PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) – Rhode Island police have arrested a married couple and three others suspected of trafficking women for prostitution.
Providence police say 37-year-old Mairenya Valdez and 35-year-old Milton Estrada, both of Providence, were charged with human trafficking for sexual servitude and other charges.
Three other men were charged with transporting and facilitating females for the purposes of prostitution and conspiracy.
Providence Police Capt. Kevin Lanni says the women from the Dominican Republic and Mexico did not speak English and were “vulnerable to being coerced into that line of work.”
Authorities say they seized $135,000, five vehicles, ledgers and “other evidence that linked them to organized crime.”
A message was left for an attorney for Valdez and Estrada.
