This site displays some Texas sites, just click on the state of Texas:

http://www.slaverymap.org/

Update on the SAT Trafficking Case Below!!

One of the traffickers finally prosecuted for the trafficking of young girls into prostitution.

Ex-nurse gets prison for sex trafficking

Details Emerge in Human Trafficking Case in San Antonio

June 2, 2007 From www.MySanAntonio.com

Psst. You want to marry a rich man who will buy you anything you want?

How’s $600 to buy what you’d like simply for accompanying men on trips? We can make it happen, al otro lado — on the other side.

That pitch allegedly made by a trio of women sounded like gold to some impressionable teens and a young woman not making much in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico.

Three girls agreed to be smuggled to the United States in mid-May and once they were in or near San Antonio, they were primped, new clothes were bought for them and they were given English lessons. Their understanding was that they did not have to have sex with the men.

But rather than the glitz they were promised, they were sold in an underground world for prostitution, according to prosecutors and documents filed in federal court Friday.

The girls were delivered to a man in San Antonio referred to in court records as the “boss,” who had them strip, inspected their bodies and told them they were going to be having sex with men for up to five years to pay off their smuggling debt.

The “boss” said he had paid $3,000 apiece for two of the girls and said he would pay even more to get them ready for other men, witnesses told investigators, according to their statements. Anyone who fled would die, and their families would also suffer the same fate, the statements said.

“It may sound naive to us, but these are young minors, who are being told, ‘You can make good money, come with us,’” Assistant U.S. Attorney Charlie Jenkins said in court Friday. During their ordeal, “one of these men pulled out a gun, and the (victims) were threatened to be killed.”

Jenkins also said the eldest of the three suspects in custody, Isabel Consuelo Ochoa, 58, told the girls that all they had to do was play the part: “We’re going to prepare you, and if you’re not stupid, you can make a lot of money,” Jenkins quoted her as saying.

Such is the story unfolding as federal authorities investigate the city’s first case charged under a 7-year-old federal law that targets human trafficking and slavery. The paperwork filed Friday alleges more girls were approached, and shows agents may have broken up the ring as it attempted to set up an underground house for prostitution.

Justice Department records show such cases are a fraction of the thousands of overall immigrant smuggling cases. Between 2001 and 2005, federal prosecutors handled 555 “matters” involving human trafficking.

Of those, 129 involved the sex trafficking of children, 155 were sale into involuntary servitude, 134 were forced labor, 63 were peonage/involuntary servitude and 74 involved slavery or “other” unspecified types.

The probe, which came to a head last week, also snared Ochoa’s daughters: Consuelo Pilar Ochoa, 31, identified largely by witnesses as “Pilar” and Maria de Jesus Ochoa, 29, identified by the victims as “Jessica.”

All three suspects are charged with sex trafficking of children, punishable by between 10 years and life in prison. They were denied bail Friday, while their lawyer, Jeff Scott, told U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo that the women are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Isabel Ochoa denied the allegations in a hearing this week.

One of the victims was found near Dilley on May 25. The two others later were found at a house linked to the Ochoas in the 10700 block of Grand Haven in Northeast San Antonio, court records show.

Two of the victims — identified in court documents and their witness statements as “V,” 17, and “S,” 15 — told agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement that V was approached at her job in Nuevo Laredo by “Pilar” and Isabel.

Pilar asked V “if I knew any girls that might be interested in traveling and getting married with someone who would buy them anything they wanted,” according to V’s statement.

V recommended S, and the Ochoas returned later to pick them up, also persuading a third victim, a friend of the girls identified only as “M,” 22, to join the group. A fourth girl who initially agreed to join the Ochoas for work changed her mind, M’s statement said.

One of the victims told investigators Pilar had to bring to San Antonio a total of 10 girls between 15 and 20 years old. Pilar took V, S and M around Nuevo Laredo to pitch the offer to more girls, but none of the ones approached accepted, M’s witness statement said.

