Police break up sex trafficking ring

Two Reading men have been charged as part of a drug distribution and human-trafficking ring that operated in and around the city, state police announced Monday.

Hector M. Rivera, 50, and Dushawn O. Ellis, 31, both of Reading, were charged with various crimes related to corrupt organizations, trafficking individuals, prostitution, drug-related offenses and related counts, troopers said. Bridget M. Thompson, 36, of Lancaster was charged with similar offenses but none of the drugrelated counts.

State police gave this account:

In early 2020, a confidential source provided information that led state police Organized Crime Unit investigators to develop several leads and to identify multiple victims.

In May 2021, state police provided the results of its investigation to the state attorney general’s office to present to a grand jury.

That jury concluded Rivera, Ellis and Thompson operated a corrupt organization involved in the human trafficking of young women for the commercial sex trade.

Thompson was responsible for posting advertisements and communicating with customers while Rivera and Ellis used drugs to lure some of the victims into prostitution and then control them.

There were six female victims ranging in age from 20 to 35 who received payments from customers that they would then turn over to Rivera, Ellis or Thompson.

The crimes took place in Reading and surrounding Berks communities, troopers said, though the other municipalities were not specified.

“The individuals charged today manipulated and abused terrified, vulnerable young women,” Attorney General Josh Shapiro said in a statement. “They put their victims’ lives at risk for a profit. We’re working with our state law enforcement partners to seek out and shut down human trafficking throughout Pennsylvania.”

Ellis was already in Berks County Prison on unrelated charges, and Rivera was already in Northampton County Prison on unrelated charges, officials said. Both are awaiting arraignment.

Thompson turned herself in to state police Friday and was arraigned. She is in the Berks prison awaiting further court action.

“Human trafficking is prevalent in our own communities within the commonwealth,” Maj. Jeremy Richard, director of the state police Bureau of Criminal Investigation said in a statement. “This case is a testament to the millions of men, women and children who are trafficked worldwide and, in every city, suburb, and town in this great commonwealth.”