Posted on 07/21/2005 9:41:45 PM PDT by Coleus
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.
Messages left for her lawyer were not immediately returned.
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
Oh I see what you are talking about. Yes, don't forget the Big Apple Sex Tours!
bump
Stop illegal immigration!
Crossing linking related story:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1449274/posts
Feds bust girl-smuggling ring in Jersey - All were smuggled from South America
Yet another reason to secure our borders and enforce immigration laws, BEFORE a crime takes place. >>
This will never happen, Bush and Congress are too PC.
Xochil Nectalina Rosales Martinez brushed tears from her face Wednesday as she confessed to helping smuggle young women into New Jersey, saying she watched as one of them was forced to swallow an abortion-inducing pill.
Pleading guilty to conspiracy charges, Martinez admitted participating in a Hudson County human trafficking ring that virtually enslaved at least 30 young Honduran women, some as young as 14.
The women were forced to live in three cramped apartments, work for free at a bar to repay their smuggling debts, and drink and dance with patrons, federal authorities say.
"Human trafficking, to me, is one of the most horrible things that can happen, one of the most anti-American things that can happen," U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said after Martinez's hearing in Newark. "We are going to protect those people who cannot protect themselves."
Known as an "enforcer," Martinez was arrested and charged with five other alleged ring members in April. The alleged ringleader, Luisa Medrano, 50, of Cliffside Park, and two others were arrested in July and charged in a 31-count indictment.
Medrano, a naturalized U.S. citizen and a native of El Salvador, pleaded not guilty after her arrest. She remains free on $300,000 bail.
Martinez, 29, a Honduran citizen who is cooperating with authorities, was the first in the ring to plead guilty to conspiracy charges. She is a cousin of other ring members and implicated several of them by name Wednesday in U.S. District Court.
In the fall of 2003, she said, she arranged to come to the United States through the smuggling ring to work in a restaurant. In exchange, Martinez said, she agreed to pay a $15,000 fee.
After a "coyote" helped smuggle her across the Mexican border into Texas in November 2004, Martinez stayed in a Houston safe house before traveling to New Jersey, she said through an interpreter.
There, Martinez said, she joined other Honduran girls at two apartments owned by Medrano.
Medrano also owns the bars - two in Union City and one in Guttenberg - where the women were put to work, Martinez told U.S. District Judge Joel A. Pisano.
Shortly after her arrival, Martinez said, she and her husband struck a deal with other members of the ring: They would enforce the house rules at one of the apartments in exchange for free rent and food.
At a house meeting in December, she said, a ring member told Martinez to beat any of the women who "got out of line."
Then, in January, after discovering that a 21-year-old woman in the apartment was pregnant, Martinez said, she watched as the woman was forced to take pills and then delivered a baby girl in the toilet of the apartment.
"Did you hear the baby cry after she was pulled from the toilet?" asked Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Gannett.
"Yes," Martinez said, through the translator.
Afterward, the other ring members called relatives in Honduras to discuss how to dispose of the infant's body and cover up the fact that the woman had given birth, Martinez said.
An ambulance eventually arrived at the house, but the baby died before she reached the hospital.
Pisano set sentencing for March 7.
Martinez, who is being held in the Hudson County Jail, faces a maximum of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
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