Miami

Sentencing Delayed for Suspect in Hungarian Sex Trafficking Ring

Sentencing was delayed Wednesday for one of three men accused of luring young gay Hungarian men to South Florida in a sex trafficking ring.

Andras Vass, 24, will scheduled to face a Miami-Dade judge Wednesday to learn his fate but sentencing was delayed to November. Vass, along with 31-year-old Gabor Acs and 28-year-old Viktor Berki, is facing charges including human trafficking, racketeering and deriving support from prostitution.

The investigation dates back to October 2013, when Homeland Security received a tip that three men in Miami Beach were possible victims of human trafficking.

Prosecutors said the men, ages 20-22, were lured to the United States with the promise of quick, easy and legal cash, and they were brought to New York before arriving in Miami.

Once in Miami, the men engaged in prostitution or performed sex acts in front of a webcam for 18-20 hours a day, prosecutors said. All the payments went to Acs, Berki and Vass.

The victims told investigators that the suspects "used various techniques to keep them enslaved, including isolating them from others, withholding their travel and identification documents, and using financial manipulation to keep them in constant debt," the State Attorney's Office said in a statement.

The suspects rarely let their victims leave their shared apartment and they were told it was because they could not speak English and they were not familiar with the area, authorities said.

Acs, Berki and Vass threatened and psychologically intimidated the men and took their identification documents and locked them in a safe, authorities said. The victims also experienced levels of violence from the suspects.

Contact Us