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August 31, 2006
Human Trafficking Up Close
I shared a train cabin with a human trafficker on the way from Warsaw to Ukraine. The man was British--a Tory no less--and he oozed sleaze. Highly mismatched teeth. Dickensian Cockney accent. A Harry Potter villain incarnate. Our first interaction proceeded as follows (all theatrics are verbatim):
"Are you headed to Kiev?"
(With relish) "Ah, no. I'm headed to Rovna."
"Ah, what's in Rovna?"
"It's a small village... I have some friends I met there recently, and I'm headed back."
"What do you do?"
"I'm in tourism... or SOMETHING like that."
(Ok, he's a human trafficker and trying very hard not to hide it. I open a beer.) "So, how's the tourism business these days?"
"Oh, it's doing very well. There's a lot of Chinese involvement."
Further talk included thinly veiled tales of his trips to remote Siberian villages. He had PDAs, cell phones--something like five upscale electronic devices hanging from his neck and arms on lanyards. When customs time came, we had the following exchange:
"This form is incredibly complicated. They'll do you for it if you don't get it right."
"What's that for?"
"It's currency control. You have to declare your cash."
(Examining the form.) "I don't think I have to do it."
"You're not carrying more than $10,000 USD in cash?"
"Nope."
(Mumbles.)
His suit coat was actually filled with wads of cash. Other high points of conversation:
Human Trafficker: "Prostitution... it's terrible.... ghastly, isn't it?"
and
Human Trafficker: "Well I love George Bush, I think he's just dandy. Starts a war somewhere with pretty much every word he says, doesn't he?"
and
Human Trafficker: "No thanks, I won't have any food. I've got an upset funny tummy, you know."
Stay tuned for more tales from Ukraine's illicit economy, wherein I find a bag full of $5,000 in Euro and USD lying in Independence Square, I am twice ineptly solicited for bribes by the police, I witness a harrowing cigarette smuggling operation, and I tell the tale of a mysterious and intricate black market vodka export scheme. You saw it here first.
Posted by Barron YoungSmith at 10:38 PM
