After a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) investigation, a woman and her two daughters were ordered detained without bond sex trafficking of children. U.S. Attorney Johnny Sutton, made the announcement for the Western District of Texas.
The three women were arrested at their home May 25, and then detained.
Charged with Sex Trafficking of Children by Force, Fraud or Coercion, the mother, Isabel Consuelo Ochoa, 59 and her two daughters, Consuelo Pilar Ochoa, 32 and Maria de Jesus Ochoa, 29, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge John Primomo.
Prosecutors alleged that the three defendants all traveled to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, for the purpose of recruiting young girls to work as prostitutes in the San Antonio area. The women then allegedly enticed the girls to return with them to the USA. The girls were told they would work as escorts but would not be required to have sex with men.
Of the three known victims the Ochoa women recruited, two were illegal immigrants who the defendants paid smugglers to illegally cross into the United States; one victim possessed border-crossing documents.
Money was allegedly spent on smuggling and other expenses to prepare the three young women to be prostitutes. The three female victims in this case are 15, 17, and 22 years old.
After arriving in the in the USA, the story was changed and the three victims were told they would need to work as prostitutes for five years to repay the money the defendants had spent.
The victims told ICE agents that they were scared to leave because a male associate of the Ochoa family had threatened them with a gun. That man also said if they escaped, he could find them and their families back in Mexico, and he would have them killed.
The ICE investigation is ongoing. The prosecutors are Assistant U.S. Attorneys Bill Baumann and Charles Jenkins, from the Western District of Texas.