mysteriew
01-21-2006, 06:22 PM
A woman from Texas admitted in court yesterday she helped smuggle young women and girls from Honduras into this country, then forced them to work as prostitutes and dancers in bars in Union City and Guttenberg.
Elsa Consuelo Isuala-Meza, 44, of Houston - herself an illegal immigrant from Honduras - pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano to engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of 30 months to 37 months for the crime, but she could receive less if she cooperates against other suspects. She is being held without bail and is scheduled to be sentenced April 25.
Isuala-Meza is the fourth person to admit playing a role in the scheme, which forced women and girls - at least one as young as 14 - to dance and drink with men in the bars in order to pay off debts of $10,000 to $20,000. But she is the first to say some ring members forced the girls to prostitute themselves to pay off their debts.
Speaking yesterday through a court interpreter, Isuala-Meza said she ran a safe house in Texas, where the immigrant girls, after crossing the border, would stay until they were driven or given a bus ticket to New York or New Jersey.
She said she was wired $250 to $300 for each woman she picked up, to cover food, clothing and bus tickets. She said she made arrangements for more than 20 women and girls between May 2003 and December 2004.
Often she sent the women to live in North Hudson with two sisters who allegedly worked as enforcers, Elvira and Ana Luz Rosales.
She said she thought she was just doing "a favor" for the women, but in court yesterday she admitted she began to suspect something was wrong when she got a call asking if "Elvira's little whores had arrived yet."
She continued to participate in the ring, however.
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1137838251280950.xml&coll=3
Elsa Consuelo Isuala-Meza, 44, of Houston - herself an illegal immigrant from Honduras - pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Joel Pisano to engaging in a conspiracy to commit forced labor.
Federal sentencing guidelines recommend a prison term of 30 months to 37 months for the crime, but she could receive less if she cooperates against other suspects. She is being held without bail and is scheduled to be sentenced April 25.
Isuala-Meza is the fourth person to admit playing a role in the scheme, which forced women and girls - at least one as young as 14 - to dance and drink with men in the bars in order to pay off debts of $10,000 to $20,000. But she is the first to say some ring members forced the girls to prostitute themselves to pay off their debts.
Speaking yesterday through a court interpreter, Isuala-Meza said she ran a safe house in Texas, where the immigrant girls, after crossing the border, would stay until they were driven or given a bus ticket to New York or New Jersey.
She said she was wired $250 to $300 for each woman she picked up, to cover food, clothing and bus tickets. She said she made arrangements for more than 20 women and girls between May 2003 and December 2004.
Often she sent the women to live in North Hudson with two sisters who allegedly worked as enforcers, Elvira and Ana Luz Rosales.
She said she thought she was just doing "a favor" for the women, but in court yesterday she admitted she began to suspect something was wrong when she got a call asking if "Elvira's little whores had arrived yet."
She continued to participate in the ring, however.
http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index.ssf?/base/news-0/1137838251280950.xml&coll=3