Two men were found guilty and sentenced to prison for a sex trafficking case in which a 19-year-old woman from Nueva León, whom authorities identified as AV1, was sold as a sex slave after being advertised on social networks, reported the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas, Chad E. Meacham.
The prosecution claims that the publication solicited "offers" from interested parties and several sexual photographs featuring the victim were shown.
Robert Hubert, 68, admitted that he responded to the publication, offering to buy the "sex slave" for $5,000, pleaded guilty in February 2022 to kidnapping and was sentenced in May 2022 to 121 months in federal prison. Alfonso Orozco Juarez, 37, pleaded guilty in March 2022 to sex trafficking and was sentenced last week to 180 months in federal prison.
The facts
The indictment noted that Hubert responded on September 11, 2019 to an advertisement on a social network that he was selling a "slave", won in " a card game" . He also indicated that the woman could perform any type of sexual act requested.
In the messages sent, Juarez referred to the victim as "property" and bragged because he "pistol whipped" her.
On September 18, 2019, Alonso Orozco Juarez and Robert Hubert met in Dallas, where the victim was delivered. Hubert admitted that he restrained her with a metal collar around her neck.
The terrified victim wrote to Orozco Juarez: "I'm afraid that if I don't do something, he's going to hurt me," the woman wrote. "Bear what you have to do... He will punish you, he will whip you... but he will not kill you," Orozco replied.
Hubert admitted that upon arriving home, he handcuffed the woman and forced her to sleep naked at the foot of his bed.
Eventually the victim persuaded Hubert to allow him to call his parents, who agreed to make a payment to Hubert of $5,000 to release AV1. The victim was able to escape.
Traffickers of girls
In another trafficking case, Univision reported that five traffickers were convicted this year of forcing six Mexican women into prostitution in New York. One of the victims was a 14-year-old minor.
Defendants José Miguel Meléndez Rojas, Jose Osvaldo Meléndez Rojas, Rosalío Meléndez Rojas, Francisco Meléndez Pérez and Abel Romero received sentences ranging from 20 to 39 years.
"The defendants used false promises of love, marriage and a better life to lure women and girls into romantic and sexual relationships, and isolated their victims from their families by taking them to live with them," Univision notes, alluding to information they obtained from authorities.
