Thread: Five charged in South Florida sex trafficking

November 23, 2008
Five charged in South Florida sex trafficking

McClatchy News Service

They spent the hours between the beatings and threats and forced sexual encounters cloaked in suburbia, stashed invisibly in quiet family homes.

Now they are free, and the ring of smugglers who prosecutors say kidnapped them in Mexico and shuttled them to brothels across South Florida to service as many as 100 clients per week are behind bars.

Federal agents this week charged five people with operating a prostitution gang that targeted girls as young as 14, smuggled them across the border and forced them into a “modern day form of slavery,â€

Officials Arrest 4 Alleged Sex Traffickers, Rescue 9 Women From S. Fla. Brothel

POSTED: 1:44 pm EST November 24, 2008


MIAMI -- U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested four suspected sex traffickers and rescued nine immigrant women who were allegedly being forced into prostitution in South Florida brothels.

ICE said they arrested Arturo-Rojas-Gonzalez, Elodia Capilla-Diego, Fidel Gutierrez-Gonzalez and Rosalio Valdez-Nava on Wednesday after an extensive investigation by ICE and with assistance from several law enforcement agencies in South Florida.

Authorities said the four arrested appeared in court on Thursday afternoon in Miami.

According to ICE, an investigation was conducted into more than a dozen brothels and stash houses where immigrant women were forced into prostitution. Officials said the incidents occurred in Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

The investigation included statements from victims, surveillance evidence and search warrants, which corroborated the statements. The arrest was part of a larger criminal organization operating similar brothels across South Florida, ICE said.

According to the McClatchy News Service, the first woman to come forward had been kidnapped in Mexico in 1999, smuggled through Arizona and wound up on the streets of New York.

The nine victims were rescued from locations where search warrants were conducted on Nov. 19, ICE said. Law enforcement also worked with non-governmental organizations to identify, rescue and provide assistance to the victims.

A detention hearing is schedule on Tuesday morning for the suspects, ICE said.

Anyone with information on sex trafficking brothels is asked to contact U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 1-866-DHS-2ICE.

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