2 imprisoned for bringing 15 yo Mexican girl to Houston for prostitution

[MuffyBee]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/metropolitan/6760853.html

2 imprisoned for bringing Mexican girl to Houston for prostitution
By DALE LEZON HOUSTON CHRONICLE
Dec. 9, 2009, 7:15AM

wo Mexican men living in the United States illegally have been convicted and sentenced for smuggling a teenage girl to Houston and forcing her to become a prostitute at local bars, federal authorities said.

A third person was convicted and sentenced for keeping the girl at an apartment.

Federal authorities said that Jorge Texis-Montano, 24, and Jorge Aguila-Cuapio, 19, pleaded guilty to conspiring to bring the 15-year-old girl into the country from Mexico for prostitution.

Sonia Tecuapacho-Tecuapacho, 24, pleaded guilty to harboring the minor in a Houston area apartment.

Texis was sentenced to two and a half years and Aguila was sentenced to three years in federal prison.

Tecuapacho was sentenced to time served, which is about seven months.

The trio had been jailed without bond since they were arrested May 2009 and are subject to deportation upon the completion of their prison sentences.

Federal officials said that a person alerted Houston police on April 28 that the girl was being held against her will and forced to prostitute herself at several bars in Houston.

The person gave police a telephone number at the apartment where the girl was being held.

Officers went to the unit, found the girl and arrested the suspects.

[Edward]

Added: Nov. 01, 2009

Texas, USA

Slave Trade

…During Channel 5 News' investigation into the slave trade, we met a woman in Reynosa who had escaped her life as a sex slave the night before we spoke to her. We'll call her "Carlita."

The Honduran native says her captivity began the moment she arrived by boat in Veracruz, Mexico. Her smuggler sold her to a madam and the nightmare began.

"Carlita" tells us she ended up in a nearby brothel. Forty-five days later, she was lined up again for auction in Reynosa. She was allegedly one of half a dozen women up for sale.

…A man bought her there for $1,000.

"Carlita" says she was held captive in a home for three months…

Her captors would allegedly rape her and other slaves repeatedly. "Carlita" tells us screaming and yelling only made it worse. She learned to be quiet and turn the pain inward.

Eventually, she asked a trusted friend for help and escaped.

"Carlita" tells us her buyer wanted a child. But his long-term plans were to add "Carlita" into "the pipeline." It's the dangerous underground sex slave trade in American cities.

It starts in Houston.

FBI Agent Maritza Conde-Vazquez says Latin women like "Carlita" become cantineras.

They're forced to work in dirty saloons found among a cluster of cantinas. The businesses cater to Central Americans and are often owned by people from those countries…

Conde-Vazquez says the only reason traffickers force women into prostitution is to make money.

"It's a very profitable business, when you come to think about it," explains the FBI agent. "It's a human being. And it's basically a person who can provide you endless services as long as that person is alive and in fair condition. It's going to provide you services for the life of that person."

The FBI tells us victims rarely come forward and traffickers are difficult to catch...

Alex Trevino
KRGV.com

Oct. 29, 2009


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