A Cuban national living in South Florida has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for transporting three women into the U.S. from his home country and then forcing them to dance in local strip clubs to pay off their smuggling debts, federal authorities said.
Ivan Madrigal Zamora, 46, was facing up to 60 years when he pleaded guilty Oct. 22 to federal charges that included forced labor trafficking and inducing an illegal alien to live in the U.S., prosecutors said.
According to court records, Zamora left Cuba with a woman in February 2016 and entered the U.S. through Mexico by claiming asylum in May 2016.
Once in Palm Beach County, Zamora put the woman to work in strip clubs to pay him a smuggling debt of over $10,000, evidence showed.
Zamora was also accused of using phony identification to smuggle another woman to Florida from Cuba, through Mexico, and also forcing her to work in strip clubs to pay him a $26,000 smuggling debt.
A third woman was being smuggled from Cuba in early 2017 but when she arrived at the Mexico-Texas border, she was arrested and detained for more than two months. Zamora posted bond for her release and flew that woman to Palm Beach County in July 2017.
Like the others, the woman was ordered to work in strip clubs to pay Zamora a $26,000 smuggling debt, but three weeks later she was able to escape and call 911, authorities said.
Zamora beat the three women and verbally threatened them and their families during the course of the alien smuggling and forced labor trafficking, prosecutors said.
His 10-year sentence also includes three years probation and more than $40,000 in restitution payments to the three women, records show.
Human trafficking has been an ongoing issue in Florida. Of the more than 38,000 cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline since 2007 that were assessed as “high” probability of actual trafficking, over 4,500 came from Florida, officials said.
To report suspected human trafficking call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.
wkroustan@sunsentinel.com or 954-356-4303 or Twitter @WayneRoustan
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