A Corona woman was sentenced to more than three decades in prison on Thursday, Jan. 29, for trafficking young girls from Mexico to Queens under false pretenses and forcing them into prostitution.
Blanca Hernandez Morales was the fourth and final member of the notorious Queens-based Cid-Dominguez Sex Trafficking Organization to be sentenced to multiple decades in federal prison. Morales and her co-defendants were arrested by federal agents in December 2021, and while all four lived in Corona, their business was largely conducted in Westchester County and Connecticut. All four are related by blood or common-law marriage. Ringleader Roberto Cesar Cid Dominguez, 62, was sentenced to more than 31 years in prison; Luz Elvira Cardona, 37, also known as “Lucy” was sentenced to more than 27 years’ imprisonment; and Jose “El Guero” Facundo Zarate Morales, 37, was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall sentenced Hernandez Morales to 35 years for sex trafficking minors, using force, fraud and coercion, among other crimes. In addition to the term of imprisonment, the judge ordered her to pay $179,000 in restitution.
“Today’s sentence holds the defendants accountable for their decade-long exploitation of young women and minors and is a reckoning for the perpetrators of these deplorable crimes,” U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella said. “It is our hope that these extensive prison sentences bring some measure of comfort to the victims in this case.”
As proven at trial, since approximately 2002, the defendants used force, threats of force, fraud and coercion to force their victims to engage in prostitution. They pressured the young women and underage girls from Mexico to travel to the United States with false promises of a better life.
In one harrowing account, during the trial, which got underway in October 2023, one victim testified that she was just 15 years old and living in Mexico in 2007 when her aunt, Luz Elvira Cardona, offered to pay travel expenses to New York City, where the teen could work as a cleaner. The victim did not know that Cardona, along with her partner Zarate Morales, his mother Hernandez Morales, and her partner Cid Dominguez, were operating a prostitution operation based in Corona. After the victim arrived in Queens, Cardona and Zarate Morales brokered a deal with a client to sell the young victim’s virginity. After Cardona’s niece lost her virginity, she was forced to engage in commercial sex with 20 or more men daily.
After the Jan. 29 sentencing of Hernandez Morales in Brooklyn federal court, FBI Assistant Director in Charge of the New York Field Office James Barnacle said the lengthy prison sentences highlights the FBI’s intolerance of those who seek profit from the sexual abuse and exploitation of others.
“This family orchestrated an international sex trafficking operation to route vulnerable victims, including minors, from Mexico into the United States to commit sexual acts,” Barnacle stated. For more than a decade, these defendants lured young girls across the border with the enticement of the American dream before ensnaring them into a life of sexual servitude.”
Although the Cid-Henandez Sex Trafficking Organization was based in Corona, young women and minor girls were transported to prostitution clients throughout New York State and Connecticut. The crew controlled “routes,” which were comprised of contact lists of potential clients in specific areas and employed individuals who served as drivers.
Cid Dominguez also bribed Village of Brewster Police Officer Wayne Peiffer with free sexual services to ensure the organization’s protection from law enforcement in his jurisdiction, Peiffer pleaded guilty to his role in the prostitution ring in April 2022 to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion and was sentenced to three years in federal prison.
Following the final sentencing on Jan. 29, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) New York Acting Special in Charge Michael Alfonso praised the victims.
“This sentencing brings a conclusive end to a yearslong, unimaginable exploitation and abuse of young women and minors,” he stated. “No person should ever be exposed to the dehumanizing atrocities these victims suffered at the hands of their own common law and blood relatives. HSI New York will never forget the strength of those who bravely came forward, and we owe the successful resolution of this case to their courage and willingness to speak out.”
