A Mexican man who ran a sex trafficking ring in Miami that involved brutalizing young women and girls was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Rafael Alberto Cadena-Sosa was arrested by ICE in San Pedro, California, on Tuesday, DHS officials said.
In 2015, Cadena-Sosa took a plea deal and was convicted of involuntary servitude for his role in the operation he ran with his family, where they would “approach women and girls—some as young as 14—in Veracruz, Mexico, and lure them to the United States under false promises of jobs,” according to DHS.
After smuggling the victims, he and others would force them into prostitution for 12 hours a day, six days a week to pay off their supposed debts. They used “brutal physical force and violence, sexual assaults, and threats of death and bodily harm to the victims and their families” to keep them in line.
Cadena-Sosa was sentenced to 15 years in prison and ordered to pay $1,261,563 in restitution to 16 different victims in that case.
“The crimes against humanity and atrocities he committed against young girls are unspeakable,” DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
It was not immediately clear if Cadena-Sosa was released from prison and rearrested to be deported, or if he was wanted on other charges.
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