Following an investigation by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in New York, four individuals have been extradited from Mexico to the United States to face sex trafficking charges.
Efrain Granados-Corona, aka “Chavito,” aka “Cepillo,” Emilio Rojas-Romero, Alan Romero-Granados, aka “El Flaco,” and Pedro Rojas-Romero, are charged together with Raul Romero-Granados, aka “Chicarcas,” aka “El Negro,” Isaac Lomeli-Rivera,” aka “Giro,” Julio Sainz-Flores, aka “Rogelio,” and Juan Romero-Granados, aka “Chegoya,” aka “El Guero,” with sex trafficking offenses in a 23-count Superseding Indictment (the “Indictment”) in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Efrain Granados-Corona and Emilio Rojas-Romero were extradited to the United States from Mexico on April 26. Alan Romero-Granados and Pedro Rojas-Romero were extradited to the United States from Mexico last week.
The indictment, which was returned under seal on Sept. 15, 2016, alleges that the defendants are members of an international sex trafficking organization that exploited and trafficked adult and minor women in Mexico and in the United States from at least 2000 to 2016. Members of the defendants’ sex trafficking organization, which operated largely as a family business, used false promises, physical and sexual violence, and threats to force and coerce adult and minor women to engage in commercial sex for the organization’s profit in both Mexico and the United States.
As part of a coordinated bilateral law enforcement action, six defendants located in Mexico – Efrain Granados-Corona, Emilio Rojas-Romero, Alan Romero-Granados, Pedro Rojas-Romero, Julio Sainz-Flores, and Juan Romero-Granados – were arrested in Mexico and taken into custody by Mexican authorities pursuant to provisional arrest warrants submitted by the United States to Mexico in August 2016. As noted, the first four of these defendants were extradited to the United States from Mexico within the past week. The fifth of these defendants, Julio Sainz-Flores, was previously extradited to the United States from Mexico on June 8, 2017, and was presented in Manhattan federal court before Chief United States Magistrate Judge Gabriel W. Gorenstein on June 9, 2017. Juan Romero-Granados remains in Mexico pending extradition proceedings. The two defendants who were arrested in the United States, Raul Romero-Granados and Isaac Lomeli-Rivera, were presented in Manhattan federal court on Oct. 27, 2016.
