Sex Trafficking2011
United States US
Amador Cortes-Meza Age-36 Currently at State Penn in Atlanta Charges: sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, transporting minors for the purpose of prostitution, smuggling aliens into the United States for purposes of prostitution, and conspiracy to do the same.$292,000 in restitution charges! Juan Cortes-Meza Age 31 Hometown: Mexico Charges: 16 years, eight months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $57,600. Raul Cortes-Meza Age 22 Hometown: Mexico Charges: 10 years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $7,000. Edison Wagner Rosa Tort Age: 71 Hometown: Cartersville, GA Charges: five years in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $57,000. OTTO JAIME LARIOS PEREZ Age 27 Hometown: Guatemala Charges: two years, six months in prison to be followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay restitution to the victim in the amount of $3,600. Federal authorities believe the defendant led a sex trafficking ring that brought at least 10 women into the country and forced them to engage in sexual acts with men. According to the prosecution, the defendant and other men, mostly relatives, tricked the young women, including four juveniles, into leaving their families in Mexico by pretending to be romantically interested in them. brought 10 victims to Georgia, where they were beaten and forced to have sex with about 40 men a night, according to U.S. Attorney Sally Q. Yates. The victims testified that they lived in Norcross homes. One victim testified that when she refused to engage in prostitution, Cortes-Meza threw an iron at her head, then denied her medical care. Other victims said Cortes-Meza hit them with his fists, belts and sticks and dragged them around by their hair. "This defendant tricked young girls and juveniles into leaving their families in Mexico, beat them, and forced them into more than 20 acts of prostitution a night here in Atlanta," Yates said in a statement. "These survivors courageously testified against the defendant and played a significant role in bringing him to justice. This defendant earned every day of his 40 year sentence.” During the trial, victims testified that they sometimes were ordered to service 40 customers a night at a rate of $25 a customer, Yates said. That money was split between Cortes-Meza and his co-conspirators and the drivers, she said.
Sex Trafficking2008
United States US
Five men - four of them related: Amador Cortes-Meza, 34; Juan Cortes-Meza, 31; Francisco Cortes-Meza, 25; Raul Cortes-Meza, 21; and Edison Wagner Rosa Tort, 69. The Cortes-Meza family members, all Mexican nationals, were arrested June 5 in Norcross where they were living. Authorities took Tort, a legal permanent resident originally from Uruguay, into custody June 24 in Cartersville. They were charged with bringing at least 10 young Mexican women into the U.S. illegally and forcing them to work as prostitutes in metro Atlanta. The defendants allegedly used threats, coercion, and physical violence to force the girls to cooperate. The women were delivered to clients' apartments or homes and were required to have sex with up to 30 men per day (according to legal authorities). Prosecutors accuse the men of conspiring to seduce, entice, and recruit the women, ages 14-28, to travel to metro Atlanta from Mexico, with promises of legitimate jobs. Four women survivors involved were under 18 years old.
Bonded Labor2009
United States US
Shirke is one of six entertainers that were allegedly recruited from India with promises of profits - tips - from their dancing at the bar and restaurant, only to be paid slave wages and have every movement carefully guarded once they arrived in Georgia on Nov. 20. Shirke is worried the arrest of her bosses will shame her parents and brother in Mumbai, India, even though she and the other dancers didn’t participate in prostitution or stripping. The two male performers played in a band while the six women performed traditional folk and Bollywood-style dancing between eight and 14 hours a day, seven days a week at Mehfil Bar, Grill & Entertainment at 1200 Rockbridge Road near Norcross. The doors to the five-bedroom house where the entertainers lived in Lilburn were always dead-bolted from the inside by guards who stayed in the sparsely furnished house with them, Shirke said. She said the girls, who did not have the key to the door, were not permitted to go anywhere without an escort. The eight performers had signed a contract before they left India, stating they would surrender their passports and be confined to their home when they weren’t working, Shirke said. “They said it was for our safety, and we believed them,” Shirke For now, the performers are still staying in the house without keepers and planning to return to India when their visas expire in April.