Group accused of forcing Honduran women to work in New Jersey bars as slaves

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Women as young as 14 were smuggled into the United States from rural Honduran villages and put to work in three northern New Jersey bars, drinking and dancing with customers to repay the smugglers, who beat the women if they objected, according to a federal indictment handed up Thursday.

Some of the women were raped by the smugglers, and those who became pregnant were forced to take abortion-inducing drugs so they could stay on the job, enticing bar patrons to buy more liquor. Despite taking the drugs, a 21-year-old gave birth to a baby girl who died soon after, the indictment said.

Ten women were victimized from mid-2003 until January, when the smuggling ring was broken up by federal agents, U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said. At least 20 others are believed to have been enslaved and the investigation is continuing, including the circumstances of the infant's death, he said.

The indictment charged that 10 people in two countries, led by Luisa Medrano of Cliffside Park, N.J., operated the ring to provide cheap labour for her three bars. The women were housed in apartment owned by Medrano, the indictment said.

"In essence, these woman were kept as slaves, forced to work for Ms. Medrano in her establishments," Christie said.

They often worked 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. seven days a week, for which they were paid $240 US, although nearly all went to the smuggling ring, which charged $10,000 to $20,000 to bring them to the United States under the false promise of working as waitresses, according to court documents.

The women are now under federal protection and receiving counselling and schooling, Christie said. They are eligible to seek visas to remain legally, and to have family members apply for visas to join them, under provisions of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000.

All the suspects face charges of conspiracy, forced labour, alien smuggling, and harbouring illegal aliens. The offences carry penalties ranging from five to 20 years in prison and multiple fines of $250,000.

Medrano, 50, a native of El Salvador who is a U.S. citizen, and Rosalba Ortiz, 34, of Union City, N.J., accused of being one of the ring's enforcers, were arrested Wednesday night.

Medrano faces 18 counts. Two of her bars were in Union City, El Paisano Bar and Nightclub and El Puerto de la Union II, while the other, El Puerto de la Union I, is in Guttenberg, N.J.

Three other accused enforcers, all of Union City, were already in custody: Noris Elvira Rosales Martinez, 29, Ana Luz Rosales Martinez, 37, and Jose Dimas Magana, 40.

Three people named as recruiters in the U.S. indictment have been in Honduran custody since June, where they are charged with alien smuggling

10 charged as human smugglers

Friday, July 22, 2005

At least 30 girls and young women - some as young as 14 - were smuggled from Honduras to Hudson County, where they were forced into virtual slavery in bars and beaten if they tried to leave, federal authorities said Thursday.

A 31-count indictment against Luisa Medrano of Cliffside Park and nine accused partners in a human trafficking operation paints a horrific picture behind the doors of three bars in Union City and Guttenberg, where prosecutors said the women were forced to dance and drink with patrons.

In one case, a 15-year-old Honduran girl was beaten so violently that blood vessels in her eye burst.

In three other instances, women who became pregnant were forced to have abortions or take pills that would cause an abortion, the indictment alleges.

Lured from rural Honduran villages with promises of waitressing jobs and a better life, the women arrived in Texas. Then they traveled to New Jersey, where they worked for $240 per week until their smuggling fees - often between $10,000 and $20,000 - were paid off, the indictment says.

Many were raped by their smugglers, it says.

"There can be no greater disregard for life than the way these women were treated and what they were forced to do to their own bodies," said U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie. "In essence, these women were kept as slaves."

Medrano, the alleged ringleader, was arrested Wednesday night on charges of conspiracy to commit forced labor offenses, forced labor, alien smuggling and harboring illegal aliens.

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents also arrested alleged ring member Rosalba Ortiz, 34, of Union City on Thursday. Six others were arrested earlier in the year in New Jersey, Texas and Honduras.

A native of El Salvador, Medrano became a U.S. citizen in 1984 and has five children in the area, said her lawyer, John Fahy. She appeared in federal court in Newark on Thursday, her hair pulled tightly back and her arms folded in defiance across her chest, despite handcuffs.

"I am innocent," Medrano, 50, said through a Spanish interpreter at the hearing. "The things they are saying are not true."

Meanwhile, her three bars were open for business Thursday.

Employees at all three - El Puerto de la Union II and El Paisano Bar and Night Club, both in Union City, and El Puerto de la Union I in Guttenberg - refused to comment.

However, patrons at El Puerto de la Union II on Bergenline Avenue said the young women charged $14 for a beer - $4 for the drink and $10 for some flirty conversation in the dimly lit room.

The men, who spoke anonymously, said the women also charged $2 to $3 for a dance.

Pristine Cliffside home

Medrano apparently kept two homes in eastern Bergen County.

A neighbor in Fairview said Medrano and her family moved out about a week ago but that people continued to enter and leave at night. The only real problems she saw were the overgrown shrubs in front, the unmowed lawn, and a filthy, unattended backyard swimming pool.

"They kept to themselves mostly," the neighbor said. "I did see people coming and going, but I never thought it was unusual."

The picture was different in Cliffside Park, where Medrano has a pristine home with landscaped shrubs, a stone sculpture on the front lawn, a satellite dish, and a Manhattan skyline view from an upstairs deck.

A man who answered the door and identified himself as a family member refused to comment.

The news shocked Mike Desocio, who has lived across the street for about two years. Desocio said he often chatted with the four family members who have lived at the Medrano home.

"I consider them very nice people," Desocio said. "I never had a problem with them."

Lucky coincidence

The alleged smuggling ring came to light in January through an odd coincidence.

According to an earlier criminal complaint, a Honduran citizen dropped by El Paisano for a drink. While he was there, he spotted his cousin - a 14-year-old girl who he didn't know was in the country.

The girl told him that she had been smuggled in and that her movements were restricted to the bar and a nearby apartment that Medrano also owned.

The cousin called authorities.

When immigration agents raided the apartments, they found young women living five or six to a room. They worked seven days a week, from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m., and were expected to put all their money toward food, their smuggling debt and $250 monthly in rent, according to the complaint.

Beginning two years ago, the women were recruited by three members of the ring in Honduras who were paid to locate attractive, innocent teenagers, the indictment said. The girls were then handed off to two smugglers - or "coyotes" - who brought them to the U.S.-Mexico border.

One of the smugglers, Jose Arnold Isuala-Meza, raped some of the girls while traveling with them, authorities said. In one instance, they said, he attacked a 14-year-old in the Mexican desert, where she fought back violently, scratching him. Isuala-Meza, 23, is being sought in Honduras.

Authorities were also searching for his sister, Elsa Consuelo Isuala-Meza, 44, of Houston, who allegedly met some of the girls in Houston and arranged their transportation to the New York area.

A dead baby girl

Once here, the women were threatened with deportation and physical harm to them and their families if they did not continue to hand over money and report to work, federal authorities said.

In January, after learning that a 21-year-old Honduran woman was pregnant, one of the ring members forced her to take pills to induce an abortion, authorities allege. The next day, several members of the ring tried to conceal the fact that the woman gave birth to a live baby girl who died shortly after, the indictment says.

Christie said his office was still investigating the circumstances of that birth. No charges had been filed in connection to the baby's death, he said.

The victims have all been safely relocated and are receiving counseling, education and other services, Christie said. Under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, all qualify for special visas that allow them to stay in the country and become naturalized citizens.

"To the people who engage in this type of activity and their victims: We're putting you on notice," said Kyle Hutchins, special agent in charge of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Newark.

U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Donald Haneke ordered Medrano and Ortiz held without bail until a hearing scheduled for 2 p.m. today. If convicted, Medrano and Ortiz face a maximum of 20 years in federal prison.

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