Posted on 06/16/2011 6:48:29 PM PDT by moonshinner_09
McALLEN — Jurors convicted three men Wednesday for their roles in the sex smuggling of three teenage Mexican girls in Rio Grande City.
Jurors deliberated about two hours following the three-day trial, which pegged Juan Antonio Garcia Garay as the ringleader of the operation.
The case involved a March 17 traffic stop by Rio Grande City police, who encountered a barefoot 13-year-old girl toting a pistol hidden beneath a purple jumper dress.
The girl later told U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents she was a prostitute working alongside two others, ages 15 and 18. The three girls had been staying at two Rio Grande City apartments, having sex with Garcia and other men during a drug-fueled party that lasted several days.
Garcia, 31, met the 13-year-old girl at a billiards hall across the Rio Grande in Camargo, where she had been working as a prostitute. Prosecutors said he offered the girl $500 to cross the border and offer sex services over a three-day span.
“To her, what was working?” prosecutor Kimberly Leo said in her closing argument Wednesday. “It was having sex with men. That’s what she did in Mexico, and that’s what she was coming here to do.”
(Excerpt) Read more at themonitor.com ...
Alvarez and other defense lawyers did not dispute that the men and girls had sex together. Instead, they argued the defendants garnered no commercial gain from their encounters.
“They’re not committing crimes,” Alvarez said. “They’re just partying … No one was exploiting them. No one was taking advantage of them.”
Laywer is a piece of work too!
Does the Mann Act apply to International Borders, in addition to State Lines?
What a deal? Let the hookers in to the USA, and keep out the drug cartels and their runners.
At least then we would die of STDs and not lead poisoning./s
Ping!
I believe that the age of consent in Mexico is 12 years old.
Ping!
If you want on, or off this S. Texas/Mexico ping list, please FReepMail me.
>>Each man faces up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine at a sentencing hearing later this year. Chavarria and Martinez Mendoza face deportation to Mexico, as well.<<
Oh no, deportation to Mexico. That’s cruel.
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