Maria Fuentes was sentenced on March 31 to 29 months in prison. This was equivalent to her time already served, so she was released. However, Fuentes, who was in the US illegally, was immediately handed over to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. She will be deported to her home country.
In all, eight defendants have been convicted in connection with this scheme to compel the victims into service in restaurants, bars, and cantinas in the Houston area, using threats to harm the victims and their families if they attempted to leave before paying off their smuggling debts.
Defendant Olga Mondragon previously pleaded guilty to multiple charges stemming from her involvement in the scheme, including multiple counts of holding young Central American victims women in a condition of forced labor, a forced labor conspiracy, and immigration offenses relating to the smuggling of the Central American women into the United States for financial gain. Defendant Maria Fuentes previously pleaded guilty to Alien Harboring for Financial Gain.
"The defendants in this case lured young female victims to the Houston area with false promises of prosperity, and then used threats of physical harm to them and their families in order to force them to entertain male customers and engage in the sale of alcoholic beverages to those customers," said Acting Assistant Attorney General Becker. "The Justice Department is committed to ensuring the basic right of all persons in the United States to be free from this modern-day form of slavery."
Co-defendants Maximino Mondragon, Oscar Mondragon, Walter Corea, and Victor Omar Lopez have pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing. Co-defendant Lorenza Reyes-Nunez was convicted of Obstruction of Justice and has been sentenced to 19 months in prison. Co-defendant Kerin Silva was convicted of Conspiracy to Smuggle Aliens and sentenced to 12 months home detention followed by three years of probation.
Human trafficking prosecutions such as this one are a top priority of the Department of Justice. In the last seven fiscal years, the Civil Rights Division, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorneys Offices, has increased by nearly seven-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court as compared to the previous seven fiscal years. In FY 2007, the Department obtained a record number of convictions in human trafficking prosecutions.
