LAST DEFENDANT IN SOUTH TEXAS HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND SEX SLAVERY PROSECUTION CONVICTED

McALLEN, TX – The last of eight Mexican nationals convicted for their roles in a sex slavery conspiracy was sentenced to a lengthy prison term by United States District Judge Randy Crane in McAllen, Texas, United States Attorney Don DeGabrielle and Assistant Attorney General Wan J. Kim of the Civil Rights Division announced today.

Hector Soto, a 23-year-old Mexican national and one of several brothers convicted for their roles in a family-based alien smuggling operation, was sentenced to ten years in federal prison without parole for harboring illegal aliens in a Houston area safe house. The sentence was imposed late Thursday, October 12, 2006. The smuggling operation run by Hector Soto’s brothers, Juan Carlos Soto and Armando Soto-Huarto, smuggled and held captive Mexican and Central American women, who were forced to cook, clean and submit to the sexual demands of the smugglers while awaiting family members or others to pay smuggling fees.

Soto, who was originally indicted along with his brothers and others in August 2003, evaded arrest for almost three years before he was arrested on April 24, 2006, by Border Patrol agents in Brownsville, Texas. He pleaded guilty to the federal felony offense on August 1, 2006.

At the time of his re-arraignment hearing, Hector Soto admitted to harboring aliens in a safe house apartment in the Houston area. The safe house was a destination for undocumented aliens smuggled into the country and transported to Houston from the Rio Grande Valley. Soto admitted that the aliens were housed in the apartment prior to traveling to their final destinations.

Hector Soto’s brothers, Juan Carlos Soto, 31, and Armando Soto-Huarto, 24, and another co-defendant, Martin Cortez-Gutierrez, 29, all pleaded guilty in August 2003 to charges of involuntary servitude and human trafficking offenses. In a joint disposition with the Hidalgo County District Attorney’s Office, Juan Carlos Soto and Martin Cortez-Gutierrez also pleaded guilty to state rape charges for their actions against women.

Three principals in this smuggling operation were sentenced in January 2004 by Judge Crane to long prison terms. Hector Soto’s brother, Juan Carlos Soto, who ran the human smuggling operation, held women from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador against their will and raped several of the women and forced them to do work without pay, was sentenced to 23 years in federal prison without parole. His brother, Armando Soto-Huarto, who helped lead the smuggling organization and held women against their will until their smuggling fees were repaid by their families or through compelled service to the organization, and was aware of the ongoing rapes, was sentenced to ten years in prison without parole. Martin Cortez-Gutierrez, a member of the Soto brothers’ smuggling operation and who raped a young Salvadoran woman held by the group, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. All are subject to deportation upon their release from prison.

Four other members of the conspiracy, who each pleaded guilty during the summer of 2003 to alien smuggling and related charges, were sentenced to prison terms ranging from four to 27 months in prison.

The victims of the Soto smuggling organization were relocated to safe quarters and received immigration and refugee assistance provided for by the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA). Since the passage of the TVPA in October 2000, more than 1,000 victims of trafficking have been provided federal assistance.

The indictment in this case was the result of an interagency investigation including the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), Office of Border Patrol and the Hidalgo County Sheriff's Office. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Ruben R. Perez and Leo J. Leo, III of the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Texas and Special Litigation Counsel Lou de Baca of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.

Anyone having knowledge of others subjected to similarly-described conduct is urged to contact the Houston office of the FBI at the above number or the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance through the Houston office of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at 281-774-4900.