Cuban Women Smuggled To Tampa Bay Forced To Work Off Debt With Sex

TAMPA, FL — The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said it has rescued eight victims from human trafficking and arrested two people for coercing them into commercial sex acts.

The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Human Trafficking Section said it received a tip about a possible human trafficking case last week suggesting a woman was forced to perform commercial sex acts to pay off a $60,000.00 "debt" after being smuggled into the United States from Cuba.

An additional tip received by the National Human Trafficking Hotline indicated that Amet Ramon Maqueira De La Cal, 35, and Rosalia Leonard Garcia, 29, confiscated documents and cell phones from multiple women brought to the United States from Cuba, according to detectives. The women were then placed in two apartments and were required to pay for food and rent.

On Oct. 19, detectives began conducting covert surveillance on the two apartments. While there, they said they saw a dark blue SUV registered to Maqueira De La Cal. Detectives also saw people they believed to be Maqueira De La Cal and Garcia entering and leaving the two apartments.

During the surveillance, detectives said three young women got into Maqueira De La Cal's SUV, and left with him.

They were driven to two locations thereafter, first a local gentleman's club and later to a gambling establishment, detectives said.

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Detectives learned the women were forced to work at various clubs in both Hillsborough and Pinellas counties to pay off their "travel debts" for being brought into the United States from Cuba. They were also forced to perform commercial sex acts through prostitution.

Detectives also learned some of the victims were featured in advertisements on online escort sites.

Detectives again began conducting covert surveillance on another SUV driven by Rosalia Leonard Garcia and said several women were dropped off at a local shopping center.

Detectives were able to separate one of the women they recognized from an online advertisement from the group and she corroborated the information they had gathered. She also said all the women traveling in Garcia's SUV were human trafficking victims.

A search warrant was executed at the apartments, where detectives found cash, condoms, a stolen firearm and different forms of identification. Detectives believe the gun was used to intimidate the women and force them into commercial sex acts, as well as to threaten the families of the victims.

The eight human trafficking victims were rescued and the nonprofit for human trafficking victims, Selah Freedom, has placed them in a safe place to stay and provided resources for them.

"I have no doubt that if the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Human Trafficking Section had not stepped in when they did so, this heinous business would have continued, grown and may have led to the death of one of the eight women rescued," said Sheriff Chad Chronister. "These suspects did not care about anything else than making money off innocent lives, who were forced into deplorable living and working conditions."

Amet Ramon Maqueira De La Cal and Rosalia Leonard Garcia were arrested and charged with the following:

• Human trafficking, eight counts
• Deriving support from prostitution, four counts
• Transporting for prostitution, four counts
• Unlawful use of a two-way communication device
• Violating the Racketeering Influencing Corrupt Organization Act
• False imprisonment, eight counts
• Forcing another to become a prostitute, four counts
• Solicitation or conspiracy to commit sexual battery, eight counts
• Human smuggling, eight counts

In addition, Maqueira De La Cal also faces a charge of grand theft of a firearm.