The federal prosecutors in Tennessee have brought an end to a dark business. Nine Venezuelan nationals pleaded guilty on Thursday for their roles in a family-run sex trafficking syndicate. The organization operated in the Nashville area, luring vulnerable women from South America with the promise of honest work, only to trap them in rooms and force them into commercial sex.
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Subscribe Sekarang →According to court documents filed by the U.S. Department of Justice, the conspirators recruited these women in Venezuela. They arranged their passage across the southern border and brought them to the motels of Nashville. Once the women arrived, the traffickers told them they owed massive, inflated smuggling debts. The only way to pay the debt was with their bodies.
The men and women who ran the ring used fear to keep the women quiet. Those who refused to work were met with promises of violence against themselves and their families back home in Venezuela. The traffickers watched the doors, collected the money, and took a heavy share of the earnings while the debt remained.
Based on the federal investigation, the operation was led by Yilibeth Carmen Rivero-de Caldera and her son, Kleiver Daniel Mota Rivero. They brought in relatives and associates to help manage the enterprise. Prosecutors stated that Mota used his past prison record in Venezuela and claimed ties to violent gangs to ensure none of the victims tried to escape.
The law came down hard on the group. Eight of the defendants now face maximum penalties of life in prison for their crimes. The ninth defendant faces up to twenty years behind bars. The federal judge has scheduled their sentencing for the week of November 16.
The case was solved through the joint work of Homeland Security Investigations, the FBI, the IRS, and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva stated that these convictions show the government will protect the vulnerable and secure the borders from those who profit off human suffering.