A man and woman who are reportedly siblings from Venezuela are accused of being involved in a sex trafficking ring operating in New York City and Seattle.
The pair was arrested recently near the University of Washington and are facing sex trafficking conspiracy charges, Fox 13 reported Thursday.
The outlet identified the suspects as Jose Luis Hernandez Perez and Andreina Del Carmen Hernandez. Investigative reporter Katie Daviscourt shared images of the suspects on Thursday along with the complaints in which a witness identified them as siblings:
“Homeland Security agents and police detectives had been tracking former Tren de Aragua members — as well as splinter group ‘Anti-Tren’ members — since October 2024, including Hernandez Perez and Del Carmen Hernandez,” the Fox article said.
The pair were members of the gang known as Espartanos whose leader was Jesus David Barrios Garcia, and the gang sex trafficked women by forcing them into prostitution. Gang members also threatened victims with violence against themselves or their families if they refused to do what they were told.
The woman is accused of making online advertisements for prostitution and keeping track of the money for Barrios Garcia.
It is important to note that during former President Joe Biden’s (D) time in the White House, some poorer migrants turned to prostitution to pay smuggling debts and bills as costs rose in the U.S. economy, Breitbart News reported in November 2024.
In February 2025, President Donald Trump’s administration designated the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang a foreign terrorist organization.
“TdA is a transnational organization that originated in Venezuela with cells in Colombia, Peru, and Chile, with further reports of sporadic presence in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil. This brutal criminal group has conducted kidnappings, extorted businesses, bribed public officials, authorized its members to attack and kill U.S. law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure,” the U.S. State Department’s website read.
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