Lurid Film Linked To Smuggling

Anthony M. Destefano, nynewsday.com, Mar. 30

Smugglers in Mexico linked to a gang in Corona are believed to have used a film depicting a woman being killed as a way of forcing other females to travel to the United States to work as prostitutes, federal investigators said.

Reports of the film depicting a homicide have surfaced as part of a continuing probe by the Brooklyn U.S. attorney’s office into a suspected sex trafficking ring that supplied prostitutes to brothels in Queens and Brooklyn.

Federal officials said information about the film, allegedly used to show prostitutes what could happen if they tried to leave the clutches of the smugglers and help law enforcement, was provided by authorities in Mexico. U.S. officials said they have not independently verified that such a film exists.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Pam Chen disclosed the information about the film during a hearing Friday in the case of four Queens men accused of illegally importing women into the city. As part of the investigation, officials earlier this year searched two apartments in Corona, court records reveal.

The Corona group, Chen stated in court, are believed to be part of an extensive ring of smugglers in Mexico who authorities there believe carried out two murders to intimidate female victims. The four defendants are being held without bail after being indicted on smuggling-related charges in February.

Chen said a grand jury is preparing an additional indictment on more serious human-trafficking charges.

The Brooklyn investigation is focusing on a family known as the Carretos, who lived around the town of Tenancingo in the southern Mexican state of Tlaxcala. Tenancingo has earned a reputation as being a point of origin for young women who, willingly or not, have traveled to the United States to work in the sex industry.

Federal investigators have charged that two brothers, Josue Flores Carreto and Gerardo Flores Carreto, and two other men illegally imported women for prostitution.

The Carreto brothers and their two suspected accomplices were arrested in late January. Five women linked to the suspects were also detained at that time on immigration charges and were being kept separate from the men in the hopes of gaining cooperation.

Because of the allegations of threats and murder that have surfaced in the investigation, Chen asked that Judge Frederic Block issue an order barring the suspects from contacting the women. Block allowed defense attorneys time to file written responses to Chen’s request.