IRVING, Texas (AP) — Nine men have been charged with aggravated kidnapping after 41 men were found being held against their will in what were supposedly drug and alcohol rehabilitation facilities in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.
Police have charged six men with aggravated kidnapping and one with unlawful restraint in Irving, a Dallas suburb. Fort Worth police have charged three men with aggravated kidnapping and kidnapping.
The investigation began Tuesday, when Irving police responded after a caller reported seeing a man being chased by three others. The man said he had escaped from a house where officers found 30 men being held against their will.
As officials investigated they were told of a similar home in Fort Worth. Officers there found 11 more men being held against their will.
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So are the 9 suspects being “held against their will” in a suitable humane jail facility pending trial? I don’t think it’s too much work to have the “copy writer” of this TPM article research that fact before publishing what is essentially an incomplete AP news story.
Come on TPM, do some actual investigative reporting work for our clicks, okay?
That’s 41 held by 9 at most and probably less most of the time.
Something smells very fishy here.
Is this about drugs, Mexicans, sex, slavery, Trump, what?
Who knows. This article keeps you guessing. Something does seem a lot more suspicious than what’s reported here though.
There is better coverage elsewhere. It looks like a lot of these people were “committed” to spanish-speaking drug and alcohol rehab places by family members. Whether or not there were licenses etc. is very unclear. On the surface it looks like either well-meaning but inept attempts to help or simple predation on desperate families. Probably not a cover-up for human trafficking but that is what the police initially thought.
One more thought: people in drug-rehab aren’t particularly known for being truthful about their situation - especially if they are in trouble for breaking rules. But then that’s a good cover for those who might abuse them too. What a mess.