SACRAMENTO - When the FBI investigated a transnational human trafficking ring operating in Northern California, the Bureau called upon California Department of Justice (DOJ) special agents to draw up detailed affidavits and to make the arrests.  Last week, three of the five defendants in this case,  arrested by DOJ special agents in February, were each sentenced to three years in county jail.

"This was a human trafficking ring in which young women were brought up from Mexico and sold for sex in Sacramento, Chico, Stockton, Yuba City and Fairfield," said California Statewide Law Enforcement Association (CSLEA) President Alan Barcelona.   "It was a DOJ special agent who drew up the affidavits and DOJ special agents who handcuffed these five on pimping charges so they could  be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.  Our association members who are special agents with DOJ are to be commended for their work."

Nery Najarro-Rodriguez, 42, Jorge Perez-Hernandez, 37, and Luis Mata, 30, pled no contest to conspiracy to commit pimping and pandering and were each sentenced to three years in jail.   The  fourth defendant, Adelaida Teran-Bravo, 42, was previously convicted of felony accessory and sentenced to six months in county jail.  Charges against the fifth defendant, Garrido Fuentas, 32, are currently pending in Butte County Superior Court. 

Court documents indicate the victims were brought from Mexico to California to work as prostitutes. The women were moved from house to house and town to town.  The ring leaders shopped for customers by handing out business cards at home improvement stores and swap meets.  Some of the victims were sold for sex to as many as 20 clients in a single day.