How Canada’s massive human-trafficking ring was brought down

How Canada’s massive human-trafficking ring was brought down – The Globe and Mail.

Sandor Simon was at a Hamilton welfare office when he became agitated, saying he was terrified of the people he was living with and wanted to escape. With RCMP constable, Lepa Jankovic

Bringing down Canada’s massive human-trafficking ring

adrian morrow

HAMILTON— From Saturday’s Globe and Mail

Apr. 06,

One December morning, a 49-year-old Hungarian named Sandor Simon was at a Hamilton welfare office when he became agitated, saying he was terrified of the people he was living with and wanted to escape.

Staff knew an RCMP constable, Lepa Jankovic, was investigating suspicious activity involving Hungarian nationals, so they called her. When she arrived, Mr. Simon was hunched over with his arms in his lap, in a full sweat, his hat curled up in his hand

Ferenc Domotor

Constable Jankovic, 41, drove him back to her office, stopping to buy him a coffee and a pack of cigarettes. He warmed to her quickly.

Through a translator, he told the story: A man in his home country promised a high-paying job in the stucco industry if he would move to Canada. But when he arrived, he was confined to a basement with three other men and, he learned, would be forced to work long hours for no pay.

Constable Jankovic knew she was on to something. She was about to unravel the largest-known human-trafficking ring in Canadian history, exposing a Hungarian crime family that made men work as slaves on construction sites. Despite its size, the entire operation would be busted by just two tenacious RCMP officers, an aggressive Crown attorney, a couple of investigators from other agencies and a non-governmental organization.

Her very life was on the line: At one point, a hit man was hired to kill the investigators on the case.

THE CASE BEGINS

In September of 2009, Customs and Border Services Agency officer Deb Kerr called Constable Jankovic to a meeting: An unusual number of Hungarians, Ms. Kerr told her, were living at just a handful of addresses. Intrigued, Constable Jankovic spoke with welfare fraud investigator Gary Brown, who’d noticed a similar pattern.

She learned from Hamilton police that, the previous spring, four Hungarian men had alleged they were forced to work for no pay by a businessman named Ferenc Domotor. But the victims eventually went back to Mr. Domotor’s house – there was nothing officers could do.

Then, three days before Christmas, the welfare office called.

At 6-foot-1, Constable Jankovic cuts an imposing figure that belies her sunny disposition. This warmth helped her build a rapport with Mr. Simon.

“You could tell he was scared,” she recalls. “He didn’t have a dollar on him, he didn’t have a suitcase, he had nothing.”

The morning after interviewing him, she scoped out the house where Mr. Simon had been kept. She was parked outside when a man stepped onto the porch for a smoke. She walked over and identified herself, but the man, who spoke no English, didn’t understand. “Police! Come with me!” she called. Noticing two other men peeking out from the basement window, she shouted their friend’s name: “Sandor! Sandor!” Then, they understood.

At the RCMP office, all three gave statements, confirming they were victims of a human-trafficking ring.

Trafficking In Persons Report Map 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As the investigation grew, Constable Husam Farah was assigned. A 33-year-old with a youthful look and the exuberance to match, Constable Farah started processing the evidence Constable Jankovic had collected. He barely had time to catch up when the next victim came forward.

One cold, January night, a young man named David Bogdan escaped from Ferenc Domotor’s home and went to police. Around the same time, a contractor called Constable Jankovic to tell her about Tamas Miko, a young man working on one of his job sites, and also living in Mr. Domotor’s basement.

Around 6 a.m. on Jan. 6, 2010, Constable Jankovic and several officers went to Ferenc Domotor’s newly built monster home in the Hamilton suburb of Ancaster. When the contractor arrived in a white truck and picked Mr. Miko up for work, they boxed in his vehicle. Constable Jankovic approached the passenger side. Reading from a piece of paper, she told Mr. Miko in Hungarian: “I will take you to a safe place. You do not have to stay here. I am Canadian police.”

Mr. Miko was surprised. The contractor pushed him towards the door, shouting “Go! Go! Go!” The officers bundled Mr. Miko into Constable Jankovic’s van.

Next, they knocked on the door, hoping to retrieve his belongings. For the first time, Constable Jankovic came face-to-face with the man she would later discover was the trafficking ring’s leader. Ferenc Domotor and his family were courteous and accommodating.

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How Canada’s massive human-trafficking ring was brought down – The Globe and Mail.

Related articles

• In pictures: The many faces of Ferenc Domotor’s human-trafficking scheme (theglobeandmail.com)
• Hungary’s Roma ‘refugees’ not winning friends in Canada (threeyearsonmars.com)

Excessive force by Victoria police – Mar 20, 2010 – judge for yourself

“Don’t worry, we have evidence…”

Victoria, B.C. — A Victoria police officer who was captured on video kicking two men will not face criminal charges, Crown counsel announced Friday.

The 57-second video, which was posted on YouTube, shows three officers scrambling to make arrests after a group of allegedly drunken men, ages 19 to 27, got into a bloody brawl on Store Street outside the Victoria Social Club on March 21 last year.

Const. Chris Bowser, seen wearing a yellow jacket in the video, became the centre of a criminal investigation after he kicked two men, 24-year-old Harpinder Kang and 20-year-old Tyler Archer, who were both on the ground at the time.

The video, which was viewed more than 260,000 times, sparked public outrage and accusations that the officer used excessive force.

Following a criminal investigation by Vancouver police, B.C.’s criminal justice branch decided that Bowser did not use excessive force and should not be charged.

A statement from the Crown said a host of evidence was considered, including the video, interviews with officers and witnesses at the scene, and a report from a use-of-force expert.

“While many witnesses viewed the officer’s conduct as heavy-handed, many also confirmed that the two individuals who were kicked were resisting the police efforts to handcuff them,” the statement said. Police training allows the use of “hard physical control techniques such as punches, kicks, elbows and knees” to control someone who is resisting arrest, it said.

Victoria defence lawyer Richard Neary, who is representing Archer and Kang in a civil lawsuit, said he is “shocked and appalled” at the Crown’s findings, which, he said, fly in the face of a Police Act decision that considered the same evidence.

According to Neary, a preliminary Police Act investigation by the Calgary Police Department — which ran parallel to the criminal investigation — found that Bowser used excessive force against Archer, but not against Kang.

Neary disputes that. He said Bowser used excessive force against both, and is asking that a retired judge be appointed to investigate.

Neary said the Crown’s decision is “a real black mark on the administration of justice. It sends the message that police are held to a different standard.”

Victoria police Chief Jamie Graham acknowledged that the video images were disturbing, but said police work is often gritty.

“People do not always choose to be co-operative,” he said, reading from a prepared statement. “They fight. They kick. They punch. They bleed, and they resist.”

Graham said the Crown’s review of the case paints a more complete picture than a 57-second video clip of an incident that witnesses said lasted from five to 20 minutes. “The officers did not act in a reckless and wanton manner, but deployed calculated police tactics designed to minimize injury and subdue the assailants.”

Graham said that Bowser, who has been with the department for nine years, will return to regular duties.

“He is an outstanding officer and this process has been incredibly hard on him and his family,” he said. “Despite the vilification, the death threats, the public tarnishing of his image, he wanted to return to full duties and get back to doing what he loves.”

The chief declined to take questions from the media. Department spokesman Sgt. Grant Hamilton confirmed that nobody involved in the brawl was charged with a criminal offence, because the alleged victims refused to co-operate with police.

kderosa@timescolonist.com

lkines@timescolonist.com

kderosa@timescolonist.com

YouTube – Excessive force by Victoria police – Mar 20, 2010 – judge for yourself.