Snuff Videos

 

Rome, Italy -- Italian and Russian police, working together, broke up a ring of Jewish gangsters who had been involved in the manufacture of child rape and snuff pornography.

Three Russian Jews and eight Italian Jews were arrested after police discovered they had been kidnapping non-Jewish children between the ages of two and five years old from Russian orphanges, raping the children, and then murdering them on film. Mostly non-Jewish customers, including 1700 nationwide, 600 in Italy, and and unknown number in the United States, paid as much as $20,000 per film to watch little children being raped and murdered.

Jewish officials in a major Italian news agency tried to cover the story up, but were circumvented by Italisn news reporters, who broadcasts scenes from the films live at prime time on Italisn television to more than 11 million Italian viewers. Jewish officials then fired the executives responsible, claiming they were spreading "blood libel."

Throughout history, various groups have accused sects of Jews of ritually murdering small children. One such account, that of Hugh of Lincoln, led to the expulsion of all Jews from Britain in the 13th Century. Such accounts have generally been discounted, but are so wide spread that Jewish organizations have developed a name for them -- "blood libel".

The American group the ADL was founded to defend a Jew, Leo Frank, accused of raping and murdering a five year old girl, Mary Fagan, in his Atlanta pencil factory in 1913. The ADL claims he was innocent. A mob lynched him after the governor commuted his death sentence to life in prison.

Though AP and Reuters both ran stories on the episode, US media conglomerates refused to carry the story on television news, again saying the story would prejudice Americans against Jews.

Jewish gangsters in Russia have become increasingly linked to traffic in "white slaves" and prostitutes through Israel, according to a recent report in the Jerusalem Post. Israel turns an official blind eye to forced prostitution, and does not punish Israeli citizens who choose to own "sex slaves", as long as the slaves are foreign and non-Jews.

Sex Tourism Plagues Central America

by Paul Jeffrey

---

Before leaving their rooms at the Parthenon Beach Hotel in the northern Honduran city of La Ceiba, two men reread information they had downloaded from the Internet before leaving home in Illinois. Then they walked two blocks east to a club featuring young nude dancers.

"We're informed consumers," one of them jokingly quipped.

Prepared by the Internet to know which girls at the club would provide the best sex and at what prices, the two are part of a new generation of technology-equipped sex tourists who travel South to exploit young women pushed by chronic poverty into prostitution.

Elsewhere in the world -- in countries from Thailand to Cuba -- sex tourism is experiencing difficulties as international pressure, including lobbying from church groups, has convinced governments to crack down on child abuse, particularly the near enslavement of young women in the sex industry.

In Central America, post-war political stability has brought a rush of outsiders seeking rain forests, pristine beaches and Mayan ruins, yet poverty and weak judicial systems have also created an environment where foreign men can easily and inexpensively fulfill their fantasies. An entire subculture consisting of North Americans buying and selling children for sex has developed.

Much of the growth of child prostitution in Central America has occurred in the last three years. A recent study of 300 street children by the Nicaraguan Ministry of Family showed that more than 80 percent had begun to work as prostitutes in the past year.

Activists in Guatemala say child prostitution has risen dramatically, spurred on by a shift in patterns of drug abuse.

Street children who used to sniff relatively inexpensive glue are now turning to crack, readily available in the region as Central American military officials, no longer living high on the hog from U.S. military assistance, turn to drug trafficking to make money. Since crack is more costly than glue, street kids are more likely to sell their bodies to finance their habit.

In Costa Rica, where tourism is the largest source of foreign currency, the director of the government's Judicial Investigation Unit estimated in 1998 that at least 5,000 of 1 million foreign visitors were "sex tourists."

"Sexual tourists look for two things: impunity and anonymity," said Erika Linares, a lawyer with the Latin American Institute for Health Prevention, a group that works with prostitutes. "Costa Rica offers both."

Prostitution is not against Costa Rican law provided the sex worker is at least 18 years old. Activities like child abuse and trafficking in women do cross legal boundaries.

Action sought

Activists are pushing governments to take action against abuse, but it's an uphill battle.

"The authorities generally seem more concerned about the image of their country and for tourism than publicly accepting that their countries are being targeted by pedophiles," said Bruce Harris, Central-American director for Casa Alianza, a child-advocacy program sponsored by Covenant House in New York City. Yet Harris reports the environment is changing, and citizens are pressuring governments to take action.

