

The U.S. Embassy in Mexico City distributed this news release from the U.S. Justice Department on Jan. 31, 2017:
Raul Granados-Rendon, who had been on ICE’s most wanted list since 2010, was arrested in September 2016 in Mexico, following a joint investigation between ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mexico City, HSI New York and the Mexican Federal Police. He was extradited to the United States on Friday and he was arraigned Saturday, at the federal courthouse in Brooklyn, on a 21-count indictment charging him with racketeering and racketeering conspiracy involving predicate acts of sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; sex trafficking of minors; interstate prostitution; alien smuggling and related offenses. Granados-Rendon was ordered detained by U.S. Magistrate Judge Arlene Lindsay.
The extradition and indictment was announced by Robert L. Capers, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, and Angel M. Melendez, Special Agent-in- Charge, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), New York.
“This extradition, the latest chapter in our multi-year case against the Granados sex trafficking organization, again demonstrates our resolve to seek justice for victims of modern day slavery. We will not rest until those who seek to profit from the forced slavery of others are brought to justice,” stated United States Attorney Capers.
“We at HSI can think of no better way to end Human Trafficking Awareness month than with the extradition of Raul Granados-Rendon, who has been on our most wanted list for numerous crimes including sex trafficking,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Melendez of HSI New York. “This individual is just one of many who allegedly helped run a sex trafficking organization that was responsible for smuggling numerous women into the United States where they were forced to work as prostitutes against their will. We will not rest until all of these individuals face the justice they deserve.”
As set forth in extradition affidavits and other court papers, between October 1998 and June 2011, members of the Granados sex trafficking organization, including Raul Granados-Rendon and others, illegally smuggled young women into the United States where they were forced to work as prostitutes in New York City and elsewhere in the United States. The organization collected profits from the victims’ activities. When victims refused to work or resisted, members of the organization beat and sexually assaulted them, and threatened the victims’ family members in Mexico, including the victims’ children.
HSI special agents have identified and rescued over 20 additional victims – all Mexican nationals – and arrested over a dozen additional traffickers or smugglers, all members or associates of the Granados family. Several victims were sexually assaulted by their traffickers, while others were physically assaulted. All the victims said the traffickers threatened to harm their family members.
To date, 13 members of the Granados organization have been indicted in the Eastern District of New York on sex trafficking charges. Raul Granados-Rendon was the last fugitive to be arrested and extradited to face the charges.
In announcing the extradition and arraignment, U.S. Attorney Capers commended the HSI’s New York Office, the HSI Mexico Attaché Office and the Department of Justice’s Office of International Affairs, the State Department, and the New York City Police Department for their assistance and praised the government of Mexico for its role in advancing bilateral anti-trafficking enforcement efforts.
The charges in the indictment are merely allegations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Since 2009, the Department of Justice and HSI have collaborated with Mexican law enforcement counterparts in a Bilateral Human Trafficking Enforcement Initiative aimed at strengthening high-impact prosecutions under both U.S. and Mexican law. The initiative is aimed at dismantling human trafficking networks operating across the U.S.-Mexico border, bringing human traffickers to justice, reuniting victims with their children and restoring the rights and dignity of human trafficking victims held under the trafficking networks’ control. These efforts have resulted in successful prosecutions in both Mexico and the United States, including U.S. federal prosecutions of more than 50 defendants in multiple cases in New York, Georgia, Florida, and Texas since 2009, and numerous Mexican federal and state prosecutions of associated sex traffickers. The extraditions in this case are the latest development in the Eastern District of New York’s comprehensive anti-trafficking program, which has to date indicted more than 70 defendants in sex trafficking cases and provided assistance to more than 135 victims, including 39 minors. In addition, through the Eastern District of New York’s anti-trafficking program, 18 children have been reunited with their victim-mothers.
The government’s case is being handled by the Office’s Civil Rights Section. Assistant United States Attorneys Taryn Merkl and Jennifer M. Sasso are in charge of the prosecution.
Comments
more recommended stories
Xcaret postpones the 14th edition of the Sacred Maya Journey
The return of the traditional Sacred.
A woman is crushed to death when a tree falls on top of her car on the Mérida-Valladolid highway
A strange accident happened on Thursday,.
With these local flowers, you help prevent the loss of bees in Yucatan
Every May 20, World Bee Day.
US government officials talk about UFOs publicly for the first time in 50 years
Two senior U.S. defense intelligence officials.
The US Embassy to invest 30 million USD in the “South of Mexico Generating Employment and Sustainability” program
In alliance with seven governments from.
Face-to-face courses return to La Ibérica de Mérida; they will celebrate a big event on Sunday
On Sunday, May 22, the Centro.
Construction worker arrested for sexual abuse against a maid inside a hotel in Tulum, Quintana Roo
The municipal police of Tulum, in.
Yucatan is about to receive the first cloud of dust from the Sahara desert in 2022
A cloud of dust from the.
Yucatecans seek to sell one ton of Cochinita Pibil and 6 thousand panuchos in Mexico City
With the “Yucatán Expone” program, Yucatecan.
Mérida Municipal Police officer returns wallet to owner with more than 5 thousand pesos
The Mérida Municipal Police agent Roberto.
Leave a Comment