Women say they were enslaved, treated inhumanely by NJ man

HAMILTON (Atlantic) — Authorities revealed brutal conditions in the house where an Atlantic County man has been accused of keeping three women against their will.

El Joshua, 36, was arrested last week after holding three women captive in his home in the Mays Landing section, police said.

The women told police that they were threatened with an air-soft gun, forced into prostitution for heroin, and were made to as for permission to use the restroom, according to an affidavit of probable cause filed by investigators. The document was obtained by The Press of Atlantic City.

The report said that the first woman escaped from Joshua's home on Dec. 19.

Township police went to an address on Pearce Road after the woman said she had been held there against her will along with two others.

Police have not disclosed where or how the remaining two women were found, but the affidavit said it happened 19 days later.

A week later, Joshua was arrested on Feb. 21.

He has been charged with five counts of human trafficking, two counts of criminal restraint and one count of possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. His detention hearing is set for Wednesday, Feb. 27.

Joshua also had a criminal history. Florida Department of Corrections records show that Joshua was released in April 2014 after serving less than half of a 10-year prison term for robbery with a gun or deadly weapon.

That sentence stemmed from the deadly armed robbery of a couple, shot to death in their home in 2002. Joshua testified in the case against two other men and avoided a murder charge.