Human trafficking investigated

MONROE, N.C. -- Police are searching for two women arrested in a prostitution bust in Monroe over the weekend. Investigators believe the women may have been trafficked into the U.S. and used as sex slaves.

Monroe police believe the two women worked and lived at the Island Spa.

Since a raid on Saturday, the spa has been closed so the women couldn't go back to the facility.

Investigators have not heard from them and they are worried that somebody might be trying to force them back into slavery.

"Human trafficking is really modern day slavery," said Rona Karacaova, an attorney with the Immigrant Justice Project.

Karacaova has offered to assist the women.

"The traffickers often threaten the women with harm to their families if they have children. The child or children may be in peril if the women leave," she said.

The Department of Justice estimates that 15,000 people in the U.S. are the victims of human trafficking. There have only been 15 cases in North Carolina, but officials believe there are many more.

The victims at the Island Spa spoke Vietnamese and Chinese and could not even talk to each other. They bonded out of jail over the weekend and police are worried that someone might try to smuggle them across state lines and force them back into sex slavery.

"As far as the money earned from these commercial sex acts, the women don’t see it. The money is kept by the traffickers," said Karacaova.

Police say they could not keep the women in jail for their own protection because they were entitled to a bond.