On January 7, Leonardo Jiménez Rodríguez was extradited from Mexico to the United States, who faces in the eastern district of this city, a 6-count indictment that includes conspiracy of sex trafficking, interstate prostitution, alien smuggling and other crimes.
Originally from San Miguel Tenancingo, Tlaxcala, Leonardo, along with his brothers and co-defendants, Melisa and Marcos—both previously arrested in Queens, New York—operated a scheme since at least 1997 in which they used “false promises of love to traffic sexual dozens of women” to the Big Apple, Brooklyn Attorney General Breon Peace said a few days ago.
So far this century, accusations have been opened against pimps from Tlaxcala in at least 13 states of the American Union. Without detracting from those that have initiated a process against this type of criminal, no other court in the country comes close to the effort undertaken by the Federal Court for the Eastern District of New York, (EDNY) where they have persecuted dedicated families. to disseminate this recipe that combines terror, injustice, corruption and flagrant violations of the law.
In eight EDNY indictments—the first that appeared in 2004 and the most recent in 2021—, 42 Mexicans are presented, 30 of them already sentenced, including 6 of them released after having served their sentences. And until yesterday, 4 remained as fugitives from justice and the remaining 8, already detained, are living different parts of their process, in some cases awaiting conviction and in others seeking a plea agreement. There are 28 who are still in jail and although only 10 of them sleep in the Brooklyn Metropolitan Detection Center.
The worst of the figures is that in which at least 100 women have been forced to work as sexual slaves in schemes where they are forced to provide an average of 20 services a day, whose profits go to traffickers who give half to the drivers who transport the women to the services.
The drama of the sexual exploitation of vulnerable women who agree to the courtship of one who first declares his love for them and then exploits them, is added to two others that take place in Mexico. The first is the disappearance of more than 1,300 girls and adolescents between the ages of 10 and 19 during 2022, 20% more compared to the previous period, according to data from the National Search Commission of the Ministry of the Interior.
And the second is the monthly encounters (arrests and expulsions) between Border Patrol agents and migrants trying to cross into the United States, which reached a historical peak of more than 200,000 in November 2022, according to monthly data available from the Office. Customs and Border Protection.
Kidnapped girls, porous borders, and the great market for New York sex. A terrible combination for a human rights crisis that cannot be seen where it might culminate.
* Juan Alberto Vázquez is a correspondent for Milenio (Mexico) and author of the book “NXIVM: The sect that seduced power in Mexico”.Twitter @juansinatra