BELLEVUE, Wash. — A Federal Way man is in custody, accused of trafficking young girls from Oregon to Washington state.
King County prosecutors have charged 25-year-old Ezra Wimana, of Federal Way, with two counts of second-degree human trafficking, two counts of promoting commercial sex abuse of a minor, and third-degree rape of a child.
Wimana was arrested by Bellevue police officers on Feb. 6. Wimana is currently in King County jail on $500,000 bail and is set to be arraigned Feb. 22.
According to court documents, two girls, ages 11 and 15, met Wimana through social media and communicated with him via Snapchat and Instagram. Investigators said on Jan. 7, Wimana picked the two girls up from Pendleton, Oregon, and drove them across state lines, more than 300 miles from their home to his apartment in Federal Way.
"Social media is a way that people that that are involved in activities reach vulnerable individuals. You can promise many things. They don't have the life experience sometimes to recognize those traps before they walk into it," said Bellevue Police Assistant Chief Andrew Popochock.
Court documents said the next day, he took the girls to Aurora Avenue in Seattle and allegedly forced them to engage in prostitution. The girls told investigators they walked along Aurora for an hour and a half and were contacted by several men, but were too scared to do any sexual encounters.
The girls told police that when Wimana found out they didn’t make any money, he abandoned them.
"The intent was that these girls were going to be engaging in prostitution," said Popochock.
The two girls made it to a home in Bellevue. On Jan. 9, law enforcement in Oregon contacted Bellevue police and said one of the girl’s Snapchat locations pinged to a home there. Police went to the home and found the girls., who were connected with resources and reunited with their families.
"Luckily, we were able to return these girls to their families. that's not always the case in these types of sort of instances," Popochock said.
Currently, it is unclear who owned the home in Bellevue the girls were found in. Bellevue police said the case is still open and that they are working with federal partners on the case.
Bellevue police said in a span of 48 hours, the girls were subjected to exploitation, including substance abuse, sexual exploitation and sexual assault.
"In 48 hours, many things can happen. In minutes, many things can happen and in the circumstance, bad things happened. When you leave a location, you leave home, you leave that safe space that you're in, and you get into a car, you don't know where you're going, and what's going to happen," Popochock said.
The King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office has a team dedicated to focusing on these types of cases, which they say are, unfortunately, not uncommon.
"I wish we could say in general we see these cases rarely but we see them all the time. Human trafficking is one of the most under recognized crimes and some of the most important crimes we prosecute in King County," said Casey McNerthney, with the King County Prosecuting Attorney's Office.
"I was horrified when I heard about what these two girls had gone through," said Brianna Cho, corporate relations coordinator for Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking (BEST).
Cho said she is horrified, but not shocked.
"BEST knows about some of the problems with Aurora Ave and it's known that sex trafficking can be happening there. We’ve been working with hotels to train their employees on what the indicators of trafficking are," Cho said.
The nonprofit, BEST, works with survivors and employers to educate them on how to spot signs of trafficking. Cho said the way the girls accused trafficker got them to Washington state is one of their main strategies.
"They build that emotional connection with the child and they're able to convince them to meet them where they're at physically and exploit them," Cho said.
For more information on signs to look out for and additional resources, visit www.bestalliance.org.