Human trafficking and smuggling scheme targeting vulnerable Venezuelan women, recruiting them to the U.S. with promises of employment
Nine criminal aliens from Venezuela have pleaded guilty to human trafficking, alien smuggling, and money laundering charges related to a sex trafficking ring operated in several motels in Nashville, Tennessee.
According to court documents, the defendants orchestrated a human trafficking and smuggling scheme targeting vulnerable Venezuelan women, recruiting them to the U.S. with promises of employment. After arranging and facilitating their smuggling into the U.S., the defendants directed the women to Nashville. Once there, the women were told they owed an inflated smuggling debt, which they could only repay through commercial sex work. Those who resisted faced threats of physical harm against themselves and their families in Venezuela. The defendants profited by taking a cut of the women’s earnings in addition to collecting on the inflated smuggling debts.
“Human smuggling and trafficking operations represent a dangerous convergence of exploitation and lawlessness,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “These perpetrators profited off human suffering while chipping away at the integrity of our border. These convictions show that protecting vulnerable individuals and securing our border are not competing goals.”
“This criminal organization exploited vulnerable women, enriched itself through coercion and violence, and showed complete disregard for human dignity and the rule of law,” said U.S. Attorney Braden H. Boucek for the Middle District of Tennessee. “We will continue working with our law enforcement partners to hold human traffickers accountable, dismantle transnational criminal organizations operating in our communities, and ensure justice for victims.”
“Homeland Security Investigations is committed to the pursuit and dismantlement of transnational criminal organizations that exploit vulnerable people for profit,” said Special Agent in Charge Dennis M. Fetting of HSI Nashville. “The outcome of this Homeland Security Task Force investigation is a testament to the positive impact law enforcement can have when working in collaboration towards the common goal of holding these criminals accountable.”
“This case demonstrates the Homeland Security Task Force’s unwavering commitment to protecting our communities from human trafficking and smuggling schemes that exploit vulnerable people for financial gain,” said Special Agent in Charge Terence G. Reilly of the FBI Nashville Field Office. “FBI Nashville, working alongside our law enforcement partners, will continue to aggressively investigate and dismantle criminal networks that threaten public safety.”
“This case is a stark reminder human trafficking and smuggling operations prey on our communities most vulnerable, using violence and intimidation to exploit innocent lives for profit,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Richard Gaskins of IRS Criminal Investigation, Charlotte Field Office. “By dismantling this network, we send a clear message to those who target victims with threats and coercion. We remain committed to working alongside our law enforcement partners to protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice.”
“We have said it before, and these guilty pleas reiterate: if you lure vulnerable people to this country with lies, force them into sexual exploitation, and profit from their suffering, we will find you, dismantle your operation, and hold you accountable,” said Director David Rausch of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. “This case is a powerful reminder that when our federal, state, and local law enforcement partners stand together, there is no haven for human traffickers.”
Yilibeth Carmen Rivero-de Caldera (“Rivero”) and her son, Kleiver Daniel Mota Rivero (“Mota”), led and managed the human trafficking and smuggling scheme. Rivero enlisted her adult children and their spouses, Mota’s girlfriend, and others to take on various roles in the scheme. Rivero, Mota, and defendant Ramon De Jesus Velasquez Martinez (“Velasquez”) used threats of violence, including wielding firearms, to intimidate and force compliance from the women trafficked by the organization. To further intimidate the women, Mota and other defendants engaged in conduct that made the victims believe Mota was affiliated with a Venezuelan prison gang and openly spoke about Mota’s prior prison term for homicide in Venezuela.
Rivero, Mota, Velasquez, and the six other defendants — Wilmarys Del Valle Manzano Solorzano (“Manzano”), Endrik Alexander Morales-Rivero (“Morales”), Ariannys Beatriz Gutierrez-Carrillo (“Gutierrez”), Frankyanna Del Valle Romero-Rivero (“Romero”), Jesus Enrique Castillo Rodriguez (“Castillo”), and Yuribetzi Del Valle Gomez Machuca (“Gomez”) — arranged or otherwise aided the smuggling of the victims into the United States, posted online commercial sex advertisements for the victims, set up commercial sex appointments with men who responded to the postings, and collected the proceeds of the commercial sex acts.
Rivero, Mota, Romero, and Morales pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy, conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States for financial gain, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Castillo pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Gutierrez, Gomez, and Velasquez pleaded guilty to sex trafficking conspiracy. Manzano pleaded guilty to conspiracy to bring aliens to the United States for financial gain and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The charges Rivero, Mota, Romero, Morales, Castillo, Gutierrez, Gomez, and Velasquez pleaded guilty to carry a statutory maximum penalty of life in prison. Manzano pleaded guilty to charges that carry a maximum penalty of twenty years in prison.
The defendants are scheduled to be sentenced during the week of Nov. 16. A federal district judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Trial Attorneys Lindsey Roberson, Jessica Arco, and Alexandra Skinnion of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section (HRSP) and Assistant U.S. Attorney Katy Risinger for the Middle District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.
These prosecutions are part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole- of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.
The Nashville HSTF comprises agents and officers from Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), United States Marshals Service (USMS), United States Secret Service (USSS), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and other federal agencies, working in collaboration with our state and local partners, with the prosecutions being led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Tennessee.
The investigation and charges are further supported and prosecuted by Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), the Department’s lead effort in combating high-impact human smuggling and trafficking committed by cartels and Transnational Criminal Organizations (TCOs). A highly successful partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), JTFA investigates and prosecutes human smuggling and trafficking and related immigration crimes that impact public safety and border security. JTFA’s mission is to target the leaders and organizers of Cartels and TCOs involved in human smuggling and trafficking throughout the Americas. The Attorney General has elevated and expanded JTFA to target the most prolific and dangerous human smuggling and trafficking groups operating not only in Mexico and the Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, but also in Canada, the Caribbean, and the maritime border, and elsewhere. Led by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and supported by the Money Laundering, Narcotics and Forfeiture Section, the Office of International Affairs, and the Office of Enforcement Operations, among others, JTFA has dedicated Assistant United States Attorney-detailees from the Southern District of California; District of Arizona; District of New Mexico; Western and Southern Districts of Texas; Southern District of Florida; Northern District of New York; and District of Vermont. JTFA also partners with other USAOs throughout the country and supports high-priority cases in any district. All JTFA cases rely on substantial law enforcement resources from DHS, including ICE/HSI and CBP/BP and OFO, as well as FBI and other law enforcement agencies. To date, JTFA’s work has resulted in more than 465 domestic and international arrests of leaders, organizers, and significant facilitators of alien smuggling and/or trafficking; more than 419 U.S. convictions; more than 363 significant jail sentences imposed, and forfeitures of substantial assets.
Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. For more information about human trafficking, please visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org. Information on the Justice Department’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.
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Contact
Steve J. Stanley
Public Affairs Officer
Steve.Stanley2@usdoj.gov
(615) 401-6615
