A Brownsville couple has been sentenced for running a sex trafficking ring that brought women and teenage girls into the United States for prostitution.
Juan Luis Coronado and Lee Ann Zieger appeared before U.S. District Court Judge Hilda Tagle in Brownsville on Wednesday afternoon.
Coronado pleaded guilty to smuggling a teenage girl into the United States for prostitution back in September.
Zieger pleaded guilty to two counts of harboring illegal immigrants for prostitution.
Judge Tagle sentenced Coronado to seven years and three months in federal prison.
Zieger was sentenced to two years in federal prison.
Prosecutors told Action 4 News that the prostitutes were housed in a Brownsville hotel where 40-year-old Zieger was the manager and Coronado used a room key labeled “Property Manager”.
In addition to working at the hotel, Coronado and Zieger took the prostitutes to work at a festival at Padre Island last October.
U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement agents launched an investigation into their activities back in October 2008.
That’s when Coronado was accompanied a 14-year-old illegal immigrant at the Gateway International Bridge in Brownsville.
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