logo
Business owner from Cheektowaga faces sex trafficking, drug charges

Business owner from Cheektowaga faces sex trafficking, drug charges

Yahoo7 hours ago

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A longtime business owner from Cheektowaga was charged after he allegedly sex trafficked six victims over 25 years, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
Officials said Darryl Lamont Paul, 59, has been the owner of NoLimit Entertainment, which provides nude dancers and topless bartenders for parties, for the last 25 years. During that time, Paul allegedly used force, fraud and coercion to sex traffic six victims, one of which he attempted to transport to another state to engage in prostitution.
Paul allegedly conspired with others to get young, vulnerable women from local strip clubs to work for him.
It is also alleged that he maintained an apartment in Cheektowaga from 2021 to 2025 for manufacturing and distributing cocaine.
He was charged with the following:
sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion
conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion
transportation across state lines of an individual with an intent that such individual engage in prostitution
using and maintaining a drug-involved premises
He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years in prison and a maximum of life, if convicted.
Kayleigh Hunter-Gasperini joined the News 4 team in 2024 as a Digital Video Producer. She is a graduate of Chatham University.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

99 Dangerous TikTok Accounts You Must Not Follow
99 Dangerous TikTok Accounts You Must Not Follow

Forbes

time33 minutes ago

  • Forbes

99 Dangerous TikTok Accounts You Must Not Follow

Do not become a TikTok victim. While most TikTok warnings focus on the perceived threat from its ownership and whether or not U.S. data is openly or secretly transmitted to China, there are other threats for its vast user base as well — these are very real and happening now. The team at Guardio has just warned that 'there's an ongoing scam on TikTok involving dozens of accounts that post emotional videos that link to websites that either collect donations (usually claiming to support animals) or sell products.' The videos (1,2) 'are highly manipulative and some have millions of views and hundreds of comments.' The products are as you'd expect, 'cow slippers, dog lamps, and more.' The researchers say these videos 'often ask viewers to 'watch for 9 seconds to help the cause' and are designed to tug at your emotions to encourage donations or purchases.' But it's all fake. 'Some likely use AI or deepfakes, while others use videos stolen from real accounts without consent.' And as is the tendency with TikTok, it's spreading like wildfire as 'new fake accounts keep appearing on the platform.' Unsurprisingly, Guardio warns that 'if you donate through these scam sites, your money won't reach any animal shelter. And if you buy something, you might receive it — but it's usually a cheap product, not the handmade item the video promised.' The warning for TikTok users is not to watch these videos as they're misleading fakes, but also more critically never to click on any links or buy any products or provide any information if asked. And even more simply — do not follow any of these accounts. These accounts also rely on casual shares and likes, spreading their dangerous viral content — do not do that either. You would be sending malicious links to your own followers, putting even more money into these scammers' pockets. Scam website preying on TikTok users While new accounts are being set up continually, below is the latest list from Guardio on those you should avoid. If you have any doubts, check the list: 1. @cozymoos 2. @injesusname7777 3. @customlovebricks 4. @milkstep5 5. @ 6. @ 7. @ 8. @thethronelight 9. @meow_slipps 10. @wonderglowlamps 11. @ 12. @happypowcollection1 13. @ 14. @maybleandclyde 15. @robersfarm7 16. @saddleslips 17. @ 18. @ 19. @mooberryslips 20. @ 21. @whiskerloafers 22. @potterbirkins 23. @cappyslippers 24. @cuddlecowslippers 25. @@purrpawshub 26. @ 27. @myfluffislippers 28. @myfluffislippers 29. @purrslippers 30. @Catslides 31. @catslidess 32. @plushpuff_ 33. @ 34. @faithrugs 35. @fluffislippersshop 36. @kittenkickss 37. @eternalembracelove 38. @pawzyco 39. @mooluxe_slippers 40. @fuzzyflips 41. @theholyblankets42. @ 43. @themooluxe 44. @davidsslippershop 45. @davidsslippersco 46. @fluffislippers2 47. @catslides2 48. @catslidesus 49. @plushypods 50. @kittykicksofficial 51. @flappybirdtoy 52. @flappyybirdyy 53. @ 54. @pawpawslippers 55. @ 56. @meowpaws_1 57. @mymeowslides 58. @pawsywawsi 59. @meowandvibes 60. @ 61. @ 62. @ 63. @cowslideslips 64. @ellyslides 65. @purrfits_ 66. @milkstep4 67. @shopdachslides 68. @purr_pads 69. @ 70. @moo_slips 71. @ 72. @meowwings_go 73. @shleepersco 74. @ 75. @pawmadeslippers 76. @moozyslipper 77. @zacapyslides 78. @pugfooty 79. @mymeowslides 80. @ 81. @doggydwellers 82. @fluffypaws327 83. @cuddlecowslipper 84. @moozies2 85. @swiftyslips86. @ 87. @ 88. @themoooves_ 89. @farmslippers_official 90. @mooluxe_slippers8 91. @ 92. @littledaisyslips 93. @stitch_timeofmygrandpa 94. @ 95. @papamooslippers 96. @snuggslipsrescue 97. @capybarakicks 98. @ 99. @shoppetwear

