A federal lawsuit filed by a prominent civil rights attorney alleges that police officers in Fairfax County protected a sex trafficking ring in Northern…
Summary
- A federal lawsuit filed by a prominent civil rights attorney alleges that police officers in Fairfax County protected a sex trafficking ring in Northern Virginia in exchange for free sex from the trafficked women.
- The suit was filed on behalf of a Costa Rican woman identified in the lawsuit only as “Jane Doe.” It says the officers would tip off the trafficking ring to suspend its online advertisements in advance of sting operations run by police.
- As the detective, William Woolf, pressed his efforts to investigate, he said he was threatened by high-ranking officers.
- But when she arrived in the U.S. in late 2010, the woman who ran the trafficking ring, Hazel Sanchez Cerdas, took her passport and forced her to engage in commercial sex.
- Sanchez’s lawyer said in court papers that trafficking ring operated from 2010 through 2012, but in the civil lawsuit and in an FBI affidavit, the Costa Rican woman said she was coerced into working for Sanchez through 2015.