“The job supposedly involved accompanying men on trips,” S’s statement said. “Pilar stressed that there was not going to be inappropriate behavior.”

“She told me that all I would be required to do is accompany men to parties, reunions and just travel in general,” M’s statement said. “Pilar told me that if I wanted to have sex with the men, that it would be something I would have to work out on my own.”

Shortly after being smuggled into Texas, the girls were shuttled between houses or apartments linked to the Ochoas in Dilley, Pearsall and San Antonio. Then the girls were delivered to the “boss” — a man the Ochoas explained had a lot of rich friends, and another man, for an inspection.

The boss “told us we were a business to them,” V’s statement said.

After they were examined nude, they were threatened if they tried to flee. They then were told they would work under “Jessica” and given the instructions of what it would take to pay off the debt for being smuggled here.

“At the house, we were to attend to customers there, dance, disrobe, and have sexual relations with the customers,” V’s statement said.

M appeared in court this week and is being held as a material witness. The other victims are in protective custody.

Agents began investigating the case after the victims’ families contacted authorities in Laredo to say the girls hadn’t contacted them in days. The families said one of the victim’s relatives was told by Pilar in mid-May that the girls would be working at Campbell’s Restaurant in Pearsall.

That restaurant, other court records show, was raided by federal drug agents in 2004. Pilar was indicted in the case and pleaded guilty to federal drug-trafficking charges, which resulted in a 39-month sentence.

She’s accused of the latest crime while she was out on bond waiting to turn herself in for the drug case.

Follow-up to the above article

Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Role in San Antonio Sex-Trafficking Ring

March 12, 2008 US Department of Justice

WASHINGTON, March 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Timothy Michael Gereb was
sentenced today in federal court in San Antonio to 10 years imprisonment for
his role in a sex trafficking ring involving at least one teenage girl, the
Justice Department announced today. After his release from prison, Gereb will
be on lifetime federal supervised release. Gereb is one of five defendants
named in an indictment filed in San Antonio in June 2007 following a federal
sex trafficking investigation.

During his guilty plea hearing on Feb. 25, 2008, Gereb admitted that he
recruited a Mexican girl under the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution
in San Antonio. Additionally, Gereb admitted that he conspired with others to
transport at least three illegal aliens across the border between the United
States and Mexico for the purpose of establishing a prostitution business.

"This defendant preyed on a young girl who was brought into the United States
illegally, far from home, and unaware of the U.S. legal system," said Grace
Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department's
Civil Rights Division. "Today's sentencing is the result of the Justice
Department's ongoing commitment to prosecuting human trafficking and
vindicating the rights of vulnerable women." 

Three of Gereb's co-defendants, Isabel Ochoa, Pilar Ochoa and Maria Ochoa
pleaded guilty to related charges on Oct. 18, 2007. No trial date has been set
for Gereb's remaining co-defendant, Brent Stephens. 

The case was investigated by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs
Enforcement (ICE), and investigators with the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.
This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann and
Civil Rights Division trial attorney Jonathan Skrmetti.

Houston, Texas Major Hub for Human Trafficking

October 31, 2007

Large ring kept up to 120 women in virtual slavery.

If you think you’ve identified a victim of human trafficking, call 911 or the national Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1-888-373-7888. For information locally, contact the Houston Rescue and Restore Coalition at 713-306-0583. Here are some questions to ask a suspected trafficking victim:
• What type of work do you do?

• Are you being paid?

• Can you leave your job if you want to?

• Can you come and go as you please?

• Have you or has your family been threatened?

• What are your working conditions like?

Source: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The picture, with its implicit threat, was all it took.

It was taken just before Christmas 2004. She had been thinking about running away from the windowless bar on Houston’s northwest side, where he kept her and other women, forcing some of them into prostitution while they paid off their “debts.”

But Maximino “Chimino” Mondragon knew of her plans.

