The U.S. attorney general’s office charged eight Venezuelan nationals for allegedly coercing illegal aliens into sex trafficking at several motels in Tennessee over two years.
The press release named the eight defendants, who ranged in age from 22 to 51 years old, and said two of them were members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang.
The women pushed into sex trafficking were allegedly told they needed to pay off their debt for being brought into the U.S.
Officials said that 51-year-old Yilibeth Del Carmen Rivero-De Caldera and her 35-year-old son Klevier Daniel Mota Rivero would promise women in Central and South America that they could have a better life in the U.S. After facilitating their arrival in Tennessee, the women would be forced into prostitution.
The defendants allegedly “utilized online commercial sex websites to post advertisements for the victims” and then sent commercial sex buyers to motels in Nashville and Murfreesboro. The defendants would collect the proceeds from the prostitution.
The eight Venezuelans entered the U.S. illegally, according to officials. The women pushed into sex trafficking were allegedly told they needed to pay off their debt for being brought into the U.S., but those debts were made so high that they could never pay them off.
The trafficking scheme allegedly ran from 2022 until 2024.
“We are coming after transnational criminal organizations like TDA, but this case shows that we will also do whatever it takes to stop those who would traffic women and girls no matter who is behind their suffering,” said acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire.
Defendants charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking could face life in prison if convicted.
A former gang member in Chicago warned that black gangs would likely push back against the growing threat from Tren de Aragua gang members and spark a costly street war.
Mug shots of the arrested suspects can be viewed in the news video from WZTV-TV on YouTube.
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