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Palm Beach County woman sentenced for forced labor and alien smuggling

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Veronica Martinez, of Palm Beach County, was sentenced today in federal court to 87 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release for forced labor and alien smuggling, following an investigation by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Fort Lauderdale, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office and West Palm Beach Police Department.

Martinez pled guilty on July 23 to two counts of alien smuggling and two counts of forced labor. She admitted that she illegally smuggled the victims into the United States and forced them to work at a bar to pay off their smuggling debts.

The investigation began in March when the National Human Trafficking Resource Center received an anonymous call about suspicious activity taking place at a trailer home and bar in West Palm Beach. The caller reported that two females were brought to the United States by an alien smuggler and forced to work at a bar to pay off their smuggling debts.

FBI agents responded to the trailer home and located two female Honduran nationals. The women reported that Martinez arranged for them to be smuggled into the United States through Mexico in the spring and summer of 2009. Martinez initially told the women that it would cost about $6,500 for the smuggling venture. She also told the women that upon their arrival in the United States, they would clean houses and provide daycare services to repay their smuggling debt.

When the women arrived in the United States, Martinez forced the women to work at a local bar to repay their debt. The women were instructed to talk, dance and drink with the male customers in exchange for money. On several occasions, the male customers paid the victims to touch them. The victims allowed the customers to touch them in order to repay the monies that Martinez demanded.

The victims worked at the bar four nights per week for eight to 11 hours per night. After every shift, the victims gave Martinez all the money they earned to repay their smuggling debt and their daily living expenses.

To compel their compliance, Martinez threatened to get the money from the victims' mother if they did not pay. Approximately one week after the forced labor began, Martinez told the victims, without explanation, that their smuggling debt increased to $12,000.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Mark Dispoto and Corey Steinberg.