Brothel
grossed $800K a year
Albertville police say Hispanic prostitution ring operated
out of trailer park
The Decatur Daily
THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2007
ALBERTVILLE (AP) A brothel that operated for years in
a Northeast Alabama trailer park took in as much as $800,000
annually and may have forced some young Latin American women
to work as prostitutes in return for being smuggled into the
United States, police said Wednesday.
Three men were charged with promoting prostitution, and five
other people were being held for immigration officials. All
eight will eventually be deported to Mexico, said Police Chief
Benny Womack.
Womack said investigators believe the brothel
operated for as long as seven years inside a trailer park
that caters to Hispanics. The operators moved between several
trailers to stay a step ahead of law enforcement, and virtually
all the customers were Spanish-speaking men, he said.
One of two women taken into custody appeared
to be in her teens, the chief said, and authorities have been
told that some young women were forced to work
as prostitutes in exchange for being smuggled into the country.
“It's a first for Albertville. This is not a city
that normally has these problems,” said Womack.
An investigation that lasted about six months
revealed the operation was taking in as much as $800,000 annually
for years, according to the chief. [This is unacceptable.
Especially if there are minor girls involved there should
be almost immediate intervention. Otherwise you are leaving
minors girls to be raped and sexually abused for 6 months.
- Donna]
Womack said brothers Leon Miguel Martinez, 31, and
Jose Martinez, 24, of Guntersville allegedly owned the operation,
which was allegedly operated by Elias Miranda, 41. The brothers
were believed to have also run a prostitution ring in Decatur,
he said, but a police raid there turned up no suspects.
No Decatur probe
Contrary to TV news reports, Decatur police spokesman
Lt. Chris Matthews said police are not investigating prostitution
rings in Decatur at this time. Decatur police “shared
information” with Albertville police during their investigation
that may have helped lead to the arrests, he said. [ Well,
I guess they aren't going to catch any criminals then are
they, and Police Chief Womach can continue to say that "This
is not a city that normally has these problems." - Donna]
Jail officials said there were no records to indicate
whether the men had hired attorneys.
The brothers were arrested at a traffic stop Sunday, and Miranda
and two women were arrested Monday during a raid of a trailer
that was allegedly being used for prostitution.
Three other people were subsequently taken into custody, and
Womack said additional arrests were possible. Daily
reporter Kristen Bishop contributed to this article.
Copyright 2005 Associated Press.
Georgia
trio held on prostitution charges
THE HUNTSVILLE TIMES
Posted
by David Brewer October 24, 2007 10:48 AM
ALBERTVILLE
- Three Georgia residents charged with promoting prostitution
at an Albertville mobile home park remain in city jail today.
Albertville police spokesman Sgt. Jamie Smith said Analilia
Calderon Romero, 19, and Bolivar Palma-Ramirez, age unknown,
both of Atlanta, and Eddy Bulux-Menendez, age and hometown
in Georgia unknown, were arrested Monday and charged with
third-degree promoting prostitution.
Smith said the arrests resulted from an undercover operation
at Beck's Trailer Park on Kilpatrick Road. He said other charges
against the trio are pending.
In March, three men were charged in connection with a sex-slave
ring at the mobile home park. They allegedly forced underage
females into prostitution to pay for being smuggled into the
U.S.
2
accused of helping run prostitution ring
Birmingham News
Tuesday,
July 10, 2007VAL WALTONNews staff writer
Two
men accused of helping to run a prostitution ring from an
Albertville trailer park have been charged in federal court
and have a Wednesday detention hearing, court records show.
Jose Elias Mirada-Guillen and Miguel Leon-Mora are charged
in a criminal complaint filed late Friday in connection with
the alleged house of prostitution that police believe operated
out of the Kilpatrick Mobile Home Park on Kilpatrick Road.
The men are believed to have used women from Central and South
American countries, paying them in cash and rotating the prostitutes
weekly.
An affidavit accuses
Leon-Mora of transporting an individual to engage in prostitution;
enticing an individual to travel in interstate commerce to
engage in prostitution; failure to file a factual statement
concerning alien prostitutes; and harboring illegal aliens
for financial gain. He is accused of paying a woman to travel
from Georgia to Alabama to perform sex acts at a prostitution
house.
The affidavit accuses
Mirada-Guillen of failure to file a factual statement concerning
alien prostitutes; harboring illegal aliens for financial
gain; and reentry after deportation.
The men are being held
without bond after an initial appearance before U.S. Magistrate
Judge Robert Armstrong. Janie Lee Mangieri, an attorney appointed
for Leon-Mora, declined comment Monday. Court records Monday
afternoon did not indicate an attorney for Mirada-Guillen.
Detectives Jason Keeton
and Tim Abercrombie began the investigation in September 2006
after complaints of a prostitution operation were received,
according to the affidavit filed by W. Brandon Darby, a senior
special agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Two months later, a confidential source came to the Albertville
Police Department to report a prostitution operation.
The affidavit said
the person running the operations at the trailer, named "Elias,"
would collect $30 from the customer and give the customer
a poker chip. The customer would then choose one of the two
prostitutes and give her the poker chip in exchange for sex.
At the end of the day, the prostitute would earn $15 for each
poker chip she collected.
The source told police
an out-of-work bounty hunter nicknamed "Security" was paid
to pose as a police officer to close down rival prostitution
houses.
The affidavit said
the prostitution operation actually belonged to Martin Gonzalez,
the brother of Mirada-Guillen and Leon-Mora. Agents said the
two began running it after Gonzalez was deported, but he continued
to receive about $800 to $1,000 of the profits every three
days by wire.
Albertville police
have said the men ran an $800,000-a-year prostitution house
that may have operated as long as six years.
E-mail: vwalton@bhamnews.com
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