Carrying a camera and Christmas presents for the woman’s daughter, he had appeared unannounced at her family’s home in El Salvador. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, told investigators that Mondragon had talked his way into the home by saying the gifts were from her.

“By the way,” Mondragon reportedly asked her parents, “would you mind taking a photo of me with the little girl?”

There were no more plans of escaping.

With similar threats, Mondragon and a network of family members and associates operated one of the largest human trafficking rings in U.S. history in which as many as 120 women were held captive and coerced to work off their smuggling debts. Some of the women were raped and forced to have abortions.

Mondragon’s operation collapsed in November 2005 when the women were freed and he and seven other defendants from El Salvador and Honduras were arrested on federal human trafficking charges.

All eight defendants in the case have pleaded guilty in Houston courtrooms, but only one woman — a Honduran accused of providing the abortions — has been sentenced. The remaining sentencings are scheduled for this winter.
Houston a trafficking hub
The Mondragon case underscores the need to raise awareness about human trafficking, which still largely operates “under the radar” despite major efforts to combat the crime in recent years, said Ed Gallagher, the deputy chief of the criminal division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Houston. The U.S. State Department estimates that 17,500 people are trafficked into the United States each year, but the vast majority are never identified as victims.

Gallagher said the Mondragon case was remarkable because of the large number of victims. The only U.S. case with more certified human trafficking victims was based in American Samoa, and involved a ring that forced hundreds of Vietnamese and Chinese to work in a factory, officials said.

Maritza Conde-Vazquez, a special agent with the FBI, said Houston is a popular trafficking hub in part because the city is so diverse, with large Hispanic, Asian and Middle Eastern populations, which allows traffickers and their victims to blend into local communities. The city’s major port and proximity to the border also influence its position as a major distribution point for traffickers.

Recognition of the growing problem in Houston has spawned coalitions and task forces that include law enforcement agencies and nongovernmental organizations, Gallagher said. The joint efforts have led to major cases, and helped put Texas behind only California in the number of registered human trafficking victims, with 252 reported since 2001, according to statistics from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“It’s everywhere. It’s in restaurants and so-called spas. A lot of them are fronts for cantinas and brothels,” said Deputy Edwin Chapuseaux of the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. “Wherever there is some kind of labor, there’s a possibility human trafficking could be happening.”

The Department of Justice estimates that human trafficking is the third-most-profitable criminal activity in the world, after drug and arms trafficking, with an estimated $9.5 billion generated annually worldwide.

Nationally, prosecutions of human traffickers are increasing, according to Department of Justice statistics. The DOJ reported a record number of defendants charged and convicted in connection with human trafficking in fiscal year 2006, while the number of investigations that year increased more than 20 percent from the previous year, to 167 from 138.
‘Modern-day slavery’
Gallagher said human trafficking is often confused with smuggling, but differs substantially. To fit the legal definition of human trafficking, a crime must involve using force, fraud or coercion. Recent cases in Houston have ranged from domestic servitude to forced prostitution rings.

“In many cases, they are brought into modern-day slavery,” Gallagher said. “They are exploited repeatedly, and they are treated as a commodity rather than a human being.”

Under the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000, victims who cooperate with authorities on trafficking cases are permitted to stay in the U.S. legally, at least temporarily while the case moves through the court system. Some victims meet the qualifications for a “T-visa,” a trafficking visa, which also offers a path toward legal residency. The rules are slightly different for children and teens, who are sometimes too vulnerable to be compelled to testify.

Chapuseaux, an investigator on the local human trafficking task force, lives with the images from the Mondragon case. He has a picture of a stillborn baby born at a Houston hospital, perfectly formed at five or six months, the result of the abortion-inducing drugs. He said he struggles with the memory of a 17-year-old Salvadoran girl who was purchased from the Mondragon ring by a source working for investigators. She was raped on a mattress in a room behind the bar before the source could pick her up, Chapuseaux said.

