[ad_1]
GREENVILLE, S.C. (CBS) – An Upstate resident and another man face human trafficking charges after allegedly buying and selling a 19-year-old woman as a “sex slave,” according to our sister station in South Carolina.
According to a Department of Justice news release, Alfonso Orozco Juarez, 35, made contact with a woman from Santa Fe, New Mexico on the “MeetMe” dating app in 2019.
According to the criminal complaint from the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas, Juarez reached out to the woman and asked if she wanted to make money, and she responded that she did.
The pair then met in person inside a Dallas motel room in September of 2019, where Juarez allegedly pistol whipped her and bruised her hand and jaw.
Juarez also reportedly introduced the woman to methamphetamine while in her motel room, according to our sister station in South Carolina.
According to the release, Juarez gave the woman a slave name and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not consent to being sold for sex.
Additionally, Juarez also reportedly pointed an unloaded gun at the woman’s head and pulled the trigger.
According to the release, Juarez sold the woman repeatedly for commercial sex and advertised her as a “slave” on a fetishism website, offering to sell her to the highest bidder.
Robert Hubert, 66, of Roebuck, SC, reportedly offered $5,000 for the woman under the screen name, “The Darkest Lord.”
Text messages between Hubert and Juarez referred to the woman as “the property,” and reportedly bragged that she “submitted fully” after Juarez “pistol whipped” her.
“She’s totally dependent on me,” Juarez said in a text message. “SWEET,” Hubert responded. “I will take the slave.”
Juarez and Hubert then reportedly met up at a gas station in Dallas, where Hubert put the woman in his car to take her to his home in South Carolina, according to our sister station in South Carolina.
According to the release, Hubert “clamped a metal collar around her neck, threatened to brand her, and provided her with a list of ‘fetishes he likes.’”
In the criminal complaint, the woman said Hubert gave her a “packet of torture things like fetishes” and allegedly told her he was going to brand her with a logo on her buttocks.
The woman then texted Juarez pleading for help.
“I’m afraid if I don’t do something, he’s going to hurt me,” she said.
“Endure what you have to,” Juarez texted her. “He’ll punish you whip you . . . but not kill you.”
According to the criminal complaint, another woman was in the car when Hubert picked up the victim in Dallas.
Once at Hubert’s home in Roebuck, there was a room he called the “dungeon” or “chamber” and he required the women to remove their clothes and be naked all of the time.
The other woman who was in the vehicle reportedly had cuts, burn marks and bruises on her body, as well as a branded logo on her hip, according to our sister station in South Carolina.
According to the criminal complaint, the woman begged Hubert to let her go and he said he would not let her go unless he got his money back.
The woman at one point persuaded Hubert to let her call her parents and her father reportedly begged Hubert to let his daughter go.
Hubert told the woman’s father that he had purchased her for $5,000 and demanded $5,000 back in exchange for her safe return.
According to the release, Hubert sent the woman’s father a contract, signed by both Juarez and Hubert, as a proof of sale.
“Eventually, Mr. Hubert relented, and the victim was able to escape by bus,” according to the release.
In the criminal complaint, one of Juarez’s friends allegedly bought a Greyhound bus ticket to take the woman back to Dallas. She then went back to her home in Santa Fe.
During an interview with investigators, the woman said that Juarez is a trafficker who sold her and other victims for commercial sex. She also said he would set up dates for her to have commercial sex with men on every trip she made to Dallas.
According to criminal complaint, Juarez would then pay the woman in drugs in money, and would fund her travel to and from Santa Fe, according to our sister station in South Carolina.
The woman claimed that she returned to Dallas in part because Juarez allegedly threatened to hurt her and her family, and because he gave her free drugs.
In the summer of 2020, the woman said she visited Dallas with her friend, who she met at a behavioral hospital in New Mexico.
Juarez had reportedly asked her to help recruit women to “work” with him and she introduced her friend to him and his friend group.
The woman told investigators that she believes her friend was sexually assaulted by one of Juarez’s friends.
Following an investigation, Juarez and Hubert where charged with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, according to our sister station in South Carolina.
Juarez was arrested at his home in Dallas and was in court Wednesday in Dallas.
Hubert was arrested at his home in Roebuck and was in court on Greenville last week.
If convicted, Juarez and Hubert could both face up to life in federal prison.
“This victim endured horrific abuse at the hands of these defendants. It’s unthinkable and frankly, difficult to learn that this type of thing is happening in our District,” U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox said. “I am grateful that our North Texas Human Trafficking Task Force was able to act swiftly and aggressively. The Northern District of Texas and its partners in the District of New Mexico are committed to ending the scourge of human trafficking, one brutal case at a time.”
Copyright 2020 WIFR. All rights reserved.
[ad_2]
Source link