Men Found Guilty Of Luring Gay Men To Be Sex Slaves
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MIAMI (CBSMiami) -- Two Hungarians were found guilty of luring young gay men to the U.S. to serve as sex slaves.
A jury found Gabor Acs and Viktor Berki guilty of human trafficking, conspiracy and racketeering in a case considered to be a first for Florida prosecutors, according to CBS4 news partner the Miami Herald, because they were gay men reportedly being forced to prostitute themselves for months in Miami and New York.
Jurors deliberated for four hours before handing over their decision.
Both men are set to be sentenced at a later date but could face more than 200 years in prison if given the max sentence.
The trial this week was the second for the three victims who testified in each case.
A third man involved in the alleged ring - Andras Janos Vass - was convicted back in 2015 and sentenced to prison for over 11 years.
Related: Human Trafficking Victim: "I Was Afraid Of My Own Dreams"
Jurors were trying to decide earlier whether the three young men were true victims of the ring or willing participants who were trying to avoid deportation.
Investigators said Berki and Acs met the victims in Hungary through a website called GayRomeo.com. The other victims reportedly met Acs through Facebook and was "living with gypsies" while working as a prostitute.
The three men said they were flown to New York City in 2012 to work in what they thought was legal business.
The men who were in their early 20s were later forced to live in cramped quarters in Miami and New York City while doing sex acts around the clock and sometimes on live web cameras, prosecutors said.
They were reportedly given little food and threatened with violence if they left.
Defense attorneys called the men opportunists who turned on Berki and Acs in order to get visas to stay in the U.S.
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