"We're pleased that now more people are reporting what has always been an open secret," he said.

In the last two years, governments in the region have begun to crack down. Daniel Rounds, a teacher from Pennsylvania, is serving a 10-year jail sentence in Honduras after being found guilty of sexually abusing two 12 year-old boys in a room at the Parthenon Beach Hotel. Mr. Rounds picked up the boys on the street, where tens of thousands of Central-American children live today, pushed out of their homes by poverty and abuse.

Honduras wasn't Mr. Rounds' only hunting grounds. His diary, discovered by investigators among his possessions, detailed his sexual activities with children as young as seven in Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Brazil and Costa Rica.

In January 1999, Boston physician Arthur Kanev and Oklahoma City dog trainer Joe Baker were arrested in Costa Rica after several underage girls testified they were lured off the streets by offers of $40 to join parties with foreign men at Mr. Kanev's beach house outside Quepos. The girls were drugged, raped and photographed. More than 300 nude photographs of girls, ages 11 to 16, were found on the premises.

U.S. men jailed

In April of last year, police in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, raided "Tony Montana's," a nightclub offering sex with girls. Four U.S. men were arrested in the raid. As of November, two of them remained in a Honduran prison: Anthony Bucellato, 47, a man convicted of sexual abuse of a girl near Portland, Ore., was the nightclub manager; Charles Kasper, 62, owner of a Tampa, Fla., swimming-pool company, was the club's principal investor.

Both Mr. Bucellato and Mr. Kasper refused requests for interviews, but according to former business associates of the two, Mr. Kasper had retired to Honduras, where he thought he could do things not allowed in the United States. That meant sitting on the porch of his oceanfront house and firing automatic weapons into the night air. It also meant purchasing sex with young girls for a fraction the price he would have had to pay in the North.

Mr. Kasper and Mr. Bucellato met when Mr. Bucellato opened a nightclub on the Honduran island of Roatan. Featuring strippers and young prostitutes, the club was the kind of place Mr. Kasper liked to hang out. Islanders, including several Methodists, protested the club's operations and it was closed after just a few weeks.

 

Bananas

With Mr. Kasper fronting the money, Mr. Bucellato moved the operation to San Pedro Sula. The club became a favorite hangout for U.S. businessmen visiting that city, where dozens of U.S. companies have investments in bananas, pineapples and maquilas –- factories that hire workers for low wages and long hours.

An undercover video done inside the club by journalists from KOMO-TV in Seattle, Wash., showed Mr. Bucellato offering girls as young as 14 in exchange for $120.

As of this writing, the two men remain in a maximum-security prison near Tegucigalpa, Honduras. An alleged plot to escape was foiled in September when I received information that Mr. Kasper had paid almost $1 million in bribes to several Honduran officials, including a justice of the Honduran Supreme Court. Working with a Honduran journalist from the daily El Heraldo in Tegucigalpa, we published details of the alleged plot the day before the escape was to take place. The plan was called off, and the legal process against the two men continued.

Costa Rica fights back

Hersh

Kingpins in the region's sex-tourism industry are not just going to jail in Central America. Marvin Hersh, a university math professor from Florida, is in prison in the United States because of his illegal activities in Central America.

In March 1999, Mr. Hersh became the first person to be found guilty under a 1996 U.S. law that makes it a federal crime to travel outside the United States for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor. The 10 charges on which Mr. Hersh was convicted relate to his sexual exploitation of Honduran boys, including taking a 15-year-old to the United States and pretending the boy was his son.

The growth of sex tourism in recent years helped convince Costa Rica's parliament in June 1999 to pass a law against sexual exploitation of minors.

"With this law, we say to foreigners who want to come here to abuse our children that they'll find a jail cell waiting for them," said President Miguel Angel Rodriguez upon signing the law.

Yet passing a law won't be enough, because those who profit from sex tourism include a network of people from taxi drivers to hotel clerks to police officers who get their share of sex-tourist spending. Poor families are tempted to have their daughters sign on as tourist guides for foreigners because of the promise of easy profits.

Tourist guide was the term used by Ervin Castillo, a Costa Rican man arrested in 1997 for pimping 14 year-old Costa Rican girls to foreigners. Castillo was arrested and charged along with his wife, Sharon Ann Heinzke, a U.S. citizen.

