22 alleged gang members accused of running Houston brothels filled with undocumented immigrants
By Keri Blakinger and Gabrielle Banks
Houston Chronicle
November 8, 2017
More than a dozen suspected members of a ruthless Houston street gang accused of tattooing their sex trafficking victims are behind bars, charged by federal authorities with everything from smuggling immigrants to illegal firearms sales and drug trafficking.
The violent Southwest Cholos crew, which boasts members with street names like "Pantera" and "Troubles", preyed on undocumented immigrants who were forced to work in brothels around Houston and in Mexico, prosecutors say.
The gang ran a transnational criminal network stretching from a Houston apartment complex, to towns along the Texas-Mexico border to the Mexican resort of Cancun, according to 37-count criminal indictment unsealed late Wednesday.
Ten suspects made initial appearances before U.S. Magistrate Judge Nancy K. Johnson on Tuesday and Wednesday, most shackled in the casual street clothes they were wearing at the time of their arrests. The majority are set to reappear before the judge on Thursday. Assistant U.S. Attorney Adam Goldman told the judge he considers them all flight risks and requested they be held in detention without bond, pending a hearing.
Twelve suspects were arrested Tuesday, on top of two already in custody. Another eight are still at large and being sought by the FBI.
The gang members enticed undocumented immigrants with promises of passage to the U.S. and restaurant jobs to pay off smuggling debts. But instead, the unwitting victims were forced to work as prostitutes in gang brothels, including one at the Carriage Way Apartments in southwest Houston. Prosecutors allege the complex was the gang's base of operations for methamphetamine and heroin peddling, gun trafficking and human smuggling.
When the women refused to work as prostitutes, the gang members allegedly threatened violence against their families.
Raids conducted Tuesday by agents across the city resulted in a string of arrests, as well as the rescue of seven trafficking victims. Previously, they'd already identified another six woman forced into the sex trade, including a 14-year-old girl.
On top of the brutal threats to harm their families, the alleged gangsters further terrorized their victims by tattooing them with nicknames to mark them as property and exert their control.The brothels, in Houston and elsewhere, operated from 2009 to 2017, according to federal charges.
But since April of this year, at least nine of the defendants also became involved in a related human smuggling scheme, prosecutors say. Together they smuggled immigrants from China, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Mexico and Central American into the U.S. using gang-controlled stash houses in the Rio Grande Valley.
The smuggling victims forked over as much as $40,000 apiece to be transported into the U.S and overland to Houston by the gang. During this week's arrests, authorities discovered 16 immigrants hidden away at the secret stash houses.
The gang was largely a family operation headed by Freddy "King Mono" Montes, his mother Maria Angelica "Patty" Moreno-Reyna, 51, and Giovani Alexander "Whiteboy" Alecio, 26, all of Houston.
The government alleged that other leaders of the gang were Patty's husband, Erik Ivan "Casa Grande" Alvarez-Chavez, 39, and her four other sons - William Alberto "Payaso" Lopez, 27, Walter Lopez, 26, Eddie Alejandro "Monterrey" Torres, 38, and Jose Luis "Lucky" Moreno, 23, all of Houston.
The federal charges include multiple conspiracy counts ranging from sex trafficking of a minor and possession of methamphetamine to importation of aliens for immoral purposes, immigration law violations and making false statements.
One by one on Wednesday, the judge told them the possible sentences they faced on the allegations, and many learned they were facing life sentences on the sex trafficking conspiracy. Some of the alleged gang members also face a 10-year minimum sentence on the drug trafficking counts. The human smuggling charges could bring a maximum 20-year sentence, and the firearms trafficking could add another five years.
The FBI, DEA, Harris County Sheriff's Office, Houston police, the Texas Anti-Gang Center and ICE all worked on the investigation and arrests.
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