Mexican sex trafficker pleads guilty

A Mexican citizen admitted last week in Brooklyn to transporting young Mexican women to the United States and forcing them into prostitution in brothels in New York City neighborhoods like Corona, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported. She will face 11 to 14 years in prison.
Consuelo Carreto Valencia, 61, was charged with one count of sex trafficking for serving as manager in her family’s Mexican sex trafficking operation from 1991 to 2004, said the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Although Valencia never lived in Corona herself, she admitted to making hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits from her participation in an organization that used or approved of a combination of deception, fraud, rape, forced abortion, threats and physical violence to compel young, uneducated women into prostitution, who were paid next to nothing.
“Sex traffickers prey on the vulnerabilities of their victims to force them into lives of servitude and rob them of their human dignity,” said United States Attorney Benton J. Campbell. “We will hold accountable those persons who subject other human beings to conditions of servitude in order to line their own pockets.”
Josue Flores Carreto and Gerardo Flores Carreto, Valencia’s two sons who lived in Corona and sent their mother her money in Mexico, were sentenced to 50-year terms following their guilty pleas in April 2005. Another defendant, Daniel Perez Alonso, was sentenced to a 25-year term. The 61-year-old was extradited to the United States from Mexico in January 2007 to face the charges against her.
“Few crimes are viler than sex trafficking helpless victims - it is nothing less than modern-day slavery,” said Peter J. Smith, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Office of Investigation for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in New York City. “ICE will vigorously pursue and prosecute any members of a criminal enterprise engaged in this dangerous, dehumanizing, and illegal business.”
State Senator John Sabini, who passed the legislation in New York preventing human trafficking, commended the U.S. Attorney’s for their pursuit of this case. “Human trafficking is a terrible crime that flew under the radar for too long in this state,” he said. “We must make sure that the victims in these cases are treated with respect and not just as evidence in a crime. We should provide for them all the services they need to get their lives back. It’s impossible to comprehend the trauma victims of human trafficking endure.”
Sabini added, “I hope this indictment is the beginning of a thorough crackdown on perpetrators of this crime against humanity.”