- An Indian man, Kavankumar Patel, in the US has been jailed 10 years for paying traffickers to assault a minor
- Two minor girls were trafficked to the hotel for commercial sex
- Patel worked at the hotel and paid traffickers for sex with minors in exchange for reduced room rates
A 27-year-old Indian man has been jailed for 10 years in the US for paying human traffickers to assault a minor girl. Kavankumar Patel, a resident of Gujarat, was an employee at a hotel in Nebraska's Omaha and assaulted the girl in January last year.
The probe began on January 6, 2025, when the police received a report of a theft and found evidence of sex trafficking. Officials from the Homeland Security Task Force and the Omaha Police Department then recovered two minor girls, aged 15 and 16, who had been brought to the AmericInn hotel from out of state to be sold for commercial sex.
"The two minor females reported that their traffickers had instructed that the minors must engage in sex with hotel staff for a reduced room rate or they would be kicked out of the hotel. Two hotel employees paid the trafficker to have sex with one of the minors, and a third hotel employee had sex with the other minor," the US Attorney's Office in Nebraska said in a statement on Thursday.
Patel, who worked at the AmericInn, admitted that he used money from the hotel drawer to pay the traffickers to have sex with one of the minors at the hotel.
The hotel employees then permitted the traffickers and minors to remain at the hotel for multiple days.
The traffickers would post online advertisements for commercial sex and arrange commercial sex acts involving the minor victims. The minors reported having little food and feeling like they had no choice but to engage in sex acts as directed, the attorney's office said.
Patel, who was in the United States illegally, faces deportation after completing his prison sentence.
The traffickers -- Eduardo Jose Perdomo, Michel Martinez-Gonzalez and Alfredo Zambrano-Hurtado -- and the two other Indian-origin hotel employees -- Sumit Chaudhari and Vishal Goswami -- have also been charged.
Top row (from left): Vishalgir Goswami, Eduardo Perdomo, Alfredo Zambrano-Hurtado. Bottom row (from left): Sumit Chaudhari, Kavankumar Patel, Michel Martinez-Gonzalez
"The Homeland Security Task Force rescued these children from a living nightmare," United States Attorney Lesley Woods said.
