A brothel keeper in Marietta recruited illegal immigrants from as far away as Massachusetts to work in Georgia as prostitutes and caretakers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta said Friday in announcing a guilty plea in the case.
Luz M. Gutierrez, of Marietta, pleaded guilty Friday in U.S. District Court to one conspiracy count. A Dec. 6, 2011 indictment charged her with conspiracy, enticing individuals to cross state lines to engage in prostitution and encouraging illegal immigrants to resident unlawfully in the United States.
Prosecutors said the 56-year-old Gutierrez operated a house of prostitution in Marietta where she employed illegal immigrants as caretakers and prostitutes.
The woman recruited prostitutes from Georgia and other states, including Alabama, Florida, North Carolina and Massachusetts, to work for her and co-defendant and alleged brothel-keeper Epifania Sanchez Delarosa, prosecutors said.
Gutierrez also recruited prostitutes who lived in Georgia to travel to Alabama and work for an unnamed associate who owned and managed brothels in that state, prosecutors said.
Gutierrez and Delarosa were among eight suspects arrested in December and charged with operating a prostitution ring in three metro Atlanta counties. One of the brothels identified in the roundup was in a Marietta neighborhood off Seminole Drive, about a mile from Marietta Square.
Prosecutors at the time said the suspects used business cards to advertise. Housekeepers were paid up to $350 a week to maintain the homes, watch the women and collect the fees from the clients, they said.
Delarosa’s case is pending, and she has not entered a plea, according to a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Gutierrez could receive up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 at her sentencing scheduled for July 10.
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