Scott Wolf granted temporary custody of children
Scott Wolf granted temporary custody of children

Yahoo

time37 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

Scott Wolf granted temporary custody of children

Scott Wolf has been granted temporary custody of his children. The Party of Five actor announced earlier this month he had split from Kelley Wolf after more than 20 years of marriage, and now he has been awarded temporary sole physical and legal custody of Jackson, 16, Miller, 12, and 11-year-old Lucy, with his estranged wife's custody or parent time suspended. Scott, 57, was also given a temporary restraining order against Kelley, 48, with documents obtained by Us Weekly magazine alleging the reality star had "engaged in an escalating pattern of behaviour that poses a substantial threat of immediate and irreparable harm to the parties' minor children." Kelley's time with the children has been suspended until a private guardian ad litem can meet with the children and provide feedback to the court. The documents stated: "Kelley's parent time shall be supervised by an agreed-upon third party or agency pending further order by the court." She is not allowed to contact Scott - who has been awarded sole and exclusive use of their family fome in Utah - or the children, and is also "restrained from posting anything on social media" regarding the divorce, the children or the actor. A failure to comply may lead to a fine or even time in jail. The order was put in place after the former Real World star allegedly tried to take the children out of the country and displayed "behaviour sufficient for Kelley to be detained by law enforcement and subsequently placed on an involuntary psychiatric commitment." A hearing has been set for 1 July, when the court will determine if Kelley can have supervised time with the children and also address any financial issues. The temporary order will stay in place until 9 July. Days after news of the former couple's split was announced, Kelly was hospitalised under an involuntary 5150 hold - which is described as "a critical intervention used to detain individuals who are considered a danger to themselves or others or are gravely disabled due to a mental disorder" - but was discharged days later and insisted earlier this week that she is "fine". She insisted on Instagram on Monday (23.06.25): 'I'm fine, y'all. I'm happy. 'No mental illness. No addictions. Just a woman who SURVIVED an involuntary 5150 and went on a 1st DATE 2-night. So nervous! OMG!' She also admitted she had 'called suicide hotlines.(20 yrs ago)'. She added: "I had my heart shattered and my body bruised… but still kickin!! Hello! [cry laughing emoi]... 'In other words: I'm ALIVE. I'm not quiet anymore. And the show's just getting started.(sic)"

'She's not coming back': Alawite women snatched from streets of Syria
'She's not coming back': Alawite women snatched from streets of Syria

