Human trafficking fugitive extradited to U.S. from Mexico

U.S. Embassy in Mexico informed that one of the top 10 most wanted human traffickers was extradited from Mexico on Tuesday to face criminal charges in the Eastern District of New York.

Paulino Ramírez Granados was arrested on March 31 in Tenancingo, Mexico, following a joint investigation between ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Mexico City, HSI New York and the Mexican Federal Police.

Ramírez Granados was charged on August 5, 2011 with sex trafficking, alien smuggling, money laundering and conspiracy to import aliens for immoral purposes.

Members of the Granados sex trafficking organization, including Ramírez Granados and others, illegally smuggled young women into the United States, where they were forced to work as prostitutes in New York City and elsewhere in the United States. The organization collected profits from the victims’ activities. When victims refused to work or resisted, members of the organization beat and sexually assaulted the victims, and threatened the victims’ family members in Mexico, including the victims’ children.

HSI special agents identified and rescued over 20 additional victims – all Mexican nationals – and arrested over a dozen additional traffickers or smugglers, all members or associates of the Granados family. Several victims were sexually assaulted by their traffickers, while others were physically assaulted. All the victims said the traffickers threatened to harm their family members.

To date, 13 members of the Granados organization have been indicted in the Eastern District of New York on sex trafficking charges. Twelve have been arrested, and one – Raúl Granados Rendon – remains a fugitive.