Human Trafficking Arrests in Maryland

ROCKVILLE, Md. - For the last few weeks, Montgomery County Police targeted three suspects they say were running three different human trafficking operations.

In one case, police say Arash Abbas ran an organization using women he would book into high-end hotel rooms across the county for prostitution.

"Abbas frequently recruited girls who had problems with immigration or other issues, including the holding of their passports, is frequently what he would do," says detective Sgt. Ken Penrod of Montgomery County Police.

Abbas lives in Germantown. It's an area filled with children and right across the street from a school.

"They live across the street-- I have kids that live here, so I am concerned-- want to know if it's true or not," said one parent. "In the summertime my children go back and fourth to the park, even my niece-- but from now on, no more."

Police say another suspect Rodney Hubert recruited minors for prostitutes using Craigslist to advertise for clients from his New York City home.

According to charging documents filed in the case, Rodney Hubert, ran a sophisticated operation out of Brooklyn using a web hosting business as a front.

In a Silver Spring hotel last April, police say Hubert set up a one day business advertising an underage girl on the internet.

"The girls that worked for him were actually prostitutes who went out to New York City, recruit girls and bring them back and said we will make you a model," says Detective Penrod.

The third man, Deangelo Bynum, was taken into custody after police say he showed up at a prearranged location thinking he was meeting an underage girl. Police say Bynum was using Facebook to do his recruiting.

He didn't know his exchanges over the social networking site were with an undercover cop.