Miami Resident Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison for Sex Trafficking

A Miami resident was sentenced to thirty years in prison for sex trafficking six Cuban victims.

Benjamin G. Greenberg, Acting United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, Mark Selby, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations (ICE-HSI), Miami Field Office, Rodolfo Llanes, Chief, City of Miami Police Department (MPD), and Juan J. Perez, Director, Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD), made the announcement.

Silvio Clark Morales, 31, originally of Cuba, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Jose E. Martinez, in April 2017, to six counts of sex trafficking by force, threats of force, fraud, and coercion, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a)(1), and one count of conspiracy to encourage and induce illegal aliens to reside in the United States, in violation of Title 8, United States Code, Section 1324(a)(1)(A)(v)(I). Judge Martinez sentenced Morales today to three hundred and sixty months in prison. Morales has also been ordered to pay restitution to his sex trafficking victims.

According to court records, Morales tricked at least six victims to travel from Cuba to the United States, via Mexico, and work as “dancers.” According to the victims, there was never any indication that they would be dancing naked or performing any commercial sex acts until they arrived in Miami and Morales told them to work at various strip clubs throughout Miami and as prostitutes. When the victims protested, Morales threatened them, physically assaulted them, kept them in debt bondage, and threatened their families. He also routinely kept a close watch on the victims and constantly brandished a firearm to keep them in compliance with his wishes. On one occasion, Morales drove one of the victims to an isolated bridge near the Everglades, beat her, and told her that he was going to throw her into the swamp and let the alligators eat her, before throwing her in the trunk of his car.

Together with Homeland Security Investigations, the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida leads the South Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, which works to increase public awareness, rescue victims, and prosecute traffickers. The task force is composed of not only federal agencies but also state and local law enforcement entities, and partners with non-law enforcement entities, such as service providers, victim advocates, faith-based organizations, academic representatives, and community members.

Mr. Greenberg commended the investigative efforts of ICE-HSI, MPD and MDPD. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Benjamin Widlanski.

Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or on http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov.