Thread: NJ:For Woman Who Enslaved Others, A Prison Cell Awaits

For woman who enslaved others, a prison cell awaits
Leader, sister and boyfriend get maximum terms in Honduran human trafficking

Saturday, January 05, 2008
BY BRIAN DONOHUE

Star-Ledger Staff

Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez stood before the judge in U.S. District Court in Trenton yesterday the picture of a broken woman: legs shackled, weeping, shaking, begging for mercy. Even then, the six young women in the front row of the courtroom were stricken with fear at the sight of her.

The women were victims of a human trafficking ring led by Rosales-Martinez and others that authorities say smuggled young Honduran women into the U.S. and forced them into indentured servitude, living in squalor and dancing for dollar bills in Hudson County bars.

One of the women, taking her first glance at Rosales-Martinez since her arrest two years ago, doubled over in tears before being led from the room by a social worker. Three more left the room and waited in the hallway, afraid Rosales-Martinez would see them as she was sentenced for her role in the trafficking ring.

"Even today they are in fear, and that is why they are out in the hallway," assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald Wigler told the judge. "This is not a victimless crime. There are very real victims with lasting emotional scars."

U.S. District Court Judge Joel Pisano agreed.

He sentenced Rosales-Martinez, 31, to six-and-a-half years in prison, the maximum allowed under federal sentencing guidelines.

Rosales-Martinez's older sister, Ana Luz Rosales-Martinez, was also sentenced yesterday to the maximum 57 months behind bars for her role in the ring. Both women are illegal immigrants. Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez's boyfriend, Jose Dimas Magana, 41, a legal immigrant from El Salvador, was sentenced to 51 months, also the maximum allowed under the guidelines.

The three had pled guilty to forced labor, conspiracy and harboring of illegal aliens. All three are expected to face deportation when they complete their sentences.

One after another, they stood before Pisano, tearfully apologizing and begging for mercy before they were sentenced. Each time, Pisano said he had none to spare.

"I've been around criminal law a long time -- since 1974," Pisano said. "I don't know that I've seen a more brazen, outrageous and depraved course of conduct" as this case.
The facts of this case are horrific," the judge added. "We have threats, physical abuse, psychological abuse, coercion, and we have death."

Yesterday's hearing brought the number of people sentenced in the case to five. Three more have entered guilty pleas and are awaiting sentencing. And four more are awaiting trial in Honduras.



Experts say the Garden State, with its ports and airports, numerous ethnic enclaves and large immigrant population, has become a hotbed of human trafficking.

The Honduran case is part of a wave of similar prosecutions in New Jersey in recent years, signaling a push by federal law enforcement to attack what authorities decry as a growing, and particularly ruthless, crime.

Authorities have prosecuted rings that forced Russian women into indentured servitude at go-go bars; Chinese women in massage parlors; Mexican women in brothels and West African women at hair salons.

In all cases, the pattern has been the same: women desperate to escape poverty in their home countries are smuggled illegally into the United States and promised a good job in America, only to wind up in indentured servitude with their traffickers using violence, abuse and threats of turning them over to immigration to keep them in line.

Yesterday, the Rosales-Martinez sisters admitted in court they helped oversee dozens of illegal Hondurans, some as young as 14 years old, who were forced to work six days a week and live in cramped Hudson County apartments until they could repay smuggling fees as high as $20,000.

The immigrants earned $5 an hour, plus tips, by dancing and drinking with male patrons at bars in Union City and Guttenberg, where owners used the women to attract customers.

One ring member said the girls were encouraged to prostitute themselves; another said they were beaten if they ignored the house rules that required them to turn over $500 a week to the smugglers and prohibited them from moving out or traveling.

Another told agents she was forced to ingest abortion pills after ringleaders learned she was pregnant. The baby was born in a toilet and died.

Prosecutors said Noris Elvira Rosales-Martinez began running the operation when a third sister returned to Honduras and turned over the reins to her in 2004. Ana Luz helped, collecting wages from the women and working in tandem with the bar owners. Magana helped handle finances and send money back to Honduras.

About 14 young Honduran women rescued when U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents raided two Union City apartments in early 2005 have since been designated trafficking victims by the federal government. The women and their families received visas to stay in the United States.

For the half-dozen who came to yesterday's hearing, it was the first time in two years they had faced the Rosales-Martinez sisters.

Part of their fear stems from the fact their families live alongside Rosales-Martinez's relatives in their small impoverished hometown of Olanchito, explained Debbie Marulanda, director of Catholic Charities refugee and human trafficking program, who sat alongside them at yesterday's hearing.

"Two of them stayed for the whole hearing," Marulanda said. "They have a lot of courage."



Brian Donohue may be reached at bdonohue@starledger.com or (973)392-1543.






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Close the loopholes that allow illegal aliens to stay here and the exploitation goes down.