, police Thursday arrested 43-year-old Oseas Luna of Elkhart and 45-year-old Chad Demis of Grovertown in Starke County. Some view prostitution as victimless but Indiana State Police Sgt. Ted Bohner said women often are trapped in it.
“They’re reluctant to get help, out of fear, out of coercion, out of pressures that the traffickers might put on their families, especially when it comes to like labor trafficking where they’re paying off debt,” Bohner says.
Bohner says people in Michiana shouldn’t think trafficking only happens in bigger cities.
“We’re situated in such a sweet spot, so to speak, with a couple of major interstates through our part of northern Indiana here that connect us to larger areas where a lot of these rings are established.”
The arrests come three weeks after the St. Joseph County Health Department at least temporarily shut down King Asian massage near Ireland and Ironwood roads on South Bend’s south side, following a state police investigation. The city’s Board of Public Works on Tuesday will consider whether to renew their massage permit. The city staff has given the request an unfavorable recommendation.
