Human Trafficking of Foreign National Individuals within the U.S. January 28, 2025

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Over the past five years, Californians have watched the investigation and prosecution of a vast range of foreign national trafficking rings that are making millions of dollars by exploiting vulnerable people from foreign countries in our communities.

Five foreign national rings operating out of the Inland Empire, were so large they had over 50 different bank accounts and were buying and selling real estate to launder the money back to their homeland. The sex selling taking place is advertised online and the sex buying is conducted through a telemarketing center. One of these rings, placed more than 20,000 sex ads online and the victims were naïve and innocent immigrants who came into the U.S. legally but were exploited in ways hard to comprehend. Most were so afraid they would not cooperate. Most victims were in debt bondage and owed their captors money even after thousands of exploitative sexual encounters.

The increase in the number of undocumented individuals entering our communities has resulted in several large scale foreign national rings operating in the Inland Empire. We will look at the Paredes case study operating out of Colton, California where many unaccompanied young girls from Mexico were being trafficked in Southern California for the purpose of laundering the money back to organized criminal enterprises south of the border. This ring was led by a family Matriarch.