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What happened
Naim Jorge-Tovar, 33, a Mexican national illegally in the United States has been indicted for sex trafficking of a child. According to allegations contained in a criminal complaint filed against Tovar on July 22, 2009, Tovar romanced a 16-year-old Mexican female, in Mexico, and smuggled her into the United States around April 2009. Shortly after arriving in the country, Tovar told the victim she would have to work in an apartment. She thought he meant that she would work cleaning an apartment. What he meant, according the complaint, was that she would be working as a prostitute in an apartment. The victim was threatened with physical harm if she refused. Tovar kept all the money derived from the commercial sex acts the victim was coerced into performing. http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/txs/releases/August%202009/082009Tovar.htm
Response and intervention
The criminal charges are the result of an investigation conducted by members of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA), a federally funded multi-agency collaboration of local, state and federal law enforcement agencies founded in August 2004 working together with area social services organizations to identify and assist the victims of human trafficking and to effectively identify, apprehend and prosecute those engaged in trafficking offenses. The HTRA members who participated in this investigation include the HPD, FBI, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office. The 16-year-old victim eventually told a relative residing the United States about her situation. The relative, in turn, notified the Houston Police Department (HPD). HPD officers rescued the 16-year-old on June 8, 2009, and arrested Tovar.