A Queens man was sentenced to life behind bars Wednesday for running a sex-slavery ring that lured young Mexican women to the Big Apple and New Jersey and forced them into prostitution.
Manhattan federal Judge Katherine Forrest also ordered Isaias Flores-Mendez, 42, to forfeit $1.7 million to the government and pay $84,000 in restitution to the victims of his crime.
Prosecutors say some of the women were driven to rural New Jersey to have sex with up to 25 farm workers a day. Others were confined to dingy New York brothels that advertised their services with business cards passed out on local street corners. The scheme began in 1999.
“I do know that no sentence can return to the victims that which has been so brutally taken from them,” Forrest said, “but today is a day that perhaps these victims have been waiting for — a day when our society would understand, and listen to what was happening to them, and see that this defendant, who committed such awful crimes using them, would be brought to justice and is brought to justice.”
Flores-Mendez had pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, interstate transportation for prostitution and other charges.
Sixteen defendants in this case have pleaded guilty, and one has entered into a deferred prosecution agreement. All but four defendants have been sentenced.