Mexico detains 5 in US sex slave case

(AP) – 2 hours ago

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Police arrested four men and a woman for allegedly helping force women to work as prostitutes in Mexico and the United States, authorities said Friday.

Mexican federal police said they acted on information from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office indicating some of the women were taken to New York. Police did not say where in New York the women were prostituted, but said there were outstanding U.S. extradition requests for some of the suspects.

The arrests were made Thursday during raids on four homes in the town of Tenancingo in central Tlaxcala state, which has long served as a center for Mexican pimps and the forced-prostitution trade.

The alleged leader of the gang, Antonio Lira Robles, lured women with promises and trickery to Mexico City and later forced them into prostitution, authorities said. Some were later taken to the United States.

Pimps in Tenancingo are know for wooing women to their town with false promises of marriage or good jobs. Isolated and under psychological pressure and sometimes beatings, the women are forced to become prostitutes.

In some cases, they are held against their will, or their children are taken away and the pimps threaten the women that they won't see their kids again if they disobey orders.

The suspects were turned over to prosecutors for investigation on possible human trafficking charges.

Police also seized two pistols in the raids.

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