Ms. Heinzke, who also uses the name Sherrie Dressell, failed to show for a court appearance and a warrant was issued for her arrest. Officials believe she left the country and is living in Wisconsin. Her husband was convicted and sent to jail for eight years.

The two had operated their child-prostitution ring since 1994 out of the San José neighborhood of Los Angeles, reportedly earning more than $12,500 per month from mostly foreign clients, many of whom arranged for sexual services before they arrived in the country.

Technology spurs sex tourism

Sex marketers like Mr. Castillo, who had two web pages advertising sex tourism, enjoy a technological advantage over law enforcement. Costa Rica's Special Prosecutor for Sexual Crimes, whose staff recently expanded from two to eight, didn't even have a computer with Internet access when it began battling pedophiles.

"Central America is being invaded by smart child sex abusers who know more about the Internet and how to use it to achieve their sordid goals than do the official investigative police bodies of these countries," Mr. Harris said.

Sex tourists do not have to slink around dark foreign streets looking for prostitutes or struggle with foreign languages to ask taxi drivers where to find sex. In the comfort of their Northern American homes, they can go to websites offering detailed instructions on where to find sex partners abroad, as well as where to stay and what they can expect to pay.

Nightclubs, massage parlors and escort services have their own websites. Several Internet bulletin boards provide opportunities for returned travelers to report on their sex adventures, alerting colleagues to new turf to be explored, along with warnings of crackdowns, such as that which occurred in 1999 in Cuba. Informed consumers can steer clear of trouble spots.

Activists are turning the weapon around, however. Child activists are mounting websites with information about abuse and helping law-enforcement agencies network across borders to identify and capture abusers.

"The Internet is a marvelous tool of information and has to be reclaimed by those of us who are fighting to protect the lives and rights of children," said Ana Salvado, an activist with Casa Alianza.

Children are the victims

The victims of sex tourism are children, their dreams still intact.

Juanita Meneses, 16, works at a bar not far from the Parthenon Beach Hotel in La Ceiba. Fleeing poverty and an inhospitable home life, she left her home near San Pedro Sula last year and joined two other young women to travel north to the United States. The three only made it to southern Mexico, where they were robbed and deported to Guatemala. Without other alternatives, they worked as prostitutes along the Guatemalan-Mexican border until they were caught and deported to Honduras.

Ms. Meneses didn't want to return home. Instead, she came to La Ceiba and works from 8 p.m. to 5 a.m. daily, dancing nude and getting drunk men to buy her drinks, for which she receives a small cut. Ms. Meneses makes more if she accepts a man's invitation to return to his hotel room. She said foreigners pay much better than local men.

"I always dreamed I'd grow up to be a mother, maybe learn a lot and get a job as a teacher," Mr. Meneses said. "Maybe I still will. For now, I can't think of any alternatives. I've got to stay here for now."

Poverty's Children Exploited for Sex

 

By DAVID ADAMS

© St. Petersburg Times, published June 7, 1999

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras -- Heavily armed police burst into Tony Montana's, a glitzy strip joint in this bustling city in northern Honduras, late one night in April.

Armed with rifles, and wearing ski masks and bulletproof vests, they weren't taking any chances. Undercover agents had been monitoring the club for a couple of weeks. They expected to find guns and drugs on the premises.

But that wasn't all they were after. This was no ordinary bust.

They were looking for underage girls working as prostitutes. Arrested that night were four Americans, including Anthony Bucellato, the club's owner, and his business partner, Charles Kasper, a Tampa Bay businessman.

The arrests highlight what child advocates say is a growing problem in the dirt-poor countries of Central America. Although abuse of minors is common in the Third World, Americans are increasingly becoming involved in child prostitution rackets.

"We are getting more reports of cases of sexual abuse of local children by foreigners than ever before," says Bruce Harris, director of Casa Alianza, a children's charity linked to New York-based Covenant House.

In fact, Central America is fast emerging as a new child-sex hot spot. Previously, American travelers seeking sex with minors were forced to look far afield: Southeast Asia mainly. However, a crackdown in places such as Thailand and the Philippines has brought the market closer to home.

Web sites provide lurid information to traveling pedophiles, who exchange their sex tales with "colleagues."

According to the International Labor Organization, "Commercial sexual exploitation of children has in recent years become an issue of global concern, and the indicators are that it is on the rise." The organization adds that this form of exploitation "is one of the most brutal forms of violence against children."

