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Press Release

Member of Mexican Sex Trafficking Ring Sentenced in Brooklyn Federal Court to Eight Years’ Imprisonment

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Eastern District of New York
Defendant Lured Women to the United States with False Promises of a Better Life Then Forced Them into Prostitution

Earlier today, in federal court in Brooklyn, Raul Granados-Rendon, a member of the Granados family sex trafficking ring based in Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Mexico, was sentenced by United States District Judge Kiyo A. Matsumoto to eight years’ imprisonment following his guilty plea in December 2017 to trafficking young Mexican women into the United States and forcing them into prostitution.  As part of his sentence, the defendant was ordered to pay $1,305,393.80 in restitution to Jane Doe.    

Richard P. Donoghue, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in-Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York, announced the sentence.

“With today’s sentence, Raul Granados-Rendon is the latest member of his family’s Mexican sex trafficking operation to be held responsible for preying upon countless women, and profiting from their exploitation and dehumanization,” stated United States Attorney Donoghue.  “This prosecution and sentence mark another important outcome in a nearly decade-long commitment by this Office and our law enforcement partners to obtain justice for the victims.”   

“The victims of this man were forced into prostitution after being lured to the U.S. with false promises then threatened, beaten and sexually assaulted,” stated HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Melendez.  “This man was on our agency’s top 10 fugitive list before being extradited and taken into custody early last year.  It has been a long road, but now he will face the consequences of his reprehensible actions.”

From October 1998 to December 2011, Raul Granados-Rendon participated in a sex trafficking conspiracy with other members of the Granados family, to smuggle numerous young women from Mexico to New York and force them to work as prostitutes in New York City and elsewhere.  The male members of the conspiracy used false promises of romance and marriage to lure the victims into relationships and convince them to travel to the United States to make money so that they could build homes for themselves in Mexico.   Once in the United States, the victims were subjected to violence, threats and sexual assaults by the defendants.  Raul Granados-Rendon directed one of his victims to teach another victim “Jane Doe” how to prostitute.  When Jane Doe did not produce as much income as other Granados family victims, the defendant physically abused her, dragging her by her hair into a bathroom and forcing her head into a sink.  The defendant also helped transport another victim back to Mexico after his brother impregnated her and failed at his efforts to induce an abortion. 

The investigation, prosecution, bilateral enforcement action and extraditions of the defendants apprehended in Mexico were coordinated through the U.S.-Mexico Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative. Since 2009, the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security have collaborated with Mexican law enforcement counterparts in the Initiative to more effectively dismantle human trafficking networks operating across the U.S.-Mexico border, bring human traffickers to justice, restore the rights and dignity of human trafficking victims and reunite victims with their children.  These efforts have resulted in successful prosecutions in both Mexico and the United States, including U.S. federal prosecutions of over 175 defendants in cases in Georgia, New York, Florida and Texas, in addition to numerous federal and state prosecutions in Mexico of associated sex traffickers.  The convictions in this case are also the latest development in the Eastern District of New York’s comprehensive anti-trafficking program, which has to date indicted more than 80 defendants and assisted more than 150 victims, including 44 minors.  In addition, through the District’s anti-trafficking program, 19 children have been reunited with their victim-mothers.

The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights Section.  Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer M. Sasso is in charge of the prosecution.   

The Defendant:

RAUL GRANADOS-RENDON
Age:  31
Tenancingo, Mexico

E.D.N.Y. Docket No. 11-CR-557 (KAM)

Contact

John Marzulli
Tyler Daniels
United States Attorney’s Office
(718) 254-6323

Updated December 3, 2018

Topic
Human Trafficking