Two plead guilty to smuggling women from Mexico for prostitution

By RHONDA COOK

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two men pleaded guilty Thursday to their respective roles in a human sex trafficking operation that brought women and girls from Mexico to the metro Atlanta area to work as prostitutes, mostly in Gwinnett County.

Juan Cortes-Meza, 31, of Mexico and Otto Jaime Larios Perez, 25, of Guatemala are the third and fourth family members who were named in a 31-count indictment to plead guilty in federal court. Two brothers pleaded guilty months ago.

All four were in the United State illegally.

“Human trafficking is modern day slavery that robs individuals of their freedom and can have lasting psychological harm,” U.S. Attorney David E. Nahmias said in a written statement.

Cortes-Meza pleaded guilty to sex trafficking and most likely will spend at least 10 years in prison.

According to the federal investigation, Cortes-Meza enticed poor girls and women — 14 to 28 years old —to leave rural Mexico for the United States. He promised them better lives, jobs and husbands even as he was planning to force them to have sex with as many as 30 men per day. He took most of the money they earned as prostitutes.

One of them was a 17-year-old girl who agreed last year to be smuggled into the United States, believing she would be Cortes-Meza’s live-in girlfriend.

Perez, who pleaded guilty to lying to investigators, would drive the girls and women to clients’ apartments. He also took their money. Initially, Perez eventually admitted he took at least six of the teenagers and young women to meet clients.

He could be sentenced to up to eight years in prison for making a false statement.

The other two family members charged in the case, Francisco Cortes-Meza and Raul Cortes-Meza, have already pleaded guilty to sex trafficking.