NYC family convicted of running sex trafficking ring using ‘threats of force, fraud and coercion,’ bribing cop with sexual favors

The Queens family that allegedly operated a years-long sex trafficking ring involving young women and girls from Mexico — and bribed an upstate cop to cover up their horrific offenses in exchange for sexual favors — was found guilty this week, federal officials said. 

Luz Elvira Cardona, 35, her partner Jose Facundo Zarate Morales, 34, as well as her mother Blanca Hernandez Morales, 53, and the older woman’s partner, Roberto Cesar Cid Dominguez, 60, were all found guilty Thursday after a four-week jury trial in Brooklyn Federal Court.

During the sick scheme, Cardona even paid for her 15-year-old niece — who lived in Mexico — to come to New York back in 2007 under the pretense that she could start working as a cleaner, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York. 

But once the teen arrived in Queens, her aunt, along with Morales, brokered a deal with a client to sell her virginity.

She was then forced to engage in “commercial sex” with 20 or more men daily, officials said. 

The family’s nefarious plot began in 2002 when they pressured young women and girls – including one other minor besides Cardona’s niece – to come to the US with false promises of a better life, and work lined up for them, the jury heard.

Instead, they “used force, threats of force, fraud and coercion” to pressure their victims to engage in prostitution, prosecutors said. 

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The sex trafficking organization was based in Queens, but the young victims were transported to prostitution clients throughout New York State and Connecticut, officials said. 

A jury found the defendants guilty of transportation of minors, sex trafficking, conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion, promotion of prostitution, use of interstate facilities to commit bribery and related conspiracy counts.

When sentenced, they each could spend life in prison, except for Cid Dominguez, who faces up to 40 years behind bars. 

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Dominguez also allegedly bribed Village of Brewster Police Officer Wayne Peiffer with free sexual services in exchange for his efforts to shield the organization from arrests, according to prosecutors.

Peiffer’s efforts, in part, included giving the illegal ring advance warning of law enforcement operations.

In exchange, Peiffer directed the ring to provide him with women so he could engage in sex acts with them — sometimes even at his police station, the US Attorney’s Office said.

He pleaded guilty in April 2022 to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion and conspiracy to commit bribery.  

Peiffer is currently awaiting sentencing.

“Today’s verdict is a milestone in the dismantling of a sex trafficking organization that exploited young women and minors, it is justice for the vulnerable victims who suffered so much pain and suffering, and it is a reckoning for the perpetrators who will soon learn the consequences for their deplorable crimes,” US Attorney Breon Peace said in a Thursday statement.

“It is my hope that the convictions bring some measure of solace to the victims on their paths to healing.”