Image Credit: Waller County Sheriff’s Office & Canva
The Tennessee Conservative [By Paula Gomes] –
Another Hispanic woman has been arrested for her part in a Nashville human trafficking ring.
Joana Alexander Carrizo-Aponte is the ninth person to be charged in the forced prostitution operation that was run out of Middle Tennessee motels for two years.
Thirty-five year old Carrizo-Aponte who was arrested in Texas has been charged with three counts of Promoting Prostitution and remains in custody at the Waller County (TX) Jail but will be extradited to Tennessee.
Two of the eight individuals with whom Carrizo-Aponte was associated and who were indicted earlier this week had ties to violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and used this association to intimidate the trafficked women into continued compliance with the scheme. All eight were Venezuelan nationals who were in the United States illegally.
The two people associated with TdA were a mother and son duo, the ringleaders of the transnational commercial sex scheme under investigation by agencies at the local, state, and federal levels.
During their investigation, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) found that Carrizo-Aponte “directly facilitated the exploitation” of the women trapped in the ring.
Impoverished women from Central and South America, including Venezuela, were lured by those running the operation into traveling to the United States under the pretense that they would find opportunities leading to a better life.
Instead, their immigration documents were hidden, and they were told to pay back tens of thousands of dollars through prostitution to their captors for alleged expenses involved with bringing them to America.
The traffickers used online commercial sex websites to post advertisements for the victims, directed “sex buyers” to engage with the women at various motels using mobile phones, and then collected the money.
About the Author: Paula Gomes is a Tennessee resident and reporter for The Tennessee Conservative. You can reach Paula at paula@tennesseeconservativenews.com.
One Response
Dimmercrap darling.