"Child victims suffer extreme physical, psychological and emotional abuse, which have lifelong and life-threatening consequences."

Experts say it's hard to estimate the scale of the problem. Mostly, crimes go undetected. But child advocates say a recent series of alarming incidents is serving as a wake-up call to governments in the region.

Even before the raid on Tony Montana's, the child sex issue had made headlines in Honduras.

Last year, the FBI arrested a 58-year-old Boca Raton man, Marvin Hersh, after allegations of abuse surfaced in Honduras. He was charged under a 1996 U.S. statute outlawing foreign travel for the purpose of engaging in sex with a minor. In March, the Florida Atlantic University professor was found guilty. He is due to be sentenced next month.

The charges against Hersh involved sexual exploitation of Honduran boys, dating back a decade. His list of crimes included taking a 15-year-old boy to the United States, pretending the boy was his son, in order to continue having sexual relations with him.

Another American, Pennsylvania special needs teacher Daniel Gary Rounds, was arrested recently in Honduras for similar offenses. He is serving a 10-year jail sentence in the northern port town of La Ceiba, after being found guilty of sexually abusing two 12-year-old street boys.

Rounds kept a highly detailed diary, which led to his conviction. In the diary, he details his sexual activities with children as young as 7 in Costa Rica, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Brazil.

'Houses of tolerance'

In Honduras, as elsewhere in Central America, it is no secret that teens from poor families often turn to prostitution to make a living.

San Pedro Sula, a suffocatingly hot tropical city of 650,000, is dotted with strip clubs, known as casas de tolerancia -- literally "houses of tolerance."

According to municipal records, the city has a dozen legally registered clubs. But officials said dozens more fail to register or pay taxes. Many are called casa citas, or "date houses," private houses where girls sign on as prostitutes but do not entertain on the premises. Instead, visitors select their "date" from photos. The girls are only a telephone call away and arrive in taxis to pick up their clients.

Local authorities try to keep track of the clubs but are understaffed and overwhelmed. Raids are periodically carried out, mostly after complaints by neighbors.

"Last year we did several operations," said Alexa Cubero, an overworked juvenile judge. One of Honduras' youngest judges, Cubero, 25, is already an experienced battler of child sex in her city. "One night we picked up 30 minors. I don't think we have raided a place where we didn't find minors working."

Clubs can be fined for employing underage girls. Three strikes and a judge can close the club. But investigations are made more difficult because the girls are often equipped with false birth certificates. Medical examinations must be carried out to legally prove their age.

Often when clubs close, they quickly reopen elsewhere under different names, or continue operating clandestinely. "Despite the fact that the sanctions are serious and the risks are great, there is a market for 14-year-olds," Cubero said.

"It's the clandestine places that worry us the most," she said. "There's a lot of places that we don't know about, and they are the ones that deal almost exclusively with minors."

Nothing very clandestine

There was nothing very clandestine about Tony Montana's. Located in the heart of the Zona Viva, the "Live Zone" or red-light district, it was one of a number of clubs on John Paul II Avenue. When it opened in January, it set a new standard in "tolerance."

It was a major step up from the seedy and amateurish joints nearby, where nervous girls strip awkwardly on uneven wooden table tops. Peeling paint hangs from the bar walls.

Unlike other clubs, Tony Montana's charged a $5 entrance fee, enough to deter the riffraff. Expensive tiles and mirrors covered the walls, the sound system was new, and the music loud. Above all, the girls were pretty, and young -- very young.

The club's clientele included a number of foreigners, mostly Americans. Its owner, Bucellato, modeled himself on Al Pacino's character in the movie Scarface, a ruthless Cuban-American drug dealer called Tony Montana.

The Internet was its undoing. The police raid came after Casa Alianza, the children's charity, received an e-mail tip that many of the club's "exotic dancers" were 14- and 15-year-olds.

Casa Alianza's local legal aid office confirmed the tip and contacted the police. Agents from the local Criminal Investigative Unit posed as clients to gain information. The club's activities also were documented on hidden cameras by a Seattle TV station investigating Bucellato, who is from the Northwest.

One dancer admits on camera to being 16 years old. She says there are many more like her. She offers to take a reporter to a special VIP room, where the youngest girls perform.

The police raided the club a couple of weeks later. It was a busy Saturday night, about 11:15. Patrons were told to lie face down on the floor as the girls were rounded up. Of the 23 working that night, at least eight were discovered to be underage.

