US couple face 1 year in Dominican jail for human trafficking

Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic.- Puerto Plata’s Office of the Prosecutor on Sunday requested one year of pre-trial detention against an American couple and three months for a Dominican, charged with forming part a human trafficking network.

U.S. nationals D. G. Bushnell, 63 and S. S. Bushnell, 43, and the Dominican E. M. González were arrested during a raid of their residence where agents found several laptops with webcam, in which Dominican women and gay men providing sexual services through videos.

Puerto Plata’s authorities said the customers paid via the Web with credit cards, noting that four women and one man were rescued during the raid headed by National Police agents.

The prosecutors said the defendants recruited victims in poor Dominican communities, allegedly through the company LUXCANA Inversiones, S.R.L., with which the victims had to sign a contract to receive 15% commission, while the victims were fined as much as 800 pesos if they refused to work.