A federal indictment unsealed in the Middle District of Tennessee charged eight Venezuelan nationals for their roles in recruiting young women from Venezuela and other South and Central American countries, transporting them across the U.S. southern border, and compelling them to engage in commercial sex acts at Nashville-area motels from July 2022 through March 2024. Three defendants face additional sex trafficking conspiracy charges for using force, fraud, and coercion — including invoking ties to the violent Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua — to compel victims into commercial sex acts under a coercive debt scheme.

Read more: Eight Venezuelan Nationals Charged with Offenses Related to their Roles in a Transnational Commercial Sex Enterprise