WASHINGTON, May 8 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pablo Bonifacio pleaded
 guilty today in federal court in Los Angeles, to conspiracy to commit sex
 trafficking and transporting illegal aliens in the pending case of United
 States v. Vasquez-Valenzuela, announced Grace Chung Becker, Acting
 Assistant Attorney General for the Civil Rights Division and Thomas P.
 O'Brien, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California. The
 remaining eight defendants are scheduled for trial on Sept. 2, 2008, in Los
 Angeles.
 
 
 
     According to the terms of the plea agreement, Bonifacio faces a
 statutory maximum sentence of 15 years in prison and a $500,000 fine.
 Bonifacio is scheduled to be sentenced in Los Angeles on July 28, 2008.
 
 
 
     During the plea today, Bonifacio admitted to conspiring with multiple
 co-defendants and others in a scheme to bring young Guatemalan women and
 girls into the United States illegally for purposes of prostitution, and to
 hold and harbor them in the Los Angeles area for the same purposes. As he
 admitted during the plea hearing today, Bonifacio was paid for his role in
 transporting young females to different locations within the Los Angeles
 area to engage in prostitution. In addition, the defendant acknowledged
 that co-defendants arranged for young females to be recruited from
 Guatemala -- often on the promise of legitimate jobs -- and were then
 smuggled into the United States illegally for prostitution. The young women
 and girls were then forced to engage in prostitution to repay their
 smuggling fees.
 
 
 
     "The defendant was a willing participant in a conspiracy to engage in
 sex trafficking of female victims from Central America," said Acting
 Assistant Attorney General Becker. "The Department of Justice will continue
 to find and prosecute anyone who works to aid human trafficking schemes."
 
 
 
     "Mr. Bonifacio has admitted his role in a scheme that lured young girls
 into the United States with promises of a better life," said U.S. Attorney
 O'Brien. "But the American dream turned into a nightmare when those
 children were forced to work as prostitutes."
 
 
 
     The prosecution of human trafficking offenses is a top priority of the
 Justice Department. In the last seven fiscal years, the Civil Rights
 Division, in conjunction with the U.S. Attorneys' Offices, has increased by
 nearly seven-fold the number of human trafficking cases filed in court as
 compared to the previous seven fiscal years. In fiscal year 2007, the
 Department obtained a record number of convictions in human trafficking
 prosecutions.
 
 
 
     The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cheryl Murphy
 and Sarah Heidel of the Central District of California, and Special
 Litigation Counsel Andrew J. Kline from the Human Trafficking Prosecution
 Unit of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. The case is being
 investigated by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Immigration
 and Customs Enforcement, and the U.S. Department of Labor.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

SOURCE U.S. Department of Justice