Ali wants to help you to understand human trafficking. She knows there’s a conflict between myth, illusion, and the facts. She’s aware Hollywood has glamorized it, and Ali knows every single trafficked human has different tales to tell.
Nonetheless, she’s a survivor of horrors most can’t imagine.
As a child, she was filmed performing pornographic acts without her parents knowing. She started smoking at 7, drinking coffee at 10, attempted suicide in 5th Grade, started smoking pot at 16, snorting cocaine at 17, and was selling drugs at her high school through her teen years.
Ali’s been clean from the coke for 18 months, and she’s now in her early 40s and trying to find employment and a new, positive path.
She’s been stuffed into suitcases and shipped in storage containers, and that’s why she feels comfortable sleeping in tight spaces. Like in a closet or under a bed; even on the top of cabinets, hugging against ceilings.
At 13, she was raped by an illegal immigrant who then “sold” her a few years later to a Middle Eastern man for $480,000. That’s not a typo. $480,000.
Yes, she was owned. She was property, and Ali still refers to the man as “my owner” when sharing memories … like when she was taken to Epstein’s Island, and when she met P Diddy at a dance club “somewhere on the East Coast”.
She’s been stolen and abducted no less than 14 times, and she’s had to bite a man’s penis so she could do her very first tuck-and-roll escape out of a car’s back door.
She’s been buried alive in a box for knowing too much, and she’s witnessed other women being beaten in stash houses for not being compliant and disobedient. She’s heard of “Wintersville” before, and when she saw a road sign offering direction to “East Liverpool”, it made her stop, cry, and sob into hyperventilation.
Ali’s life was stolen.
In the United States, there are nearly 28 million people in forced labor of sexual exploitation operations at any given time on any given day. Just about 60 percent are boys and men, and the rest are women and girls. While almost 75 percent of the victims are used for labor, 25 percent are sold for sex every day of their lost lives.
Ali’s never been what she calls a “civilian”; she keeps her distance from her mother and daughter to keep them safe, and she has no idea if her “normal” will ever feel like our “normal”. Probably not, though, and that’s because what she sees when she closes her eyes is far different than what we see when we close ours.
This freedom thing, it’s still new to her, but she’s just now able to think about it beyond her flashbacks and blackouts. That’s why she participated in yesterday’s I.G.N.I.T.E. H.O.P.E.’s “In Plain Sight” event at the Ohio County Public Library.
She can tell her stories.
“It’s different for every girl,” she said. “There’s a lot of stuff that’s the same, like the skimpy clothes and the sex, but every owner is different. Every organization is different, but you need to do what they are telling you to do. Only bad (things) happens when you don’t.
“I would love to explain the mental torment, the physical torment, the way that I have to function in life now, but that wouldn’t make sense to anyone but me.”
So, in her own words …
‘I was property. I had an owner.’
“I literally stuck to my owner’s side at all time and I was not really able to talk. Not much. I wasn’t able to socialize. I was just doing what he expected me to do and that was to sit by him, be his prize, do what he says and basically cater to him. And if he asked me to get him a drink, guess what? His eyes were locked on me the whole time and I gotta keep my eyes forward and my head straight because even if I glanced at one thing, he’s gonna be suspicious of me (and think) I’m interested in something else or someone else.
“I never wanted that to be the case. That was dangerous because I was bought and sold for $480,000, and that meant a lot of things. It meant working in warehouses and manufacturing cocaine. It meant different trips around the world that I don’t remember, but I remember being in suitcases. I remember being in shipping containers. I even get a craving sometimes to sleep in a closet or something or just be in that confined space.
And there were the men, and the tricks, and you don’t ask questions because that’s how people get hurt.”
‘Ridiculous clown outfits.’
“My owner would send me to parties and it was always all about the drugs and getting passed down from one man to the next man just to do tricks and shit. I didn’t have that comprehension back then. I didn’t. I was mad, and I got in trouble for it.
“I got dehumanized. Cold showers on my knees, getting hit on my back for at least two hours, walking on the hot asphalt in skimpy little like ridiculous clown outfits and getting blisters on my feet. No water, no food for days.
“I also had to go through a walk of shame, walking in the middle of the road, butt-ass naked, for about two and a half hours. I’d be praying. I’d pray for my owner. I said, you gotta get me out of this, bro. Like, help me.”
“There were lots of drugs …”
“I wasn’t just selling drugs to the street people; it was like lawyers, politicians, people who have businesses, and I’m not just talking little bags either. Eight balls, or anything bigger like that. I’m talking like quarters, ounces, several ounces, maybe even half a kilo. And I’m carrying this in my duffel bag with wheels or I’m carrying like two backpacks and just hanging out. It was crazy. I didn’t know anybody, but people knew who to look for. They would approach me.
“And honestly. There were drugs that, when you took the pill, it opened your mind to like the 80 percent spectrum. It’s like what ‘Juice’ does. It literally opens the other side of your mind like you got a third eye. It’s intense. Like Ecstasy, kinda. There were lots of drugs.
“I’ve done everything. I’ve done every single drug in the book – even black heroin and opium and shrooms. I hate to admit that. Shit, I’ve even done cocaine that was made in a lab. Nothing compares to that. Wow, was that intense.”
Sean Combs … aka ‘Puff Daddy’ … aka ‘P Diddy’.
“I remember going to ‘stash houses’ where there was a bunch of females, and there were rooms, and I was the one that could walk freely. I earned it by then, but I remember some girls that were acting out or, you know, not being obedient or compliant. They would get beaten up and I knew real quick what not to do.
