Leonardo Jimenez-Rodriguez was extradited to the United States Friday and is scheduled to be arraigned at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn on a six-count indictment charging him with sex trafficking conspiracy, sex trafficking, interstate prostitution, alien smuggling and related offenses.
Jimenez-Rodriguez was arrested in May 2022 in Mexico following a joint investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mexico City, HSI New York and the Mexican Federal Police.
The defendant is charged in a superseding indictment together with his brother and co-defendant, Marcos Jimenez-Rodriguez, who was previously arrested in the United States. The defendant’s sister, Melisa Jimenez-Rodriguez, was also previously arrested in the United States and is awaiting sentencing on the charge of distributing proceeds of a prostitution business.
The extradition and charges were announced by Breon Peace, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Ivan J. Arvelo, Special Agent-in-Charge, HSI New York.
“As alleged, using false promises of love and support, the defendant and his siblings brutally sex trafficked women between Mexico and the United States for over two decades,” stated United States Attorney Peace. “Stopping human trafficking and ensuring that traffickers face justice for the crimes against their victims remain priorities of this Office and our law enforcement partners.”
“Yesterday’s extradition is the result of years of extraordinary collaboration between law enforcement agencies spanning multiple countries and investigative jurisdictions. Leonardo Jimenez-Rodriguez is alleged to have been a part of his family’s transnational human trafficking organization which offered the chance at a better life to young women and girls before cruelly ensnaring them in forced sex work with no way to return home,” stated HSI Special Agent-in-Charge Arvelo. “HSI is grateful to our colleagues with the HSI Mexico City Attaché Office and to our many partners in the United States and the Government of Mexico whose collaboration and teamwork make investigations like this possible.”
As alleged in the superseding indictment and other court filings, between 1997 and May 2018, Leonardo Jimenez-Rodriguez was a member of a family organization based in New York and Tenancingo, Mexico, that used force, fraud and coercion to cause young women in Mexico to engage in prostitution in the United States (the “Jimenez-Rodriguez Trafficking Organization”). Leonardo Jimenez-Rodriguez, together with other relatives, lured victims into romantic relationships through false promises of love and support and pressured the victims to travel to the United States with promises of a better life.
After Leonardo Jimenez-Rodriguez and other members of the Jimenez-Rodriguez Trafficking Organization illegally smuggled young women from Mexico into the United States, they employed brutal physical beatings, intimidation, psychological abuse, and threats to force or attempt to force the women to work as prostitutes in New York City and elsewhere. The defendant is also charged with distributing the illicit proceeds of the sex-trafficking and prostitution enterprise.
If convicted of the sex-trafficking related charges, the defendant faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years’ incarceration and a maximum sentence of life in prison.
DOJ
