Source: Knoxnews.com
Lured by promises of high-paying jobs, women from five states instead found themselves enslaved – stripped of their identities, forced into prostitution and bartered among brothel operators in East Tennessee and Kentucky.
This tale of the victims of a human trafficking ring is fleshed out in a beefed-up indictment filed earlier this month in U.S. District Court in Greeneville by Assistant U.S. Attorney Helen Smith against nine people – three from Knoxville – accused of turning illegal immigrants into sex slaves.
“The principal object of the conspiracy was to obtain money for the ultimate personal gain, benefit, profit, advantage and accommodation of the defendants and their co-conspirators,” Smith wrote.
Nine defendants, including both men and women, are listed in the new indictment. Reyna Rodriguez Rios of Knoxville is accused as the leader of the prostitution ring. Alleged co-conspirators include Knoxville residents Eusebio Flores Martinez and Elda Dorali Moreno Ramirez, as well as two defendants from Morristown, one from Goodlettsville, Tenn., and two from Louisville, Ky.
They are accused of setting up sex shops on Cunningham Road and Bob Gray Road in Knoxville as well as in Morristown, Goodlettsville and Louisville, Ky.
The indictment does not say whether the nine were themselves illegal immigrants, nor does it quantify just how many women – all illegal immigrants – were ensnared in the alleged prostitution ring.
But the scale of the alleged operation is unprecedented in East Tennessee, spanning some five years and including both brothels, where a mostly Hispanic male clientele received sexual favors, and operations in which prostitutes were delivered directly to customers as far away as Nashville and Louisville, Ky., according to the indictment.
The women lured into the sex slave trade came from Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama, Georgia and South Carolina, according to the indictment.
They were promised legitimate jobs but instead were stripped of any identifying documents and enslaved, Smith wrote.
The alleged sex slave trade operators marketed the women through “word of mouth” and the distribution of business cards at stores and facilities catering to Hispanics, Smith wrote.
“The business cards used code words for prostitution services including, but not limited to, haircuts, flowers, and appetistas,” the indictment states.
Men paid $30 for a 15-minute session with the prostitutes and, in return, “received a physical token such as a stone, ticket or poker card” to be presented to the women as proof of payment, Smith wrote.
Although each brothel and delivery service had its own stable of women, the managers of each operation often traded the women among themselves “because it is considered desirable to have a changing supply of prostitutes in order to generate customer interest,” Smith wrote.
“The prostitutes lived nomadic lives traveling from one city to another,” Smith wrote.
They were forced to work 11-hour days, six days a week, with Sunday reserved for traveling, the indictment states.
“The defendants’ prostitutes were generally expected to engage in sexual intercourse with 30 customers per day, in order to maximize the defendants’ profits,” the indictment states.
The women’s only compensation was “tip money,” from which they were often “required to purchase condoms,” Smith wrote.
A trial date on the new indictment has not yet been set.
Article from knoxnews.com – read more.