“It was more about what I should do. I knew what not to do.
“We were getting transported to the club where, you know, where we would talk about P Diddy being there, and all that stuff. It’s when I was working at a strip club and I was one of the girls that was up on the catwalks, or I was in one of the birdcages and wearing skimpy little outfits and stuff like that. And P Diddy was there with his crew. They would go to this strip club for the after party, and I would be at those after parties and I would be doing drugs, and ya know, other stuff.
“And there was a VIP room, and you know, there were rooms where you’d find the mattresses, and that’s how I met P Diddy. I was bought and sold, and I had an owner, and I’m telling you, I remember partying with P. Diddy.
Epstein’s Little Saint James.
“I don’t know how I got there. Maybe in a suitcase. Probably. I just remember being there.
“It’s crazy because I remember what Epstein’s house looked like and stuff like that, so when I was seeing the pictures of the estate and all that stuff, I was like, I’ve been there. I know it as soon as I saw those magazine pictures. That happened to me when I was by myself and it made me start crying in the middle of Walgreens. I was crying and everything was just coming back so fast.
“What I’ve read, the man was disgusting, and they should never put the victim’s names in those articles. That’s my issue with that. That’s grimy to do that.
“I never saw (President Donald) Trump there and never (Elon) Musk, but (Bill) Clinton? I can neither confirm or deny. Same with the (Bill) Gates guy, but I was never really one of the victims there because I went there with my owner. I wasn’t rented to go there, if you know what I mean. I went there to party with my owner, and stuff like that, but I saw the girls, and they were young.
‘The bad were buried. Alive.’
“I was literally buried alive because I remember being a box. I was face up, and it felt like dirt was hitting me in my face. And I was cuffed above my head. It was a punishment. The bad were buried. Alive. I think the organization that he was working for thought that I knew too much, but my owner saved me from that.
“It was intense, and when I had a flashback, it literally brought me back to the visual, the body sensation – everything – and one time when I was working on a house demo, I had to take a little ceiling part out. So, I was up on top of the cabinet, and I felt really comfortable laying up against the ceiling. Probably from being in that box.’
‘Kidnapped and abducted many times … ‘
“I had to bite a man’s penis so I could just escape from the back door to get away from him. That’s when I literally did my first tuck and roll ever in my life and I ran that time. But shit, I’ve been kidnapped and abducted many times since then, probably about a total of 14 times.
“And I don’t know where I was back then, and sometimes, I think I don’t know anything because I can’t remember much. But my owner? He saved my life many times from that shit. That’s why I still love him.
“Is that messed up to say? He died from pancreatic cancer, and I miss him.”
‘I miss my hugs from my mother.’
“I might have had chance to run away, but I didn’t for a lot of reasons and the first one that pops to my head is because that’s all I knew. Secondly, the manipulation, the coercion, the mind warping. I was brainwashed. I know that now.
“My thing was always protecting my family. I saw what kind of guns they had, and how cruel they could be, and I didn’t want my family to get hurt. Even to this day, I’m hypervigilant. I only talk to my mom about once a week and it’s only three minutes because I don’t know who’s gonna be listening or watching her and stuff.
“And I’m always afraid for my family’s safety and, at same thing, I’m protecting my daughter. Yeah, I do have a daughter from all of this, and I have to protect her. I know what trafficking can do to a kid and my daughter? I’m telling ya, she looks exactly like me.
“it breaks my heart every day. I miss my hugs from my mother. I miss the hugs and kisses from my daughter. I never want a day when I can’t remember my daughter’s voice.”
‘I’ve never been a civilian until now.’
“That’s how I label myself now. A ‘civilian’. You know what I mean? Because, like I said, after my owner died, I went through this whole entire mental thing that, like, I wanted to be owned again. I didn’t know how to do this life thing on my own again.
“I got in trouble because I was trying to manufacture things that I didn’t know anything about. And I was just like, OK, so how do I do this? I need to find another group, so I went hunting and literally I got myself in a lot of trouble.
“They dehumanized me. They made me do the walk of shame. Naked. Wearing nothing. Made to feel worthless. That’s what they do.”
“They faked my death.”
“Next thing you know, two Samaritans actually saw me, and then they called the cops, and the cops, they faked my death. They put me on a metal slab; even put a toe tag on me so (the traffickers) thought I killed myself, and the next thing you know, I was in the hospital for two days under an alias. Then I was taken to a safe house and the people there worked were with an agency called Rescue America.
“It took a while for the people at Rescue America to find me a place to go because my home state ended up not having any availability because all the illegal immigrants were taking up the room at all of the shelters. They were like, ‘We have no place to put you.’ But they finally found a place that has a trafficking network, and I’m in a safe place, and I have a lot of what I never had before.
“And I’m really working on becoming a common citizen. It’s been quite the journey … quite the journey. “
‘I’m working on it …”
“Sometimes, you know, I feel safe, but the paranoia does get to me. I’ve had different jobs since I’ve been here – I think seven – because of the flashbacks and what they do to me. And sometimes people ask me normal civilian questions, and I’m like, why are you asking me that question? It’s not your business. Who are you asking for?
“Those questions can trigger me because I’m just not used to people asking me anything. I was told to do things, not asked about it, so that’s when I’ve had the blackouts and flashbacks while I’m in the work setting and that’s how I’ve lost my jobs.
“But I’m working on it. I’m working on me.”
