2002-07-18 -- Jimenez-Calderon et al. -- Indictment -- News Release

Five Indicted for Luring Mexican Teens to United States to be Captive Prostitutes

NEWARK - Five people were indicted today in connection with a scheme to lure young, undocumented Mexican girls into the United States and force them into prostitution, U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie, and Ralph F. Boyd Jr., Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice, announced.

The five-count Indictment, returned today by a federal grand jury in Newark, alleges that brothers Delfino and Luis Jimenez-Calderon, their sisters Miriam and Laura Jimenez-Calderon, and their associate, Sergio Farfan, conspired to lure four girls into the United States under false pretenses and confine them to a brothel in Plainfield, N.J., where they were forced to work as prostitutes. At the time of his arrest in April, Farfan was employed as a social worker at the Union County Jail in Elizabeth, N.J.

(Please see two earlier news releases on the defendants' arrests in March and May, at the Public Affairs website: www.njusao.org ).

Each of the five defendants is charged with conspiring to force the girls, between the ages of 14 and 18, into prostitution. The four Jimenez-Calderon defendants are also charged with four separate counts of sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion, which carries a sentence of up to life in prison on each count. The conspiracy charge carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

"The conduct alleged in this Indictment is absolutely abominable, and we hope to try these defendants to conviction and jail them for as long as the law allows," Christie said. "Tracking down predators who treat other human beings like this is a priority for this office."

Miriam and Laura Jimenez-Calderon were arrested in March, Farfan in April. Each of those defendants remain in custody and will be brought before a U.S. District Judge in Newark for arraignment in the coming weeks. Miriam and Laura Jimenez-Calderon are Mexican nationals who are in the United States illegally. Farfan was living in Plainfield.

Delfino and Luis Jimenez-Calderon remain fugitives.

Two other defendants named in the original criminal complaints - Angel Ruiz and Maritzana Dias Lopez - are considered unindicted co-conspirators.

As described in the Indictment and in criminal complaints, the conspirators lured the girls into unfamiliar parts of Mexico and then to the United States with expressions of love, promises of marriage and good-paying jobs in America. Once confined in the brothel, the girls were subjected to threats of harm, force and psychological coercion to compel the girls to work as prostitutes.

The Indictment alleges that, even after the house of prostitution in Plainfield was raided by police, the Jimenez defendants were arrested and the girls were placed juvenile custody, the conspirators attempted to secure the girls' release and return them to prostitution. Farfan allegedly did that by presenting fraudulent birth certificates suggesting the girls were over the age of 21 to officials at the Union County Juvenile Detention Center.

This is one of the first cases brought under the forced labor and trafficking provisions of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Prevention Act of 2000, enacted by Congress to combat forms of coercion, such as psychological manipulation and intimidation, that traffickers use to hold their victims in conditions of servitude and forced labor. It is only the second case nationwide under the new provision prohibiting sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion. If convicted, the defendants face sentences of up to life imprisonment.

This case is the result of a continuing investigation by agents of the Immigration and Naturalization Service; the U.S. Department of Labor, through the National Worker Exploitation Task Force, which was founded in 2000 to address the problem of modern-day slavery in the United States; and the Union County Prosecutor's Office and Plainfield Police Department.

The case is being prosecuted jointly by Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert M. Holmsen of the U.S. Attorney's Office in New Jersey, and Trial Attorneys Hilary Axam and Anne Milgram of the Criminal Section of the Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division.

Individuals can report other cases of trafficking or slavery to the Trafficking In Persons and Worker Exploitation Task Force complaint line, at 1-888-428-7581. Additional information about the Task Force can be found at: http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/crim/wetf.html.

An indictment is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence. Defendants are presumed innocent unless and until convicted through due process of law.

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Defense Attorneys:

Miriam Jimenez-Calderon: Chester Keller, federal Public Defender's Office, Newark

Laura Jimenez-Calderon: Angelo Servidio, Esq. Nutley

Sergio Farfan: Michael Sullivan, Esq. Morristown