A 41-year-old San Jose man and a 30-year-old San Jose girl have been sentenced to prolonged jail phrases for his or her roles in a conspiracy to make use of underage women for little one pornography and intercourse trafficking, in line with the U.S. Legal professional’s Workplace.
A U.S. District Court docket decide sentenced Ariel Guizar-Cuellar to greater than 38 years behind bars and Araseli Mendoza to 10 years in jail, federal prosecutors stated in an announcement Thursday.
Guizar-Cuellar and Mendoza, together with Josylne Contreras, 29, of Redwood Metropolis, and Alyssa Anthony, 30, of Gilroy, had been charged on April 7, 2016.
Guizar-Cuellar was charged with one rely of conspiracy to commit little one intercourse trafficking, three counts of kid intercourse trafficking and one rely of kid sexual exploitation. Mendoza was charged with conspiracy and three counts of intercourse trafficking.
Guizar-Kular pleaded responsible to all costs on Might 7, 2019, and a jury convicted Mendoza on October 6, 2021, of conspiracy and one rely of kid intercourse trafficking.
Contreras and Anthony additionally pleaded responsible to conspiracy to commit little one intercourse trafficking on September 4, 2019, and July 21, 2020, respectively. They’re scheduled to be sentenced on November 8.
Citing the defendants’ responsible pleas and proof offered at Mendoza’s trial, prosecutors stated Guizar-Kular was the operation’s chief, principal facilitator, enforcer and first monetary beneficiary. Guizar-Cuellar reportedly admitted that he and the opposite three defendants based and operated an unlawful prostitution ring that exploited scores of ladies and kids within the Bay Space over a 16-month interval.
In response to prosecutors, the defendants made hundreds of {dollars} in the course of the operation and flaunted the income to recruit extra victims.
Prosecutors stated Guizar-Cular rented rooms at numerous inns and motels in San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale for prostitution and instructed the kid victims to not inform anybody they had been minors. The youngest of the victims concerned within the operation was 15 years previous on the time.
In response to prosecutors, Guizar-Cuellar bodily and sexually abused each the kid victims and his feminine co-defendants. As well as, little one victims had been reportedly remoted from their households and assist methods; lack of meals and sleep; given alcohol, cocaine and different substances to make sure compliance; and provided methamphetamine to maintain them awake so they may meet nightly revenue quotas.
Prosecutors stated the defendants posted on-line prostitution adverts utilizing pictures of kid victims posing bare and of their underwear.
Along with their jail sentences, Guizar-Cuellar and Mendoza had been ordered to serve phrases of supervised launch and pay restitution to the victims. Guizar-Kular stays in custody, and Mendoza was ordered to show himself in to the Bureau of Prisons in January.
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