PRAIRIE VIEW, TEXAS – Special agents assigned to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s Human Trafficking Unit have charged a woman accused of playing a role in a transnational commercial sex enterprise currently under investigation by multiple local, state, and federal agencies.
According to a federal indictment announced Tuesday, once the defendants facilitated the victims’ arrival in the United States, the defendants utilized online commercial sex websites to post advertisements for the victims and then used the internet and their cellular phones to direct commercial sex buyers to engage in commercial sex with the victims at the motels before collecting the proceeds from that commercial sex for the defendants’ benefit.
During the investigation, TBI agents developed information leading to Joana Carrizo-Aponte (DOB 5/22/1989) as an individual alleged to have directly facilitated the exploitation of the scheme’s victims.
Authorities arrested Carrizo-Aponte in Texas on Tuesday, during a joint operation to arrest several of the subjects charged following a federal indictment related to this ongoing investigation. Agents charged Carrizo-Aponte with three counts of Promoting Prostitution. At the time of this release, she remained in the custody of the Waller County (TX) Jail, awaiting extradition to Tennessee.
The charges and allegations referenced in this release are merely accusations of criminal conduct, not evidence. The defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and convicted through due process of law.
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