Authorities have charged members of a Mexican family with smuggling women as young as 13 into the United States to work as sex slaves. The women were transported across the border at Brownsville, Texas. Although some women knew they would have to work off a $2,000 smuggling fee in brothels as prostitutes, most were unaware. The women were then moved to Florida, where some were locked in windowless rooms.
The brothels opened in 1996, and catered to Hispanic immigrants.