US authorities say young Mexican
women were driven to rural New
Jersey and forced to have s*x with 25
farm workers a day or were confined
to dingy brothels in the New York City
area, being paid very little or nothing
at all.A criminal complaint charges 13 people
with smuggling dozens of women into
the United States and forcing them into
prostitution.
Some of the defendants were to appear
Wednesday in federal court in
Manhattan to face multiple counts
including s*x trafficking and interstate
transportation for prostitution.
The ring “lured their unsuspecting
victims to the United States and then
consigned them to a living hell,” US
Attorney Preet Bharara said in a
statement.
The investigation was among several
aimed at “blockading the repugnant s*x
trafficking corridor” used to exploit
victims from Tenancingo, Mexico, said
James Hayes, head of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement in New York.
Tenancingo, an impoverished town in
Tlaxcala state, has long been a notorious
haven for pimps who use a combination
of threats, abuse and broken promises of
marriage and jobs to put innocent
victims, some only in their teens, on a
path to s*x slavery in Mexico City and
in large cities in the United States.
Most victims eventually manage to
escape, authorities say in court papers.
But “without legal status in the United
States, without family and friends for
support, without employment
opportunities and as a result of the
trauma they suffered, victims sometimes
return to prostitution.”
According to the complaint, the ring
provided its victims with condoms and
birth control pills while making them
have s*x with up to 30 men a day. The
men paid $30 for 15 minutes.
The women sometimes got a $15 cut, but
that usually went to the traffickers. If
convicted, some of the defendants face a
maximum sentence of life in prison.
