Thirteen people were arrested yesterday for allegedly running a sex slave ring out of various parts of New York, including four brothels in Yonkers, Poughkeepsie, Newburgh, and Queens. Herewith are some horrifying details from the criminal complaint, which was filed with the Manhattan federal court and unsealed yesterday:
The typical pattern and practice of this network is to lure women to the United States by, among other things, engaging them in romantic relationships and promising a better life in New York. After the women are smuggled from Mexico to New York, they are forced to begin working as prostitutes against their will under abhorrent conditions. The victims are often beaten, threatened with physical harm to themselves and their family members, sexually assaulted, and verbally abused.
In a typical day, a Mexican sex trafficking victim in New York has sexual intercourse with 20 to 30 customers. Each customer usually pays $30-$35 for 15 minutes of sex. Of that $30-$35, $15 typically goes to either the driver who transported the woman to the client, or to the residential brothel where the woman worked. The other $15 goes to the victim, who is then typically forced to give all of it to the trafficker. Traffickers typically provide their victims with condoms and birth control pills. In some cases, if a victim is suspected of being pregnant, her trafficker makes her take a drug to induce a miscarriage.
The price for refusing to work as a prostitute was high. The complaint details an instance in which one of the suspects allegedly "pushed [the victim] and her young child outside into the cold winter night, locked the door, and refused to let her back in."
Among those arrested were Bonifacio Flores-Mendez, 33, of Queens; Juana Lucas-Sanchez, 36, of Milford, Del.; Isaias Flores-Mendez, 40; David Vasquez-Medina, 28; and Carlos Garcia-De La Rosa, 32, who was also charged with possessing child pornography, which he allegedly acquired by asking a 14-year-old girl to give him naked photos of herself.
“With promises of a better life, the members of this alleged sex trafficking and prostitution ring lured their unsuspecting victims to the United States and then consigned them to a living hell—forcing them to become sex slaves living in abhorrent conditions, and using threats, verbal abuse, and violence—sexual and otherwise—when they resisted and even sometimes when they didn’t," said Manhattan U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara.
"With their arrests today, the barbaric conduct in which these defendants allegedly engaged in order to make a profit has now been put to a stop, and they will be prosecuted for their alleged crimes and the women they enslaved will be able to put their lives back together.”
