#Prisonworld News – Modern Day Brothel Madam BUSTED
A Houston woman who ran an international sex trafficking ring out of her East End cantina was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday, officials said.
Hortencia “Tencha” Medeles, 70, was convicted in April of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, conspiracy to harbor aliens, aiding and abetting to commit money laundering and conspiracy to commit money laundering, according to the FBI.
Twelve women, some of whom were as young as 14 at the time, testified that pimps lured them to a 17-room brothel upstairs from Medeles’ Las Palmas II bar on Telephone Rd. Prosecutors said the women were often beaten and forced to have sex in an operation that netted Tencha over $1.6 million in its last 19 months.
“These were human beings — women and children — who were treated as a commodity,” Kenneth Magidson, the U.S. Attorney for Southern District of Texas, said in a statement. “They came from their home countries hoping for a better life, only to be enslaved and forced into unspeakable acts. This is a local, national and international issue, but also a humanitarian issue.”
