Thread: Jacksonville: Feds bust illegal immigrant prostitution ring

Feds bust illegal immigrant prostitution ring with Jacksonville connections

By Paul Pinkham, The Times-Union

Federal authorities have busted a statewide sex trafficking ring in which Central American women said they were smuggled into Florida and forced into prostitution in Jacksonville and other cities.

FBI and immigration agents made four arrests last week, including a man accused of heading the Jacksonville end of the ring, and two Colombian immigrants who agents said drove and housed women in Jacksonville. They and a man identified as the Tampa head of the organization are charged in Tallahassee with importing, transporting and harboring illegal aliens for prostitution and financial gain.

The women were brought to Florida under the guise of getting work as maids or bartenders but were forced into prostitution at apartment complexes in Jacksonville, Tampa, Tallahassee and Orlando, according to an arrest affidavit signed by Senior Special Agent William Maxey of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

An indictment unsealed last week in Tallahassee said the women were rotated from city to city and required to have multiple sex acts with multiple partners every day. Federal prosecutors said the men promoted the prostitution ring with business cards and cell phones and kept the $30 per sex act the women were told to charge. The women were picked up in Texas, the indictment says.

A fifth man, also from Colombia, was convicted by a Tallahassee jury in May of seven related counts. Jorge Wilmar Melchor is awaiting sentencing Oct. 15.

Melchor was arrested in 2006 after two Guatemalan women fled his Tallahassee home and told a neighbor they were being forced to work as prostitutes. The women testified they were taken to apartment complexes populated by alien workers, said Melchor's attorney, Armando Garcia.

"My understanding of how this works is they service strictly the Latin community," Garcia said Tuesday.

Witnesses interviewed for Melchor's case told agents about others involved in human trafficking in other cities, including Carlos Andres Monsalve, who Maxey testified ran the organization from Tampa. He said Monsalve began smuggling women into the United States in 2005 and told them they had to work as prostitutes to pay his smuggling fees.

Also arrested were:

- Fabio Perez, a Colombian immigrant who witnesses said drove prostitutes to and from Jacksonville and ran the organization in Monsalve's absence;

- Jorge Enrique Londono, also known as Alvara Prado, who agents said formerly ran the Jacksonville end of the ring; and

- Luz Karime Ramos Teran, also known as La Negra, who prosecutors said housed women in Jacksonville.

A sixth defendant, whose name has been kept secret and who is cooperating with agents, told Maxey he normally met Londono and Perez between Jacksonville and Tampa for the purpose of exchanging prostitutes.

Maxey said video surveillance in Jacksonville last month shows Monsalve and Perez driving women to apartment complexes occupied by Hispanic men. The video shows them entering the apartment with the women and staying for about 30 minutes.

"This type of behavior is consistent with statements from witnesses of how Fabio and Monsalve delivered prostitutes to customers," Maxey said.

Maxey said one prostitute told agents Perez ran the organization while Monsalve was out of the country. The woman said some women brought in $1,500 a week.

Garcia estimated about two dozen women were involved in the ring. He said he argued during Melchor's trial that the women were willing participants.

"He was a pimp. He was not a smuggler," Garcia said.

paul.pinkham@jacksonville.com, (904) 359-4107

http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/s ... 4483.shtml

Man Sentenced for Human Trafficking

Posted: 6:43 PM Oct 8, 2008
Last Updated: 6:49 PM Oct 8, 2008
Reporter: Julie Montanaro

A man accused of smuggling women into the United States
and forcing them into prostitution will spend the next 20 years in prison for it.

Carlos Monsalve was sentenced in Tallahassee's federal court Wednesday for harboring and transporting illegal aliens as well as importing illegal aliens for the purpose of prostitution.


His plot started to come unraveled when two of the women fled a house in Killearn and called police. Authorities arrested Jorge Melchor and indicted him for human trafficking in 2007. A subsequent federal investigation led them to others involved in the ring, including Monsalve.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says Monsalve was part of a conspiracy to lure women from Central and South America to the United States with the promise of jobs.

When they arrived in Tallahassee, he would force them into prostitution to pay off their 15 -20,000 dollar smuggling fees.

Prosecutors say the women were forced to sleep with as many as two dozen men a night.


http://www.wctv.tv/home/headlines/30654444.html