Thread: SAN DIEGO COUNTY TRIAL SET TO BEGIN ON SEX TRAFFIC CASE

EXCLUSIVE: Trial set to begin on alleged sex traffic case

Court records provide insight into how trafficking works

By EDWARD SIFUENTES - esifuentes@nctimes.com

Posted: Saturday, October 31, 2009 7:45 pm

Escondido, California

When she was just 18, Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez met a suitor who promised her love and happiness. Instead, he put her at the center of an international sex-trafficking operation.

De la Cruz met Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez in her native Veracruz, Mexico, where she was a college student, federal prosecutors say in court documents.

He persuaded her to leave her home and go with him on a journey that eventually would take her to the streets of Tijuana, where she worked as a prostitute, and later to North County, where they were both arrested last year.

Their journey ended Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff's deputies stopped the vehicle they were in in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couzer Canyon, a place police say is often used by sex traffickers to set up makeshift prostitution camps.

In the car, police found condoms, birth control pills, lubricants, toilet paper, plastic tarps and plastic bags. Shortly afterward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived and determined that the couple and another woman in the car were in the country illegally.

De la Cruz's story is detailed in court records filed in advance of an upcoming trial. Zitlalpopoca faces numerous charges related to the sex-trafficking operation he allegedly ran.

Immigration authorities and federal prosecutors declined to speak about the case.

'Always the same'

The story of how de la Cruz was taken from her home in southern Mexico to the United States appears to mirror other operations that have been discovered by authorities, said Marisa Ugarte, who heads the Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a nonprofit organization that helps care for sex-trafficking victims.

"The modus operandi is always the same," Ugarte said.

De la Cruz told authorities that Zitlalpopoca, who was 10 years older than she, romanced her and persuaded her to leave town with him.

A few months after they moved in together in his family's home, Zitlalpopoca introduced the idea of her working for him as a prostitute. She cried and resisted at first, but he later persuaded her, telling her that if she really loved him she would do it.

In June 2005, the couple moved to Tijuana, where Zitlalpopoca turned de la Cruz over to an associate for "training," according to court documents. Over the next several years, she worked as a prostitute in Tijuana and several other places in Mexico.

Zitlalpopoca allegedly beat her on several occasions, either out of purported jealousy or because she tried to keep the money she earned as a prostitute, according to court records.

Intimidation, beatings and threats

In May 2008, Zitlalpopoca allegedly paid a smuggler to bring de la Cruz illegally into the U.S. His relatives sheltered her in an apartment on West Los Angeles Drive in Vista. She later relocated to a nearby home at 311 Weston Circle.

Once in North County, Zitlalpopoca acted as de la Cruz's driver. He took her to meet clients in ranches, canyons and apartments, according to court records. He paid her rent, cell phone bills and bought her supplies, such as condoms.

She learned that other women worked for him, including Florencia Calixto-Velazco, the third passenger in the car when de la Cruz and Zitlalpopoca were arrested last November.

Calixto, a native of Oaxaca, Mexico, told authorities a story similar to de la Cruz's. She met Zitlalpopoca at a bus station when she was 17 years old in 2004.

Zitlalpopoca told her that he was in deep debt and needed her help paying it off, according to court documents. He told her that they would live in the lap of luxury if she worked for him.

The promises of happiness and riches were followed by intimidation, beatings and threats.

"Zitlalpopoca also threatened to tell Calixto's family that she was a prostitute if she left him," according to court records. "Calixto believed that her family would disown her if they knew what she was doing."

Each of the women earned hundreds of dollars a day, according to court records.

'Despicable'

For years, activists and law enforcement authorities have reported on prostitution activity in local migrant camps. But in recent years, North County has earned a kind of notoriety as a hot spot for sex trafficking stemming from several arrests, Ugarte said.

In 2003, Luciano Salazar Juarez pleaded guilty to federal charges of smuggling and harboring women who worked as prostitutes in North County. Salazar's sex-trafficking ring was discovered after three women drowned as they attempted to drive across a rain-swollen river while trying to reach a migrant camp in Carlsbad.

Authorities say the cases are difficult to investigate and prosecute because people, including the victims, are unwilling to testify against the traffickers. It is also difficult to get to the root of the smuggling rings because they are based in Mexico, Ugarte said.

