The men who bought and sold a 19-year-old woman as a \u201csex slave\u201d have been charged with human trafficking, announced U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Texas Erin Nealy Cox.<\/p>\n
Following an intensive investigation, Alfonso Orozco Juarez, 35, and Robert Hubert, 66, were charged via criminal complaint with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking. Juarez was arrested at his home in Dallas and made his initial appearance in court in Dallas on Wednesday; ubert was arrested at his home in Roebuck, SC, and made his initial appearance in court in Greenville, SC last week.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis victim endured horrific abuse at the hands of these defendants. It\u2019s unthinkable and frankly, difficult to learn that this type of thing is happening in our District,\u201d said U.S. Attorney Erin Nealy Cox. \u201cI am grateful that our North Texas Human Trafficking Task Force was able to act swiftly and aggressively. The Northern District of Texas and its partners in the District of New Mexico are committed to ending the scourge of human trafficking, one brutal case at a time.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnyone that is involved in human trafficking activities \u2013 either as a member of a transnational criminal organization, a business owner exploiting his\/her employees, or a street level pimp \u2013 should be viewed as a vicious predator. These despicable people who enrich themselves by exploiting the innocent have no place amongst law-abiding citizens and HSI will always combat it with every resource at our disposal. We will continue to collaborate with any law enforcement agency at any level of government in our shared efforts to bring human traffickers to justice,\u201d said Ryan L. Spradlin, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations Dallas.<\/p>\n
According to a criminal complaint unsealed yesterday afternoon, Juarez contacted the Santa Fe-based victim via a dating app MeetMe in 2019. In September 2019, they met in person inside a Dallas motel room, where Juarez pistol whipped the victim, bruising her hand and jaw. He later gave her a \u201cslave name\u201d and threatened to kill her and her family if she did not consent to being sold for sex. At one point, Juarez pointed an unloaded gun at her head and pulled the trigger.<\/p>\n
After repeatedly selling the victim for commercial sex, Juarez advertised her as a \u201cslave\u201d on a fetishism website, where he offered to sell her to the highest bidder. Hubert, screen name \u201cThe Darkest Lord,\u201d offered $5,000.<\/p>\n
In text messages with Hubert, Juarez referred to the victim as \u201cthe property\u201d and bragged that she \u201csubmitted fully\u201d after he \u201cpistol whip[ped]\u201d her.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s totally dependent on me,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n
\u201cSWEET,\u201d Hubert responded. \u201cI will take the slave.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men met up at a gas station in Dallas, where Hubert put the victim in his car to drive her to his home in South Carolina. After Hubert clamped a metal collar around her neck, threatened to brand her, and provided her with a list of \u201cfetishes he likes,\u201d the victim texted Juarez, pleading for help:<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m afraid if I don\u2019t do something, he\u2019s going to hurt me,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cEndure what you have to,\u201d he responded. \u201cHe\u2019ll punish you whip you . . . but not kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n
When they reached Hubert\u2019s home \u2014 where there was a room he described as a \u201cdungeon\u201d Hubert required the victim to remove her clothes and \u201cbe naked all the time.\u201d Terrified, the victim persuaded Hubert to let her call her parents.<\/p>\n
The victim\u2019s father begged Hubert to let his daughter go, but Hubert informed him that he had purchased the victim for $5,000 and demanded $5,000 back in exchange for her safe return. He even sent the victim\u2019s father a \u201ccontract,\u201d signed by both Juarez and Hubert, as proof of the \u201csale.\u201d Eventually, Hubert relented, and the victim was able to escape by bus.<\/p>\n