Man forced women to strip to pay off smuggling debts

A Cuban national living in Palm Beach County is facing up to 60 years in prison for transporting three women into the U.S. from his home country and then forcing them to dance in local strip clubs to pay off their smuggling debts, federal authorities said.

Ivan Madrigal Zamora, 47, pleaded guilty to federal charges that included forced labor trafficking and inducing an illegal alien to live in the U.S., prosecutors announced Wednesday.

Human trafficking has been an ongoing issue in Florida. Of the more than 38,000 cases reported to the National Human Trafficking Hotline since 2007 that were assessed as “high” probability of actual trafficking, more than 4,500 came from Florida.

According to court records, Zamora left Cuba with a woman in February 2016 and later entered the U.S. through Mexico by claiming asylum.

They made their way to Palm Beach County, where Zamora put the woman to work in strip clubs to pay him a smuggling debt of over $10,000, government attorneys said.

Zamora was also accused of using fake identification to smuggle a second woman from Cuba to Florida, via Mexico, and also forcing her to work in strip clubs to pay him a $26,000 smuggling debt.

A third woman was smuggled from Cuba in early 2017 by wiring money to smugglers throughout Central America but when she arrived at the Mexico-Texas border, she was arrested and detained for more than two months.

Zamora posted bond for her release and flew that woman to Palm Beach County in July 2017. Like the others, he ordered the woman to work in strip clubs to pay him a $26,000 smuggling debt, but three weeks later she was able to escape and call 911, according to authorities.

During the course of the alien smuggling and forced labor trafficking, Zamora beat the three women and verbally threatened them and their families, prosecutors said.

Zamora pleaded guilty to the federal charges on Monday and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 11.

To report suspected human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-373-7888.