Taras Kosmirak, a Ukrainian war refugee, pleaded guilty this week to attempting to transport a woman in Mobile to the Brooklyn borough of New York City to employ the woman as a prostitute.
The case began after a Mobile woman, identified only as a Soviet national with the initials “M.L.,” who had been in the country since 2018, informed law enforcement that she had been made aware of the Brooklyn-based operation.
M.L. then contacted the organization and was swiftly put in contact with Kosmirak to negotiate the terms of employment as a ruse.
“He explained travel information and coordinated a pick-up location,” Court records state. “At approximately 1845 on March 14, 2025, KOSMIRAK arrived at the pick-up location in Gulf Shores, Alabama. Law enforcement officers apprehended Kosmirak at the pick-up location. Law enforcement officers allowed Kosmirak to communicate with his contact in New York, and he sent a text message that said 'she's with me' to a contact titled ‘Beautiful Girls $350’ which had the same phone number as was associated with the New York organizer.”
After initially denying the purpose of coming to Alabama to pick up M.L., court records show that text messages and recorded phone calls proved beyond a doubt that Kosmirak knew he was transporting M.L. to employ her as a prostitute. One person from the organization informed M.L. that she would have to perform sex acts with Kosmirak to secure her transport.
In the plea agreement, Kosmirak, 35, acknowledged his guilt and the near-certainty of his deportation from the U.S. The court did not impose a sentence when it accepted the plea. That will happen on another date.
Two men were arrested with Kosmirak, Denys Vlad, 21, and Vasyl Opechenyk, 42. They face conspiracy to commit human trafficking charges in Baldwin County
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