By Forum Staff
The leader of a ruthless family-run sex trafficking organization has been sentenced to 15 years in prison, federal prosecutors announced on Thursday.
The Hon. William F. Kuntz handed down the sentence to Hugo Hernandez-Velazquez for sex-trafficking multiple victims by force, fraud, and coercion. Hernandez-Velazquez, 48, was extradited from Mexico to the United States in February 2021. He pleaded guilty to one count of sex trafficking in April 2023.
Photo Courtesy of the Attorney General of Mexico
Giovanni Hernandez-Velazquez
Between approximately 2001 and 2009, the defendant and his siblings, Ernesto, 45, Giovanni, 37, and Arcelia Hernandez-Velazquez, 46, ran the Hernandez-Velazquez Sex Trafficking organization based in Mexico. The family organization used force, fraud, and coercion to cause young women in Mexico to engage in prostitution in the United States. Members of the family organization lured victims into romantic relationships through false promises of love and support. The victims were pressured to travel to the United States with promises of a better life with their trafficker. Once smuggled into the United States, the victims were forced to engage in prostitution. The organization maintained a base in Queens where victims would reside while they were forced to work in New York and other states, including Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Hugo Hernandez-Velazquez subjected his victims to physical beatings, forced abortions, and threats. He also threatened violence to the victims’ families to force the victims to continue prostituting on his behalf.
Judge Kuntz previously sentenced Hernandez-Velazquez’s siblings who also pleaded guilty to sex trafficking: Ernesto Hernandez-Velazquez, who lives in Queens, and Giovanni Hernandez-Velazquez were each sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment; Arcelia Hernandez-Velazquez, also a Queens resident, pleaded guilty to a Mann Act Violation and was sentenced to time served after approximately 60 months in U.S. custody.
Hugo Hernandez-Velazquez will be deported to Mexico after completing his sentence.