Yahoo

time44 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

'She's not coming back': Alawite women snatched from streets of Syria

By Maggie Michael DAMASCUS (Reuters) -"Don't wait for her," the WhatsApp caller told the family of Abeer Suleiman on May 21, hours after she vanished from the streets of the Syrian town of Safita. "She's not coming back." Suleiman's kidnapper and another man who identified himself as an intermediary said in subsequent calls and messages that the 29-year-old woman would be killed or trafficked into slavery unless her relatives paid them a ransom of $15,000. "I am not in Syria," Suleiman herself told her family in a call on May 29 from the same phone number used by her captor, which had an Iraqi country code. "All the accents around me are strange." Reuters reviewed the call, which the family recorded, along with about a dozen calls and messages sent by the abductor and intermediary, who had a Syrian phone number. Suleiman is among at least 33 women and girls from Syria's Alawite sect - aged between 16 and 39 - who have been abducted or gone missing this year in the turmoil following the fall of Bashar al-Assad, according to the families of all them. The overthrow of the widely feared president in December after 14 years of civil war unleashed a furious backlash against the Muslim minority community to which he belongs, with armed factions affiliated to the current government turning on Alawite civilians in their coastal heartlands in March, killing hundreds of people. Since March, social media has seen a steady stream of messages and video clips posted by families of missing Alawite women appealing for information about them, with new cases cropping up almost daily, according to a Reuters review which found no online accounts of women from other sects vanishing. The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria told Reuters it is investigating the disappearances and alleged abductions of Alawite women following a spike in reports this year. The commission, set up in 2011 to probe rights violations after the civil war broke out, will report to the U.N. Human Rights Council once the investigations are concluded, a spokesperson said. Suleiman's family borrowed from friends and neighbours to scrape together her $15,000 ransom, which they transferred to three money-transfer accounts in the Turkish city of Izmir on May 27 and 28 in 30 transfers ranging from $300 to $700, a close relative told Reuters, sharing the transaction receipts. Once all money was delivered as instructed, the abductor and intermediary ceased all contact, with their phones turned off, the relative said. Suleiman's family still have no idea what's become of her. Detailed interviews with the families of 16 of the missing women and girls found that seven of them are believed to have been kidnapped, with their relatives receiving demands for ransoms ranging from $1,500 to $100,000. Three of the abductees - including Suleiman - sent their families text or voice messages saying they'd been taken out of the country. There has been no word on the fate of the other nine. Eight of the 16 missing Alawites are under the age of 18, their families said. Reuters reviewed about 20 text messages, calls and videos from the abductees and their alleged captors, as well as receipts of some ransom transfers, though it was unable to verify all parts of the families' accounts or determine who might have targeted the women or their motives. All 33 women disappeared in the governorates of Tartous, Latakia and Hama, which have large Alawite populations. Nearly half have since returned home, though all of the women and their families declined to comment about the circumstances, with most citing security fears. Most of the families interviewed by Reuters said they felt police didn't take their cases seriously when they reported their loved ones missing or abducted, and that authorities failed to investigate thoroughly. The Syrian government didn't respond to a request for comment for this article. Ahmed Mohammed Khair, a media officer for the governor of Tartous, dismissed any suggestion that Alawites were being targeted and said most cases of missing women were down to family disputes or personal reasons rather than abductions, without presenting evidence to support this. "Women are either forced into marrying someone they won't want to marry so they run away or sometimes they want to draw attention by disappearing," he added and warned that "unverified allegations" could create panic and discord and destabilize security. A media officer for Latakia governorate echoed Khair's comments, saying that in many cases, women elope with their lovers and families fabricate abduction stories to avoid the social stigma. The media officer of Hama governorate declined to comment. A member of a fact-finding committee set up by new Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa to investigate the mass killings of Alawites in coastal areas in March, declined to comment on the cases of missing women. Al-Sharaa denounced the sectarian bloodshed as a threat to his mission to unite the ravaged nation and has promised to punish those responsible, including those affiliated to the government if necessary. GRABBED ON HER WAY