Thread: Prostitution ring alleged

Posted on Wed, Mar. 28, 2007

Exclusive | Prostitution ring alleged
Victims: Include Mexican females, ages 14 and 19
By ADAM BEAM and JOHN MONK
abeam@thestate.com, jmonk@thestate.com

Immigration officials are searching for a Mexican national they say forced young Mexican women — including a 14-year-old girl and a 19-year-old deaf woman — to work as prostitutes in Columbia, sometimes servicing up to 40 clients a day each.

Guadalupe Reyes-Rivera, an undocumented Mexican immigrant also known as “Mama Martina,” paid salaries to at least two other undocumented Mexicans to smuggle young girls into America and oversee their work as prostitutes, Craig Hannah, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, testified in federal court Tuesday.

Court officials said cases involving forced prostitution of undocumented aliens are unusual.

The young girls lived and worked in Richland County, most recently from a mobile home in Columbia about a mile north of I-20 off North Main Street, federal agents said. Officials have no evidence as to who the clients were, but law enforcement officials said their experience is that Hispanic prostitution rings mostly serve Hispanic men.

Reyes-Rivera is a fugitive, sought on suspicion of importing and harboring undocumented aliens.

Hannah identified the two men who oversaw the prostitution as Jesus Perez-Laguna, 36, of Charlotte, and his partner, Ciro Bustos-Rosales, whose age and address were unavailable. Both men were in federal court in Columbia on Tuesday.

An investigation is ongoing. It’s unclear how many Mexican girls or women worked, or were forced to work, for Reyes-Rivera. Only two, identified in court documents as “A.R.” and “C.B.” have been described as forced to work as prostitutes.

One of those girls, 14-year-old A.R., thought she was coming to work at a restaurant. When she arrived in the United States, Perez-Laguna told her she would have to work as a prostitute to pay off the $2,700 he paid to smuggle her here, Hannah testified.

Perez-Laguna also gave A.R. false identification that said she was older and was moved around North and South Carolina, Hannah said.

A.R. was constantly monitored. She was allowed to make phone calls home, but always under guard, according to testimony and court documents. At one point, A.R. tried to make a call in secret, most likely a plea for help to her family.

Her captors caught her and hit her, Hannah testified.

But one of A.R.’s calls was successful. From that call, A.R.’s family in Mexico City was able to give U.S. immigration officials and Mexican police A.R.’s Columbia location and her photo.

Agents, along with the Richland County Sheriff’s Department, narrowed the location down to 708 Sharpe Road, a mobile home park with about 35 homes.

Agents, who had a copy of A.R.’s photo transmitted from Mexico City, ran the license tags of every vehicle at the mobile home park, Hannah said, until they were certain of where A.R. was being held. Agents monitored the house, hoping to catch people coming and going and pull them aside for questioning.

On Feb. 28, agents decided to do a “knock and talk,” where they knocked on the door and talked to whoever answered.

A.R. answered the door. Agents identified her immediately from her photo.

With her was a fellow prostitute, a 19-year-old identified in court documents as “C.B.”, whom Hannah described as “very small, and almost totally deaf.”

Both girls have been placed in protective custody, immigration officials said.

A.R. led agents to the various locations in North and South Carolina where they were forced to work, which resulted in the arrest of Perez-Laguna and partner Bustos-Rosales.

Agents took A.R. to Mooresville, N.C., where she said she had been held prisoner. She identified Perez-Laguna as he left an apartment, Hannah testified. Bustos-Rosales was arrested at his apartment on Mauldin Road in Columbia in the North Main area. Officials knew to look there because A.R. had identified Bustos-Rosales’ car, which officials were able to trace to his address.

Perez-Laguna and Bustos-Rosales were in U.S. District Court on Tuesday for a detention hearing, where U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph R. McCrorey denied bail for Perez-Laguna and set a $50,000 bail for Bustos-Rosales.

It’s unlikely Bustos-Rosales will be released, since immigration officials have placed a detainer on him, court officials said.

So far, Perez-Laguna and Bustos-Rosales have been detained only on suspicion of importing and harboring an alien. The U.S. Attorney’s office declined to say if more charges would be filed.

Officials also have detained two material witnesses, undocumented adult Mexican women, who allegedly worked as prostitutes for Reyes-Rivera.

The two admitted they entered the United States illegally, Hannah said. One told authorities she was working in an Atlanta restaurant when approached by Reyes-Rivera, who asked if she was interested in making more money by working as a prostitute.

The other was caught with Perez-Laguna on Thursday in a car outside Mooresville, N.C. She told immigration officials Perez-Laguna was taking her to a customer.

According to Hannah’s testimony, A.R. was approached in Mexico last summer by Perez-Laguna’s 16-year-old son, identified as “J.P.” in court documents. Perez-Laguna allegedly paid a smuggler, known as a “coyote,” $2,700 to smuggle A.R. and J.P. across the desert of northern Mexico and into the United States in July.

A.R. immediately was brought to Charlotte, where Perez-Laguna was in charge of her, Hannah said. In August, Perez-Laguna arranged for A.R. to spend a week in Columbia with Bustos-Rosales at the Mauldin Road apartment.

Hannah testified that in November, Perez-Laguna arranged for A.R. to come to Columbia permanently and work for Reyes-Rivera at the mobile home park on Sharpe Road. She saw as many as 40 clients a day, Hannah said.

A.R. remains in the United States. “She is still available to testify,” Hannah said in court.


http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/ne ... state_news

Officials have no evidence as to who the clients were, but law enforcement officials said their experience is that Hispanic prostitution rings mostly serve Hispanic men.

You don't say.

http://www.wsoctv.com/news/11422709/detail.html

3 Illegal Immigrants Suspected Of Forcing Teens Into Prostitution In The Carolinas

POSTED: 4:31 pm EDT March 28, 2007

COLUMBIA, S.C. -- A 14-year-old girl from Mexico was smuggled into the United States and forced into prostitution by three illegal immigrants suspected of running a prostitution ring in North and South Carolina, according to court documents.

A federal detention hearing was held Tuesday for two men suspected of holding or transporting illegal immigrants for prostitution, The (Columbia) State reported. The alleged ringleader, Guadalupe Reyes-Rivera, was being sought on similar charges, according to a sworn statement from Craig Hannah, a special agent with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Bail was denied for a Jesus Perez-Laguna, but the local U.S. attorney's office refused to say where he was being held. A spokeswoman would not discuss any details about the case.

Ciro Bustos-Rosales, 35, was being held Wednesday at the Richland County Detention Center on charges of prostitution, pimping and soliciting, according to the jail's Web site.

Perez-Laguna arranged for the 14-year-old to be smuggled into the country under the guise of getting restaurant work, according to Hannah's statement. The girl was taken to Charlotte, N.C., several locations in South Carolina and later Columbia, where she was forced "to perform acts of prostitution and turn over the proceeds," according to the statement.

A 19-year-old girl and 31-year-old woman also were involved in the prostitution ring, according to Hannah.

U.S. attorney's office spokeswoman Nancy Wicker said prosecutors had a month to present an indictment to a grand jury, but would not discuss the case any further.