Louisiana Human Trafficking Law

A.  It shall be unlawful:

(1)  For any person to knowingly recruit, harbor, transport, provide, solicit, obtain, or maintain the use of another person through fraud, force, or coercion to provide services or labor.

(2)  For any person to knowingly benefit from activity prohibited by the provisions of this Section.

(3)  For any person to knowingly facilitate any of the activities prohibited by the provisions of this Section by any means, including but not limited to helping, aiding, abetting, or conspiring, regardless of whether a thing of value has been promised to or received by the person.

B.(1)  Except as provided in Paragraphs (2) and (3) of this Subsection, whoever commits the crime of human trafficking shall be fined not more than ten thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than ten years.

(2)  Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking when the services include commercial sexual activity or any sexual conduct constituting a crime under the laws of this state shall be fined not more than fifteen thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not more than twenty years.

(3)  Whoever commits the crime of human trafficking when the trafficking involves a person under the age of eighteen shall be fined not more than twenty-five thousand dollars and shall be imprisoned at hard labor for not less than five nor more than twenty-five years, five years of which shall be without the benefit of parole, probation, or suspension of sentence.

(4)(a)  In addition, the court shall order that the personal property used in the commission of the offense shall be seized and impounded, and after conviction, sold at public sale or public auction by the district attorney in accordance with R.S. 15:539.1.

(b)  The personal property made subject to seizure and sale pursuant to Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph may include, but shall not be limited to, electronic communication devices, computers, computer related equipment, motor vehicles, photographic equipment used to record or create still or moving visual images of the victim that are recorded on paper, film, video tape, disc, or any other type of digital recording media.

C.  For purposes of this Section:

(1)  "Commercial sexual activity" means any sexual act performed or conducted when anything of value has been given, promised, or received by any person.

(2)  "Fraud, force, or coercion" means any of the following:

(a)  Causing or threatening to cause serious bodily injury;

(b)  Physically restraining or threatening to physically restrain another person;

(c)  Intentionally destroying, concealing, removing, confiscating, or possessing any actual or purported passport or other immigration document, or any other actual or purported government identification document, of another person; or

(d)  Extortion as defined in R.S. 14:66.

D.  If any Subsection, Paragraph, Subparagraph, Item, sentence, clause, phrase, or word of this Section is for any reason held to be invalid, unlawful, or unconstitutional, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this Section.