TWO BROTHERS SENTENCED IN GEORGIA HUMAN TRAFFICKING CASE

WASHINGTON, DC - The Justice Department today announced that two Mexican nationals have been sentenced for their role in promoting and profiting from the commercial sexual exploitation of a Mexican juvenile.

Jose Reyes Rojas, who pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in August, was sentenced to four years and nine months. Reyes Rojas’s younger brother Juan, who pleaded guilty in May to fraudulently inducing the 16-year-old girl and another Mexican teenager into coming to the United States, was sentenced to five years and 11 months. He admitted to using a combination of physical abuse, threats, and isolation to force both victims to perform multiple commercial sex acts with between 10 and 25 men a night.

A third brother, co-defendant Raul Reyes Rojas, is a fugitive who remains charged with sex trafficking, immigration-related offenses, and conspiracy.

“Human traffickers are profiteers of human misery,” said R. Alexander Acosta, Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division. “Human trafficking is hideous, it is immoral, it is illegal. Today’s sentencing will send a strong warning to others that the Justice Department is serious about ending this blight.”

Juan Reyes Rojas admitted to luring the victims to the United States with promises of legitimate employment and long-term romance. Jose Reyes Rojas admitted to helping fund the smuggling of the juvenile into the United States and to transporting her to Atlanta, where he and his brothers profited from her forced commercial sexual exploitation.

The Bush Administration has made fighting human trafficking a significant priority. Since FY 2001, the Justice Department has charged 168 human traffickers--more than double the number charged in the previous four years--and secured convictions for 118 defendants, nearly twice the number convicted during the previous four years. Over the same period, the Department has initiated 366 new trafficking investigations, a more than three-fold increase over the previous four years. As of November 23, 2004, the 191 pending trafficking investigations were more than twice the number open in January 2001.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia. The case is being jointly prosecuted by attorneys from the Civil Rights Division and the United States Attorney’s Office.

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