April 6 2009

Mexican man sentenced to 24 years in prison for sex trafficking of minors

CHARLOTTE, N.C. - A 44-year-old illegal alien from Mexico was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 24 years in prison on sex trafficking and commercial sex charges following a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation.

According to testimony at the sentencing hearing, about November 2007, Jorge Flores-Rojas trafficked a 16-year-old girl from Washington, D.C., to Charlotte, N.C., for the purpose of causing her to engage in commercial sex acts. Flores-Rojas forced the victim, an illegal alien from Honduras, to go to Charlotte with him where he repeatedly sexually abused her in order to force her to perform commercial sex acts. The testimony further revealed that Flores-Rojas trafficked a second girl, 17, from Charlotte to Washington, D.C. to engage her in commercial sex acts in the Washington, D.C., area, and that he paid other persons to smuggle these victims from Mexico into the United States.

"This investigation was made possible by the extensive collaboration between ICE, Washington Metropolitan Police and Myrtle Beach Police Department," said Delbert Richburg, assistance special agent in charge of ICE's Office of Investigations in Charlotte. "While we can't erase the pain and suffering these young women experienced, by aggressively investigating and prosecuting these cases, ICE, as well as our partners, are sending a powerful warning about the consequences facing those responsible for such schemes."

In addition to the sentence of 24 years in prison, the court ordered Flores-Rojas to pay $117,000 in restitution to one of the victims, and he will be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. He will be deported to Mexico upon his release from prison.

An estimated 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders each year, according to the U.S. Department of State. Victims are trafficked into the international sex trade and into forced labor situations throughout the world. Many of these victims are lured from their homes with false promises of well-paying jobs; instead, they are forced or coerced into prostitution, domestic servitude, farm or factory labor or other types of forced labor.

ICE works with its law enforcement partners to dismantle the global criminal infrastructure engaged in human trafficking. ICE accomplishes this mission by making full use of its authorities and expertise, stripping away assets and profit incentive, collaborating with U.S. and foreign partners to attack networks worldwide and working in partnership with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) to identify, rescue and provide assistance to trafficking victims.

The case was prosecuted by trial attorney Elizabeth Yusi of the U.S. Department of Justice Criminal Division's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kenny Smith and Cortney Escaravage of the Western District of North Carolina.

-- ICE --

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was established in March 2003 as the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security. ICE is comprised of five integrated divisions that form a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities.

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