Member of a Mexican sex trafficking ring pleads guilty to forcing woman into prostitution

NEW YORK — A member of a Mexican sex trafficking organization pleaded guilty Monday to federal charges relating to the sex trafficking of a woman from October 2000 to December 2008. 

The guilty plea is the result of an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI). When sentenced, Ramirez-Granados faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

The guilty plea was announced by Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge HSI New York and Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York.

At Monday’s proceeding, Paulino Ramirez-Granados admitted to bringing a woman from Mexico to New York between October 2000 and December 2008, and forcing her, using threats and violence, to work as a prostitute in Queens, New York, and elsewhere. Ramirez-Granados also admitted that he obtained money from the prostitution that his victim was forced to perform. Pursuant to his plea agreement with the government, Ramirez-Granados also admitted to trafficking an additional victim and agreed to pay restitution to both victims.

As set forth in court filings, between October 1998 and June 2011, members of the Granados sex trafficking organization, including Ramirez-Granados, illegally smuggled young women into the United States, where they were forced to work as prostitutes in New York City and elsewhere. The organization collected profits from the victims’ activities. When victims refused to work or resisted members of the organization beat and sexually assaulted the victims, and threatened the victims’ family members in Mexico, including the victims’ children.

To date, 13 members of the Granados organization have been indicted in the Eastern District of New York on sex trafficking charges. Twelve have been arrested, and one remains a fugitive. Two high-ranking members of the group, Eleuterio Granados-Hernandez and Samuel Granados-Hernandez, who are brothers, plead guilty to sex trafficking and were sentenced by Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto in 2014 to 22 years and 15 years, respectively.

During the course of the investigation, law enforcement identified and rescued over 20 additional victims — all Mexican nationals. Several victims were sexually assaulted by their traffickers, while others were physically assaulted. All the victims said the traffickers threatened to harm their family members.