Deparatment of Justuce

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

MONDAY, MAY 12, 2008 (202) 514-2007

WWW.USDOJ.GOV TDD (202) 514-1888


MAN SENTENCED FOR HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND ALIEN SMUGGLING

WASHINGTON - Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division Grace Chung Becker and U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Texas Don DeGabrielle announced that Walter Corea was sentenced today for his role in a scheme to smuggle Central American women and girls into the United States and hold them in a condition of forced labor in bars and cantinas in the Houston area. U.S. District Judge Vanessa D. Gilmore sentenced Corea to 180 months in prison and further ordered that he, jointly with his co-defendants, pay $1,715,588 in restitution to the victims.

“ These defendants used false promises and threats of harm to lure and coerce vulnerable women and girls into conditions of forced labor and servitude,â€