Man arrested in Valley Center found guilty of sex- trafficking

By SARAH GORDON - sgordon@nctimes.com
January 7, 2010 8:25 pm

Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez, a man who had two women smuggled from Mexico to Vista to work as prostitutes in North County migrant camps, is guilty of sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, a San Diego jury found Thursday.

The federal charge carries a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison.

The jury also found Zitlalpopoca guilty of nine other federal charges in connection with the prostitution operation.

After the two-day trial, which included testimony by the two alleged prostitutes, one who wept and said she loved Zitlalpopoca, the panel took only a little over an hour to return the unanimous verdicts.

In his closing arguments Thursday, Assistant U.S. Attorney Christopher P. Tenorio said Zitlalpopoca manipulated each woman into a life of prostitution, alternately professing his love and promising marriage while isolating the women, both about 10 years younger than him, far from their families, and keeping them scared with occasional violence.

He said Zitlalpopoca's techniques were as coercive as a "virtual gun to their head" and worked better than an actual weapon.

"You put a gun to anybody's head and you can motivate them for a minute," Tenorio said. "But this was much more effective, much more insidious, much more complete. Eventually his choices became their choices."

The jury seemed to reject Zitlalpopoca's attorney's argument that the man's girlfriends were never forced to work as prostitutes in the North County or Mexico. He asked them, and they agreed, because they loved him, the defense had argued.

"Love and affection and kind words would get them to engage in prostitution," attorney Leila Morgan said Thursday. Zitlalpopoca's manipulation did not meet the legal standard for coercion, she said.

Each victim testified during the trial that Zitlalpopoca had physically harmed her at times. Florencia Calixto-Velazco told the jury that Zitlalpopoca kicked her, whipped her with a cable and dragged her down a set of stairs by pulling on her hair. Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez said he got angry and pulled her hair when she confronted him about condoms in her wallet that indicated he could be seeing other women.

But both women told the jury Zitlalpopoca never threatened them to make them work as prostitutes.

However, Tenorio said Zitlalpopoca's potential for violence, combined with other manipulative techniques, all but brainwashed the women.

"What's the best way to make people do exactly what you want? Make them think it's their idea," he said. "He did as little or as much as he needed to do."

Calixto and de la Cruz met Zitlalpopoca, when they were 17 and 18 respectively, and his romantic wooing made them quickly attached, Tenorio said.

Calixto came from a life of poverty in a small town near Oaxaca, Mexico, while de la Cruz was a college student in Veracruz. Within weeks of becoming involved with each, Zitlalpopoca asked them to work as prostitutes. The women worked in various cities in Mexico, each spending time working in Tijuana, and wiring money to Zitlalpopoca, prosecutors said.

In early 2008, a smuggler brought Zitlalpopoca and de la Cruz to Vista, Tenorio said. Later, a smuggler brought Calixto.

The three were detained Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff's deputies stopped the vehicle they were in in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couser Canyon, a place police say is often used by sex traffickers to set up prostitution camps.

In the car, police found condoms, birth control pills, lubricants, toilet paper, plastic tarps and plastic bags. Shortly afterward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived and determined that the couple and another woman in the car were in the country illegally.

In November, two other men accused of helping to run the prostitution ring admitted they were guilty of harboring illegal immigrants for the purposes of prostitution.

Each man faces up to 10 years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced in April, along with Zitlalpopoca.

North County has gained notoriety in recent years as a hub of international prostitution rings, several of which have been found operating in the region's migrant camps in rural canyons and fields.

In 2003, a Mexican man linked to a suspected prostitution ring operating at migrant worker camps pleaded guilty to federal charges of smuggling and harboring women who worked as prostitutes in North County.

Activists who help victims of sex trafficking say many, like Zitlalpopoca's victims, are vulnerable young women coerced into working as prostitutes by promises of love and a better life.

Staff writer Edward Sifuentes contributed to this report.

Call staff writer Sarah Gordon at 760-740-3517.

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