TO SCHOOL Syrian rights advocate Yamen Hussein, who has been tracking the disappearances of women this year, said most had taken place in the wake of the March violence. As far as he knew, only Alawites had been targeted and the perpetrators' identities and motives remain unknown, he said. He described a widespread feeling of fear among Alawites, who adhere to an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam and account for about a tenth of Syria's predominantly Sunni population. Some women and girls in Tartous, Latakia and Hama are staying away from school or college because they fear being targeted, Hussein said. "For sure, we have a real issue here where Alawite women are being targeted with abductions," he added. "Targeting women of the defeated party is a humiliation tactic that was used in the past by the Assad regime." Thousands of Alawites have been forced from their homes in Damascus, while many have been dismissed from their jobs and faced harassment at checkpoints from Sunni fighters affiliated to the government. The interviews with families of missing women showed that most of them vanished in broad daylight, while running errands or travelling on public transport. Zeinab Ghadir is among the youngest. The 17-year-old was abducted on her way to school in the Latakia town of al-Hanadi on February 27, according to a family member who said her suspected kidnapper contacted them by text message to warn them not to post images of the girl online. "I don't want to see a single picture or, I swear to God, I will send you her blood," the man said in a text message sent from the girl's phone on the same day she disappeared. The teenage girl made a brief phone call home, saying she didn't know where she had been taken and that she had stomach pain, before the line cut out, her relative said. The family has no idea what has happened to her. Khozama Nayef was snatched on March 18 in rural Hama by a group of five men who drugged her to knock her out for a few hours while they spirited her away, a close relative told Reuters, citing the mother-of-five's own testimony when she was returned. The 35-year-old spent 15 days in captivity while her abductors negotiated with the family who eventually paid $1,500 dollars to secure her release, according to the family member who said when she returned home she had a mental breakdown. Days after Nayef was taken, 29-year-old Doaa Abbas was seized on her doorstep by a group of attackers who dragged her into a car waiting outside and sped off, according to a family member who witnessed the abduction in the Hama town of Salhab. The relative, who didn't see how many men took Abbas or whether they were armed, said he tried to follow on his motorbike but lost sight of the car. Three Alawites reported missing by their families on social media this year, who are not included in the 33 cases identified by Reuters, have since resurfaced and publicly denied they were abducted. One of them, a 16-year-old girl from Latakia, released a video online saying she ran away of her own accord to marry a Sunni man. Her family contradicted her story though, telling Reuters that she had been abducted and forced to marry the man, and that security authorities had ordered her to say she had gone willingly to protect her kidnappers. Reuters was unable to verify either account. A Syrian government spokesperson and Latakian authorities didn't respond to queries about it. The two other Alawites who resurfaced, a 23-year-old woman and a girl of 12, told Arabic TV channels that they had travelled of their own volition to the cities of Aleppo and Damascus, respectively, though the former said she ended up being beaten up by a man in an apartment before escaping. DARK MEMORIES OF ISLAMIC STATE Syria's Alawites dominated the country's political and military elite for decades under the Assad dynasty. Bashar al-Assad's sudden exit in December saw the ascendancy of a new government led by HTS, a Sunni group that emerged from an organization once affiliated to al Qaeda. The new government is striving to integrate dozens of former rebel factions, including some foreign fighters, into its security forces to fill a vacuum left after the collapse of Assad's defence apparatus. Several of the families of missing women said they and many others in their community dreaded a nightmare scenario where Alawites suffered similar fates to those inflicted on the Yazidi religious minority by Islamic State about a decade ago. IS, a jihadist Sunni group, forced thousands of Yazidi women into sexual slavery during a reign of terror that saw its commanders claim a caliphate encompassing large parts of Iraq and Syria, according to the U.N. A host of dire scenarios are torturing the minds of the family of Nagham Shadi, an Alawite woman who vanished this month, her father told Reuters. The 23-year-old left their house in the village of al Bayadiyah in Hama on June 2 to buy milk and never came back, Shadi Aisha said, describing an agonising wait for any word about the fate of his daughter. Aisha said his family had been forced from their previous home in a nearby village on March 7 during the anti-Alawite violence. "What do we do? We leave it to God."

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store