In her campaign to bring attention to the problem, Ugarte has had an unlikely group of allies: anti-illegal immigration advocates. Members of the San Diego Minutemen, who often search the canyons to find migrant camps, have run into what they believe to be evidence of prostitution.

Jeff Schwilk, who leads the North County-based San Diego Minutemen, said his group has been trying to call attention to the problem for more than three years.

"We believe the only way to rid of our canyons of underage sex trafficking is to rid our canyons of illegal immigrant squatters and their camps," Schwilk said. "These migrant camps are breeding grounds for this type of despicable organized crime."

Trial set

In April, a federal grand jury handed up an indictment charging Zitlalpopoca with 11 counts related to sneaking women into the country and using them as prostitutes, according to the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego.

Among the charges he faces is an accusation that he engaged in sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.

The indictment also charged Eduardo Aguila-Tecuapahco and Carlos Tzompantzi-Serrano with two counts each, related to harboring the female immigrants for prostitution.

All three men pleaded not guilty. Attorneys for the men could not be reached for comment.

The trial is set to begin Nov. 10 in San Diego.

Call staff writer Edward Sifuentes at 760-740-3511


NORTH COUNTY TIMES

REGION: North County sex trafficking case continues

Woman says she worked as prostitute for Mexican man

By EDWARD SIFUENTES
Posted: Wednesday, January 6, 2010 8:55 pm

An alleged former prostitute said in court Wednesday that she hopes the man she once considered her husband is punished for bringing her into a life of prostitution in North County migrant camps.

On the second day of trial in a sex trafficking case, Anabel de la Cruz-Ramirez said she worked as a prostitute for Adrian Zitlalpopoca-Hernandez. She said she first met him at a park in Mexico four years ago, when she was 18 years old, and that she later worked for him in migrant camps while living in their Vista apartment.

"I want this to be over," she told a jury on Wednesday. "That person harms people a lot. He should be punished as he deserves."

In April, a federal grand jury indicted Zitlalpopoca on 11 counts related to sneaking two women into the country and using them as prostitutes, according to the U.S. attorney's office in San Diego.

Among the charges he faces is an accusation that he engaged in sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, which carries a minimum sentence of 15 years.

Defense attorneys said Zitlalpopoca suggested the women work as prostitutes but did not force them into it. The attorneys said that the women were poor and wanted to earn money to help their families.

De la Cruz said Zitlalpopoca beat her on two occasions and that she was afraid of him. But she remained with him because she loved him.

When she attempted to leave him while in Vista, he told her that he loved her, too, she said.

"I loved him and when he sent me the (telephone text) message, he said that he loved me and that convinced me not to leave," de la Cruz said.

De la Cruz said she met Zitlalpopoca while she was a young college student in Mexico.

He persuaded her to leave her home and go with him on a journey that eventually would take her to the streets of Tijuana, where she worked as a prostitute, and later to North County, where they were both arrested last year.

The were detained on Nov. 20, 2008, when sheriff's deputies stopped the vehicle they were in in a rural area of Valley Center known as Couser Canyon, a place police say is often used by sex traffickers to set up prostitution camps.

In the car, police found condoms, birth control pills, lubricants, toilet paper, plastic tarps and plastic bags. Shortly afterward, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrived and determined that the couple and another woman in the car were in the country illegally.

As she looked through the evidence in court, de la Cruz said on Wednesday that the items were things that she and another woman, Florencia Calixto-Velazco, used as prostitutes working for Zitlalpopoca.

Defense attorneys said that there was violence in the relationship between Zitlalpopoca and de la Cruz but it was not related to the prostitution.

On one occasion, de la Cruz said she confronted Zitlalpopoca because she found condoms in his wallet.

"I asked him what were those condoms doing in his wallet being that we didn't use any condoms," she said. "He pulled my hair and he threw the TV remote control at me."

Calixto also told the jury that Zitlalpopoca kicked her, whipped her with a cable and dragged her down a set of stairs by pulling on her hair. But both women said Zitlalpopoca did not use violence directly as a threat to make them work as prostitutes.

De la Cruz said she was, nevertheless, scared of Zitlalpopoca.

"I was scared to talk," she said. "I was scared to say the truth, because I was scared of Adrian."

In November, two other men accused of helping to run the alleged prostitution ring said they were guilty of harboring illegal immigrants for the purposes of prostitution.

Each man faces up to 10 years in prison. They are expected to be sentenced in April.

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