Smuggling women from Cuba to Miami for sex gets pimp 30 years

Smuggling women from Cuba to Miami for sex gets pimp 30 years
BY DAVID J. NEAL
dneal@miamiherald.com

Once Silvio "Jander" Morales smuggled six women from Camaguey, Cuba into
Miami, he shed any niceties like a moulting anaconda losing skin.
Morales constricted the women into prostitution by mushrooming their
debt, threatening their families' lives and even threatening to feed one
woman to alligators in the Everglades.

Morales virtually imprisoned the women in a Miami apartment complex.
Friday, he learned he'll be imprisoned 30 years in a federal facility
after pleading guilty to six counts of sex trafficking by force, threats
of force, fraud, and coercion and one count of conspiracy to encourage
and induce aliens to unlawfully come to and enter the United States.

After his sentence, Morales likely will be deported, as he's not a U.S.
citizen.

As part of his plea deal, Morales admitted he and his cronies lured five
of the women in Cuba with this deal: He gets them into the United States
via Mexico and, once in their furnished apartment, they work as dancers
to pay him $100 per day until their $20,000 debt is paid. Through an
underling, Morales extended the same offer to a Camaguey woman in Honduras.

This is the first known criminal case involving Cuban women brought to
the United States for sexual exploitation.

All six accepted. None of the six, the statement says, would have done
so if they knew the dancing would involve stripping. Or, that they would
be sold as sexual commodities.

But the first surprise came when Morales unilaterally raised the amount
each owed him from $20,000 to $55,000. To service the debt, they'd
service paying men.

Fear for their families, one of which Morales personally threatened,
moored them to Morales and the apartment complex. Morales' minions or
Morales himself drove the women to strip clubs around the county.
Morales prohibited any of the women leaving the complex without his
permission.

When one woman did so, he made an example of her. Morales drove her to
the edge of the Everglades, punching her on the way. Upon reaching a
bridge near the Everglades, he told her he was going to throw her into
the alligators' domain. Instead, after making sure she understood not to
defy him again, he tossed her into the trunk and drove back to the complex.

When one woman became pregnant after unprotected sex with a customer,
Morales made her get an abortion.

Two women escaped the paralyzing fear and guarding gang members long
enough to walk into a City of Miami police station on Sept. 6, 2016 and
tell police what was going on. The police arrested Morales that night.

David J. Neal: 305-376-3559, @DavidJNeal

Source: Pimp gets 30 years for smuggling Cuban women in for sex | Miami
Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article160375529.html