Law enforcement agents in American Samoa have raided the US territory’s Office of Immigration seeking evidence of human trafficking in a case that could involve victims from China, the Philippines and South Korea, authorities said.
The agency is suspected of helping to illegally bring Asians into the South Pacific territory through neighboring Samoa, Lieutenant John Cendrowski of the Office of Territorial and International Criminal Intelligence and Drug Enforcement said in a search warrant that was executed on Thursday.
It was possible that hundreds of victims were brought to American Samoa between May and Dec. 15, Cendrowski said. Many were women apparently being used by a prostitution ring, while the men found work in warehouses, restaurants and stores, he said.
About 20 law enforcement officers, including one FBI agent, were involved in raids at the main immigration office in Utulei village and a smaller office at Pago Pago International Airport. They seized plastic bins and immigration documents.
No charges have been filed in the case, but any defendant could be prosecuted in territorial court.
The case could also go before federal court in Hawaii or Washington if any defendant is alleged to have violated federal law.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
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