United States v. Jimenez-Calderon

AHS, GCL, and two other minor girls were smuggled from Mexico to the United States to a brothel, where the girls were held captive. The brothel owner recruited Antonia Jimenez-Calderon (defendant) and her sister to run the brothel. Jimenez-Calderon and her siblings conspired to smuggle young girls from Mexico to work as prostitutes at the brothel. Jimenez-Calderon’s brothers traveled to Mexico and targeted poor girls working at cafés who lived away from their families. Each of the girls was naive and had a very low level of education. Jimenez-Calderon’s brothers lured the girls with gifts, dates, and promises of marriage. After a series of visits to a targeted girl’s café, one of the brothers would ask the girl on a date and then take her to a house or hotel where he would rape her or have consensual sex with her. Next, he would take the girl to his mother and introduce her as his fiancé. The brothers then smuggled each girl into the United States. Once in the United States, the girls were transported to Jimenez-Calderon’s brothel, where they were forced into prostitution. At the brothel, the girls had to follow strict rules. The girls were not allowed to talk to one another, befriend customers, or call home. The girls were verbally assaulted, slapped, and beaten if they disobeyed the brothel rules. To pacify each girl, one of Jimenez-Calderon’s brothers would continue to send jewelry and clothes and maintain that he still planned to marry her. The girls were told all the money they earned from prostitution was going to their future husbands. In truth, the brothel owner and operators, including Jimenez-Calderon and her siblings, split the money the girls earned. After the police raided the brothel, the girls were placed in a juvenile-detention center. In a failed attempt to obtain the girls’ release, Jimenez-Calderon procured fraudulent birth certificates and asked Sergia Farfan, a local social worker and brothel regular, to present the fake certificates to the detention center. Jimenez-Calderon was arrested and pleaded guilty to conspiracy to promote sex trafficking, 18 U.S.C. § 371, and promoting sex trafficking by force, 18 U.S.C. § 1591.