Bucellato and Kasper are imprisoned in Honduras, accused of pimping child prostitutes, as well as possessing illegal weapons. Two other Americans were freed on bail.

Caught on hidden camera

In court documents Bucellato and Kasper say they had no idea the girls were underage. But police who worked undercover at the club before the raid say Bucellato openly boasted that he could offer child sex.

The hidden camera caught him explaining how he built the club to cater to American tourists. "Some of them are very young. This one's 15. She's big," Bucellato said. "My young girls, 14 and 15 aren't here tonight."

In a statement to prosecutors, Kasper said he invested $50,000 in the club, but had no part in its day-to-day running.

"All I did was give money for the opening of the nightclub. I wasn't involved in hiring the staff," Kasper said. "I never spoke about the girls with Tony. I advised Tony to be very careful, and that he do everything correctly and that there was no drugs."

Bucelatto

However, police allege both men have a history of involvement with prostitution, as well as associating with known criminals. Bucellato, 47, was convicted in 1989 of first-degree sexual abuse for molesting a 12-year-old relative.

Kasper, 62, boasted about taking Viagra and was frequently seen in the company of prostitutes, say Honduran acquaintances.

Bucellato previously ran another controversial night club, also called Tony Montana's, on the small island of Roatan, off the north coast of Honduras. The club was closed last year after residents complained it was being used for prostitution.

Kasper, who has a house on Roatan, was a partner in the club with Bucellato and Arnold Morris, another wealthy U.S. expatriate.

Kasper and Morris owned pool businesses in the Tampa Bay area. Morris is wanted by police in Tampa on charges of bankruptcy fraud. He avoided trial by fleeing the United States and has since renounced his U.S. citizenship.

Fending for themselves

Police believe Bucellato and Kasper were drawn to Honduras by its anything-goes reputation for easy sex.

Teeming with impoverished children, Latin America provides plenty of opportunities for the sexual predator.

More than 40 percent of Honduras' 5.7-million people are estimated to be children. Thousands are homeless and make their life on the streets. In the wake of Mitch, last year's devastating hurricane, thousands of jobs have been lost and more children left to fend for themselves.

Some leave their homes because of family rifts or abuse. Others are abandoned for lack of money. On the streets, many fall into a life of crime or become hooked on drugs, sometimes sniffing glue.

That was the case of at least one of the girls at Tony Montana's. When she was only a few weeks old, her mother, a poor peasant woman from the countryside, gave her away to relatives in the city. "Her mother already had four children and she had no means of looking after them all," said Marco Figueroa, the girl's uncle.

After leaving school at 13, the girl ran away with a member of a street gang and started taking drugs.

Club owners are expert in selecting the most vulnerable girls, social workers say.

12 yr olds

"They have networks in the countryside. They look for timid girls who have lost contact with their families," said Belinda Eucles, a social worker in the juvenile court system. Girls have been recruited as young as 12. "Mostly they lack sexual orientation or guidance at home," she said.

Of the girls rescued from Tony Montana's, three had no identifiable relatives. Several said their families had emigrated to the United States. Two were detained after they were caught stealing in the judge's offices. Two others who were sent back to their families soon ran away again.

'All poor girls'

The exploitation of children is aided by weak laws, and an under funded police force. Although pimping is illegal in Honduras, prostitution is not, making it hard for police to mount successful investigations. Central America also has no laws regarding the transmission of digital pornographic images through the Internet.

Low wages make prostitution especially attractive. On a good night, strippers in San Pedro Sula can make up to $100, especially if they are lucky enough to pick up a foreigner with a wallet full of dollars.

"They are all poor girls," said Pastor Ortiz, senior detective with the San Pedro Sula police. "The problem is that they are not forced into it. They prefer to prostitute themselves rather than going to work at a maquilla," he said, referring to the clothing assembly factories that are the city's biggest industry but pay low salaries.

Politicians have typically turned a blind eye to what goes on. They are swamped with other poverty issues, but often corruption plays a part.

"Our organization has tried to light a fire under the authorities of the affected countries," said Harris, director at Casa Alianza. "But the authorities generally seem more concerned for the image of their country and for tourism rather than publicly accepting that their countries are being targeted by pedophiles."

That may be changing. Honduran police were recently placed under civilian control after decades of being run by a notoriously corrupt military. Professional police training and new resources have begun to have results.

