The FBI expects that hundreds of illegal immigrant women might have been victims of a New York sex trafficking scheme involving a purported female ringleader accused of luring women with online waitressing job ads before forcing them into prostitution by threatening to call immigration.
The bureau said Tuesday that Ysenni Gomez – arrested on Aug. 12 as the FBI's Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force and local law enforcement partners participated in "Operation Cross Country" – might have hundreds of victims, as investigators identified more than 1,600 ads allegedly linked to Gomez promoting prostitution stretching back a decade.
The FBI said the ads were found on Facebook, Bedpage.com and MegaPersonals.com, and Gomez possibly used the business name "Chicas Express."
According to a federal complaint filed in the Southern District of New York, Gomez allegedly preyed on new arrival Spanish-speaking migrants to force them into prostitution in Westchester County and the Bronx.
The complaint details how an undocumented woman from Venezuela responded to an online ad for a waitressing position at a Manhattan restaurant.
Gomez — who also goes by the aliases Carolina and Ysenni Peguero — allegedly conducted a phony interview for the gig, but when the woman showed up for the first day on the job, Gomez allegedly demanded that the victim instead start having sex for money at her instruction or else she would call federal authorities to have the victim deported.
The complaint says the Venezuelan woman initially refused, but Gomez and an alleged accomplice bullied and threatened the victim for days until through coercion she eventually agreed to see up to three clients a night. For about three weeks, the victim saw both "regular" clients who paid $200 per encounter and "VIP" clients who paid $700 per encounter until a sting at a Westchester County hotel.
That was until an undercover agent responded to an ad for an illicit encounter at a hotel in Tarrytown. When Gomez arrived the next day in an SUV to drop off the victim, officers took the alleged madam into custody.
The FBI Westchester County Safe Streets Task Force, Greenburgh Police Department, and the Westchester County Police Department are asking anyone with information about Gomez, or anyone who may have been a victim is asked to call the FBI at 1-800-CALL-FBI. Immigration status will not be used against those who report alleged sex trafficking schemes to authorities.
"We want to ensure that any victims out there come forward because the FBI is singularly focused on seeking justice for them," FBI Supervisory Senior Resident Agent Brendan Kenney told FOX 5 NY. "Those victims should not fear deportation if they come forward."
The FBI released a mugshot of Gomez and a photo of an avatar she is believed to have used online.
