WASHINGTON - Timothy Michael Gereb was sentenced today in federal court in San Antonio to 10 years imprisonment for his role in a sex trafficking ring involving at least one teenage girl, the Justice Department announced today. After his release from prison, Gereb will be on lifetime federal supervised release. Gereb is one of five defendants named in an indictment filed in San Antonio in June 2007 following a federal sex trafficking investigation.
During his guilty plea hearing on Feb. 25, 2008, Gereb admitted that he recruited a Mexican girl under the age of 18 years to engage in prostitution in San Antonio. Additionally, Gereb admitted that he conspired with others to transport at least three illegal aliens across the border between the United States and Mexico for the purpose of establishing a prostitution business.
“This defendant preyed on a young girl who was brought into the United States illegally, far from home, and unaware of the U.S. legal system,” said Grace Chung Becker, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Today’s sentencing is the result of the Justice Department’s ongoing commitment to prosecuting human trafficking and vindicating the rights of vulnerable women.”
Three of Gereb’s co-defendants, Isabel Ochoa, Pilar Ochoa and Maria Ochoa pleaded guilty to related charges on Oct. 18, 2007. No trial date has been set for Gereb’s remaining co-defendant, Brent Stephens.
The case was investigated by special agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), and investigators with the Bexar County Sheriff’s Office. This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Baumann and Civil Rights Division trial attorney Jonathan Skrmetti.
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