In the half-built offices of the San Pedro Sula police investigations unit, a bulletin from the Ministry of Tourism congratulates the efforts of officers in closing Tony Montana's.

"We categorically reject the presence of tourists who practice the crime of sexual abuse of minors," it reads.

The days of tolerance may be coming to an end.

CASA ALIANZA AND HONDURAN POLICE CAPTURE FOUR AMERICANS FOR PIMPING CHILDREN

During late Saturday night and early Sunday morning, April 18th, 1999, a total of three police raids took place in San Pedro Sula, Honduras, which culminated with the arrest of four Americans accused of pimping minors.

On the basis of information provided by Casa Alianza through an anonymous tip off over the Internet, for the past month both the local Criminal Investigative Unit and Casa Alianza|s Legal Aid Office staff have been investigating the "Tony Montana Night Club" which operates without a license in the Colonia Aurora suburb of Honduras| second largest city. Casa Alianza has documented on hidden cameras the participation of very young girls as "exotic dancers" who are also offered to be sexually abused. In private rooms, the girls dance naked for less than US5 per song. Above the night club is a hotel, with the same owner as the club, where the girls are taken to be sexually abused.

The four Americans arrested are: Daryell Robert Bucellato who acted as the club's administrator; Charles Casper (60), the owner; Terry Gobe Clymire and Russel Ecodt. The four foreigners are all detained in the cells of the Honduran police. They rejected an offer to call the American Consul in Tegucigalpa to advise them of their detention. They are accused of the felonies of pimping underage girls; the corruption of minors, and the misdemeanors of operating a bar without a license; having minors in a location where alcohol is sold and for having minors working a night shift.

Also detained were 17 "dancers", including at least five minors from 14 years old, and 10 waiters. All were detained in the police cells and today are making declarations. The girls were sent to a forensic doctor to determine their age and as to whether they had been sexually abused.

It is suspected that the information regarding the raid by the CID was filtered by a member of the narcotics section of the Honduran police, friend of the American owners, because a few minutes before the CID raid at 11pm, the narcotics police raided the night club.

Despite this inconvenience, the Casa Alianza staff members inside the night club notified the CID of the presence of many underage girls and so the CID raid took place at 11:15pm, lasting three hours.

When the police entered the night club, ordering all patrons to lie face down on the floor, many of the girls tried to hide in the five floors of hotel rooms, but the police entered each room, detaining everyone.

Videos

The third raid in conjunction with the arrest of the Americans took place at 6am this morning in the house of Casper, the club owner, in the San Pedro Sula suburb of Colonia San Jose de Sula. The police agents confiscated dozens of videos and an UZI machine gun. The partner of Casper, Felicita Mercedes Diaz Reyes (30) was temporarily detained. The house is registered in the name of Diaz Reyes' brother.

Casa Alianza is coordinating it's actions with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in the United States and is checking the background of the four detained Americans. The US extra territorial laws could lead to the Americans being tried in US Federal Courts and jailed for up to ten years. Bucellato has a criminal record in his home city of Portland, Oregon. Before living in San Pedro Sula he lived in Roatan, where it was also stated that he sexually exploited young girls and, when he moved, he left many debts.

The case in San Pedro Sula is with the 1st Criminal Judge of Letters, Jaime Vanegas.

"The investigation and the police action that followed is part of Casa Alianza's ongoing efforts to protect Honduran children from sexual abuse and sex tourists", commented Bruce Harris, the Executive Director for Latin American Programs for Casa Alianza in Costa Rica. "We will continue to cooperate with both the national and international authorities to trap any and all foreigners who abuse Honduran children to make money without caring about the emotional and physical damage they cause".

Charles Edward Kasper

(The following bulletin is from Casa Alianza. Please subscribe to their site for constant updates)

AMERICAN CHILD EXPLOITER STILL ON THE RUN FROM HONDURAN JUSTICE

Charles Edward Kasper, 63, is not a ghost, but he has managed to be one for almost three years since he escaped from a jail in Honduras, where he was sentenced to six years in jail for the commercial sexual exploitation of children. According the Honduran authorities, Kasper was the owner of a brothel called “Tony Montana Night Club”. He and three other American citizens were arrested in 1996 after a spectacular raid and accused and convicted of pimping.

