Several years ago, a family came to the United States and took up a terrifying new endeavor: smuggling young, poor women from Central and South America into the country and forcing them into prostitution.
The scheme was rather straightforward, according to court documents. One or two members of the family would contact women abroad and offer them resources to illegally immigrate and a legitimate job when they arrived. All the women needed to do was pay back their travel fees.
But once they were on the way, the women were told that price had increased, often by tens of thousands of dollars. The women felt they had no choice but to agree to engage in commercial sex and hand over the proceeds, prosecutors said.
On Wednesday, the ringleader of the operation — and the matriarch of the family — pleaded guilty to three conspiracy charges: sex trafficking, conspiring to bring illegal aliens into the US for financial gain, and money laundering.
The woman, Yilibeth del Carmen Rivero-De Caldera, faces up to life in prison.
