Sex-Trafficking Ring In South Jersey Home Lured New Victims Every Week: AG

BRIDGETON, NJ — A human-trafficking ring in South Jersey lured women from throughout the region and operated a brothel out of a Cumberland County home, authorities said Tuesday.

Four people were indicted for their roles in the criminal organization, which forced victims into prostitution out of a home on Bridgeton's North Laurel Street, according to the state Office of the Attorney General (OAG).

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

The criminal organization picked up new women every week and forced them to perform commercial sex on hundreds of men, authorities said. They recruited the victims by lying that they would be working as "dancers," according to the OAG.

After being brought to the house, Luna told the victims they couldn't leave, authorities said.

Victims were pulled in from Queens, New York, and Paterson, New Jersey.

The suspects also dealt drugs out of the house, authorities said. Law enforcement found "distribution amounts" of methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana, along with over $50,000 cash in the brothel and Luna's home.