Mexican Man Allegedly Tries To Sell Woman, 4 Kids To U.S. For $2,000 Each

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A Mexican man has been detained for allegedly plotting to sell a young woman, two girls and two boys for $2,000 apiece in the United States, police said Sunday.

Police in the northern state of Sonora said the 19-year-old woman and girls aged 12 and 15 were kidnapped by the suspect and another man. The woman and the girls were freed after being held since June 22 at a house in the town of Cananea, near the Arizona border, police said.

The suspect confessed that he planned sell them to a contact in the United States to work as prostitutes, the a police statement said. He also allegedly wanted to sell his two stepsons, ages 1 and 4, it added.

The man has not been formally charged. He is being held on suspicion of human trafficking, a charge that carries a maximum punishment of 23 years in prison

Comments

[lianmolive]

02:27 AM on 06/30/2009

Why 23 years maximum? That's it? Is that 23 years to conspire to traffic or 23 years for actually traffickin­g? Anyone know if there is that difference­?

[TJCole]

10:54 PM on 06/29/2009

I'm sure some are saying ....

"If only..!"

[CaliforniaGirl]

09:32 PM on 06/29/2009

..........­.....this is pervasive in the Mexican cultura.

[dubster]

11:00 PM on 06/29/2009

Do you know anything?

[under]

12:59 AM on 06/30/2009

The hell it is. Have you ever met anyone from Mexico? Or are you getting this from what you heard from someone who knew someone that might have talked to someone who claimed they talked to someone from Mexico at one point?
It's like saying it's "pervasive­" in US culture to take in slave labor. It happens but it's not an excepted or pervasive part of culture.

[plaidsportcoat]

09:19 PM on 06/29/2009

ONLY 23 YEARS?

[Deli]

10:29 PM on 06/29/2009

Really. Traffickin­g should be death penalty, automatica­lly. Isn't it special circumstan­ces?

[bismillah001]

08:56 PM on 06/29/2009

I wish this story would have focused more on the troubling prevalence of human traffickin­g in some parts of our country than on the fact that the man involved was Mexican.

[plaidsportcoat]

09:22 PM on 06/29/2009

How about - they SELL them in the USA from Mexico, since Americans have more money available than Mexicans, overall...­.

[jweider]

05:42 PM on 06/29/2009

And due to our lax immigratio­n enforcemen­t, they probably never would have been found once they entered the US.

[chazzman]

05:42 PM on 06/29/2009

Please explain. What would be legal???

[offred]

05:37 PM on 06/29/2009

Is that 23 years in prison per person? That would be 115 years total. I hope that's without chance of parole.

[Jennifer Elliott]

04:54 PM on 06/29/2009

Yep- This make me angry!

[KYgrl]

03:43 PM on 06/29/2009

I was under the impression that the issue was slavery. What difference does it make what nationalit­y the victims are?

[davidwayneosedach]

03:36 PM on 06/29/2009

This is VERY SCARY. Just think of all those who have actually been sold and are now working as slaves or prostitute­s!

[rbspickles]

05:06 PM on 06/29/2009

I do and there are an estimated 3 MILLION sex slaves in the world today. There are thousands of women and children abducted every month and forced into mostly the sex industry or household servants. If men would STOP paying for this kind of horror the money machine would be stopped. Men must stop thinking that women are here only for their pleasure and that their sexual satisfacti­on is more important than that HUMAN BEING being brutalized­. For crying out loud! Buy some lubricant and take care of it yourself. Stop the SLAVERY!

[DubyaGump]

05:48 PM on 06/29/2009

Thank you, and you are correct if MEN would control themselves a lot of this would stop.

[Michael Sheridan]

07:46 PM on 06/29/2009

Would you please consider NOT demonizing an entire gender comprising nearly half the human race? There are men guilty of exactly what you accuse them, but they are not the majority worldwide. In fact, even in those countries where the objectific­ation of women is most pervasive, they are not the majority. Thank you.

[Quaoar]

03:32 PM on 06/29/2009

Perhaps Frank Lombard will claim he is Mexican.