Mondragon and his co-defendants worked with Walter Alexander Corea, an admitted smuggler, to bring the women to Houston and force them to work in cantinas on the northwest side, including Mi Cabana Sports Bar, El Portero de Chimino Bar and Huetamo Night Club, prosecutors said. If a customer just wanted a beer, it would cost $2 or $3, depending on the brand. But if the customer wanted the company of a girl, a Corona would cost $13, investigators said. Of that, $9 went to pay down the debt from the smuggling.

When authorities raided the apartments where the women lived on Houston’s northwest side, they found 98 possible victims, witnesses and suspects, officials said. Eventually, the number of victims in the Mondragon case grew to about 120.

Lorenza Reyes-Nunez, aka “La Comadre,” who was accused of performing abortions, took a deal with the government. The Honduran woman was accused of giving pregnant women an herbal supplement that induced abortions, often late in the pregnancies.

One woman who took the drugs in a failed abortion attempt weeks later had a baby born with a hole in his heart and vision problems, investigators said. Reyes-Nunez pleaded guilty in August 2006 to obstruction of justice for encouraging women to destroy evidence. She was sentenced to time served in prison while the case waited for trial and marked for deportation to Honduras.

In January and February, sentencings are scheduled for Maximino Mondragon; his brother Oscar Mondragon; half brother Victor Omar Lopez; and the wives or ex-wives of the Mondragon brothers, Olga Mondragon and Maria Fuentes. Corea and his son, Kerin Silva, also are scheduled for sentencing this winter.
Long-term damage
Prosecutors and investigators said it’s unclear whether the victims will testify at the sentencings. The lore of the trafficking ring is still powerful, investigators said, especially since the network operated in El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

Officials declined to allow a reporter to speak with the victims because the case is still pending. Some of the women have returned home, while others have settled in Houston or Dallas with visas that allow them to work legally in the U.S., their attorneys said.

Some have suffered long-term psychological damage, while others have health problems, such as sexually transmitted diseases from their time as prostitutes, advocates said. One woman who drank heavily while working in the Mondragon ring’s cantinas suffered serious kidney damage and is on dialysis two to three times a week, Chapuseaux said.

“She has one foot in the grave,” he said. “It’s just a matter of time.”
Adapted from: SUSAN CARROLL, “Houston major hub for human trafficking
Large ring kept up to 120 women in virtual slavery.” Houston Chronicle. 28 October 2007.

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT ANNOUNCES SENTENCING IN SOUTH TEXAS
HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SEX SLAVERY PROSECUTION

Jan. 29, 2004 US Department of Justice

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Justice Department today announced the sentencing of seven men who earlier pled guilty to confining women in alien smuggling “safe houses” near the US-Mexico border and raping them repeatedly. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights R. Alexander Acosta and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Michael Shelby today announced that Juan Carlos Soto, Armando Soto-Huarto, Jose Corona-Soto, Martin Cortez-Gutierrez, Javier Olvera-Hernandez; Jose-Luis Villa-Zavala, and Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez were sentenced on various trafficking and forced servitude-related charges.

“These peddlers in human misery exploited the vulnerabilities of these women, prostituting them and subjecting them to other physical abuse,” said Assistant Attorney General Acosta. “This Administration remains committed to fighting back this old evil. As President Bush told the United Nations, ‘the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time.’”

The men, who were arrested in March and April of 2003, were charged with federal civil rights violations, extortion, hostage-taking and immigration offenses. Jose Corona-Soto, Javier Olvera-Hernandez Jose-Luis Villa-Zavala, and Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez each pled guilty during the summer of 2003 to alien smuggling and related charges. Juan Carlos Soto, Armando Soto-Huarto, and Martin Cortez-Gutierrez pleaded guilty in August 2003 to charges of involuntary servitude and human trafficking offenses.

