Daftar Hotel - A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a 26-year-old Mexican man to 20 years in prison for his role in a sex trafficking organization that lured young Mexican women to the Atlanta area and forced them into prostitution.
Hotel Di Bandung Judge Richard Story said 26-year-old Francisco Cortes-Meza's behavior showed such a "callous disregard for humanity" that the judge did not agree with the 15-year suggested sentence agreed upon by the prosecution and defense in a plea deal.
Cortes-Meza was part of an organization that brought about 10 victims from Mexico to the area between spring 2006 and June 2008, prosecutors said. The men sometimes entered into romantic relationships with the women and smuggled them into the U.S. with promises of marriage, better lives and good jobs.
Cortes-Meza was originally charged in a 31-count indictment in July 2008 that resulted from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency investigation. Also named in the indictment were his uncles Amador and Juan Cortez-Meza, and his brother, Raul Cortes-Meza, as well as Otto Jaime Larios Perez and Edison Wagner Rosa Tort, who is from Uruguay. They all face various charges related to sex trafficking, authorities said.
"When we arrived here, I got the biggest surprise of my life," one of the victims testified. "I found out he was going to prostitute me, to force me to lie down with men without my consent."
The women were identified only by their initials and The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.
"Any time I told him I didn't want to do the work he wanted me to do, he said that's what I was born to do," the victim said through a translator.
She and two other victims testified, often through tears, that Cortes-Meza and his co-conspirators regularly beat them and threatened to harm their families in Mexico if they disobeyed orders or tried to talk to anyone. The victims said they were forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men each night.
Cortes-Meza was also ordered Thursday to pay $21,000 in restitution to one of the victims. He will be turned over to ICE and likely deported once his sentence is done, the judge said.
When allowed to address the court, Cortes-Meza said he wanted to apologize to the women for lying to them and mistreating them, but he said his behavior was a result of the extreme poverty that he and the victims come from.
The judge said he could not justify a 15-year sentence, the mandatory minimum for the charge he was convicted of: sex trafficking by means of force, fraud or coercion. Not only did he lie to them, he victimized them in a very demeaning way, trying to make them feel worthless, Story said.
"It's wonderful that you apologized to them here today, but I don't know how you live with yourself," he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Coppedge, who prosecuted the case said the sentence was even better than she'd hoped for.
"I'm thrilled," she said. "The judge listened and he got it."
Hotel Di Bandung Judge Richard Story said 26-year-old Francisco Cortes-Meza's behavior showed such a "callous disregard for humanity" that the judge did not agree with the 15-year suggested sentence agreed upon by the prosecution and defense in a plea deal.
Cortes-Meza was part of an organization that brought about 10 victims from Mexico to the area between spring 2006 and June 2008, prosecutors said. The men sometimes entered into romantic relationships with the women and smuggled them into the U.S. with promises of marriage, better lives and good jobs.
Cortes-Meza was originally charged in a 31-count indictment in July 2008 that resulted from a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency investigation. Also named in the indictment were his uncles Amador and Juan Cortez-Meza, and his brother, Raul Cortes-Meza, as well as Otto Jaime Larios Perez and Edison Wagner Rosa Tort, who is from Uruguay. They all face various charges related to sex trafficking, authorities said.
"When we arrived here, I got the biggest surprise of my life," one of the victims testified. "I found out he was going to prostitute me, to force me to lie down with men without my consent."
The women were identified only by their initials and The Associated Press does not identify victims of sexual assault.
"Any time I told him I didn't want to do the work he wanted me to do, he said that's what I was born to do," the victim said through a translator.
She and two other victims testified, often through tears, that Cortes-Meza and his co-conspirators regularly beat them and threatened to harm their families in Mexico if they disobeyed orders or tried to talk to anyone. The victims said they were forced to have sex with 20 to 30 men each night.
Cortes-Meza was also ordered Thursday to pay $21,000 in restitution to one of the victims. He will be turned over to ICE and likely deported once his sentence is done, the judge said.
When allowed to address the court, Cortes-Meza said he wanted to apologize to the women for lying to them and mistreating them, but he said his behavior was a result of the extreme poverty that he and the victims come from.
The judge said he could not justify a 15-year sentence, the mandatory minimum for the charge he was convicted of: sex trafficking by means of force, fraud or coercion. Not only did he lie to them, he victimized them in a very demeaning way, trying to make them feel worthless, Story said.
"It's wonderful that you apologized to them here today, but I don't know how you live with yourself," he said.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Coppedge, who prosecuted the case said the sentence was even better than she'd hoped for.
"I'm thrilled," she said. "The judge listened and he got it."
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