Kasper, a Tampa Bay businessman, escaped when he was visiting a hardware store! The convicted prisoner offered to pay for building material to rebuild part of the San Pedro Sula jail on the condition that he could go shopping with the guards. The Director of the jail agreed and, not surprisingly, Kasper paid off his two guards and escaped. He did not even buy the building material!

In 1999, Casa Alianza informed the Honduran authorities that Kasper was offering $1 million to anyone who could help him to escape from jail.

On March 6th 2001, the First Criminal Judge of Letters in Tegucigalpa ordered the detention of the three prison guards who allowed Kasper to escape. They were accused of the crime of "being responsible for a prisoner’s escape”.

The police raided the brothel “Tony Montana” in April 1999. Casa Alianza had used hidden cameras to document the exploitation of underage girls as "exotic dancers" who were also subjected to sexual abuse after the show. In private rooms, the girls danced naked for less than US$ 5 per song. Above the night club was a hotel where the girls were taken to be raped.

Four Americans were arrested that night: Kasper, his business partner Anthony Bucellato, Russel Scott Williams, and another man who was absolved.

“Kasper has being hiding for three years. As many like him, he must be at home, resting by the pool and drinking beer while his victims are still suffering the traumas of the sexual exploitation,” said Bruce Harris, Regional Director of Casa Alianza for Latin America.

Casa Alianza, a sister agency of the Ft. Lauderdale based Covenant House, believes Kasper is in Florida.

Kasper, as many other American citizen prosecuted in Central America, escaped and hid in the United States. Now, Casa Alianza knows that they can be sent back for trial.

Last May 20th, Arthur Kanev, a dentist from Boston, became the first U.S. citizen extradited to Costa Rica to face trial. He was arrested thanks to a report of Fox’s “America´s Most Wanted”. Kanev was released on bail, and then fled the country. As with Kanev, Casa Alianza hopes that the help of the U.S. authorities will take the fugitives back to Central America to be prosecuted or to complete their sentences.

Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Charles Edward Kasper, please contact Casa Alianza in Costa Rica at 011-506-253-5439.

To see Kasper’s photo, please visit:
http://www.casa-alianza.org/EN/noticias/lmn/noticia917
 

Kanev

Man agrees to extradition in Costa Rica case

Arthur Carl Kanev fled the Central American nation while free on bail on charges of raping girls.

By Associated Press
Published April 13, 2004
 

FORT LAUDERDALE - A retired American dentist accused of drugging girls for sex at a beach house in Costa Rica has agreed to be sent to the Central American nation for prosecution, a U.S. prosecutor said Monday.

Dr. Arthur Carl Kanev, 57, was arrested last July as he returned to his mother's condominium in Pompano Beach after a month long stakeout by Broward County sheriff's deputies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Donald Chase said Kanev would formally drop his challenge to extradition at a hearing today. Defense attorney William Aaron did not return phone calls seeking comment.

Costa Rican authorities arrested Kanev after hundreds of pictures of child pornography were found at his beach house in 1999. Authorities said Kanev and a cohort drugged and raped local girls, some as young as 13, and took pornographic pictures of them.

Kanev, formerly from Waltham, Mass., fled Costa Rica while free on bail. He denied any wrongdoing in an interview in 2000 on ABC's 20/20 about the Costa Rican sex trade, and he was profiled on America's Most Wanted in 2001.

In extradition papers, Costa Rica named eight victims and offered statements from several teenagers who said five men were staying at the house. Authorities said poor girls were offered marijuana, liquor, food and the use of a swimming pool and nearby beach.

Girls said they also were sedated and woke up realizing someone had sexually assaulted them. Police found sedatives and pictures of sleeping, partially nude girls when they searched the house.

Some of the girls said they consented to sex. A 16-year-old said she was paid every time she brought a new friend to the house. She received money for visits with no sex but more for sex. A girl said she had sex with "Arturo" on her second visit and he used condoms.

Another girl said she visited the house three times a week and pictures were taken on some visits. A 19-year-old said she once woke up topless and feeling drugged.

Kanev was charged with rape, unauthorized use of drugs and corruption of minors.

Joe Curtis Baker, an Oklahoma City veterinarian charged along with Kanev, was sentenced in Costa Rica to 24 years in prison. The Costa Rican sex industry has come under international scrutiny. A United Nations report in 1998 estimated the country had hundreds of child prostitutes. The government created an office to address sex crimes in 1999.

[Last modified April 13, 2004, 01:05:40]

Kanev Jewish