Juan Carlos Soto admitted to running a human smuggling operation, holding women from Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador against their will, raping several of the women, and forcing them to do work without pay. His brother, Armando Soto-Huarto, helped lead the smuggling organization and acknowledged not only his role in holding women against their will until their smuggling fees were repaid by their families or through compelled service to the organization, but also to knowing of the ongoing rapes. A third Soto brother – Hector Soto – is still at large and remains charged with conspiracy. Co-defendant Martin Cortez-Gutierrez admitted to participating in the Soto brothers’ smuggling operation and to holding a young Salvadoran woman in a condition of compelled service and to raping her.

“The actions of these defendants clearly demonstrate the immeasurable tragedy associated with human trafficking cases,” said United States Attorney Shelby. “Today’s sentence should send a strong message: we are committed to using the full force of federal law to identify, arrest and prosecute anyone associated with these smuggling organizations.”

The victims have been relocated to safe quarters and are receiving immigration and refugee assistance provided for by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). Since the passage of the TVPA in October 2000, more than 400 victims of trafficking has been provided federal assistance.

U S. District Court Judge Randy Crane imposed the sentences in McAllen, Texas. Armando Soto-Huarto was sentenced to ten years in prison and $11,532 in restitution to the victims. Martin Cortez-Gutierrez was sentenced to fourteen years in prison and $11,532 in restitution to the victims. Jose Corona-Soto was sentenced to twenty-seven months in prison. Javier Olvera-Hernandez and Jose Angel Pineda-Cortez were sentenced to fifteen and four months in prison respectively. Juan Carlos Soto is scheduled for sentencing tomorrow. Jose Luis Villa-Zavala did not appear for sentencing and a warrant has been issued for his arrest.

This successful prosecution highlights the Civil Rights Division’s aggressive efforts to investigate and prosecute human trafficking cases. Over the past two days, the Division has announced developments in two other significant human trafficking cases. Today, the Division is also announcing the sentencing in United States v. Lee, a case in which three men in American Samoa were convicted of holding and beating 200 Vietnamese and Chinese laborers in involuntary servitude in a garment factory. Yesterday, in United States v. Rojas, the Division announced the indictments in Atlanta, Georgia of three brothers accused of trafficking girls into the United States and forcing them into prostitution through physical and mental coercion.

This Administration has greatly increased human trafficking prosecutions. Since FY 2001, the Department has charged 121 traffickers, a nearly three-fold increase over the preceding three years. Over that same period, the Department convicted 83 persons, more than 60 of whom pled guilty, or were convicted by a jury, of sex trafficking charges. At present, the Department has 142 open investigations into possible human trafficking crimes.

Moreover, the Civil Rights Division has provided extensive training to state and local law enforcement in trafficking investigation, has worked with source nations to bolster supply-side deterrence and enforcement efforts, and has launched a public awareness campaign to educate the public. Additionally, the Division is working closely with faith-based groups, which are more likely to have access to non-English speaking immigrants who are most frequently forced into involuntary servitude. More information about the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found on the DOJ website:.

This investigation was a joint effort of agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Department of Homeland Security’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Hidalgo County, Texas, Sheriff’s Department; the McAllen, Texas, Police Department; and the office of the Hidalgo County Attorney. The case was prosecuted by Luis C. de Baca of the Civil Rights Division ’s criminal section, and Assistant United States Attorney Luis Martinez of the McAllen Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas.

Photographs of the Soto brothers are available for use by print or broadcast media to assist in the apprehension of Hector Soto, as well as to encourage other possible victims to come forward. Individuals with information about Hector Soto’s whereabouts or other instances of sex trafficking, forced labor, or involuntary servitude should call the Trafficking in Persons & Worker Exploitation Task Force complaint line at 1-888-428-7581. Operators have access to translation services for non-English speaking callers.

More information about the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found on the DOJ website: <http://www.usdoj.gov/trafficking.htm>.