Eight Members of US-Mexico Sex Trafficking Network Indicted

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Eight alleged members of a sex trafficking ring were indicted for abducting girls from Mexico and selling them in the United States, the US Department of Justice stated in a press release.

"These defendants used force, fraud and coercion to lure young women and girls into their control, smuggle them into the United States, and exploit them for profit," the release said on Friday.

The indictment alleges that the eight defendants, residents of both the United States and Mexico, were members of the Rendon-Reyes Trafficking Organization that engaged in trading Mexican girls for sex from 2004 to 2014 in New York, Georgia, Alabama and other US states, according to the release.

Since 2009, the release added, US and Mexican law enforcement have collaborated on a bilateral initiative to dismantle human trafficking networks operating across the US-Mexican border.

The relationship between the United States and Mexico has been tested by a charged political debate over immigration, including calls by presidential candidate Donald Trump to deport millions of illegal immigrants, claiming they fuel crime in the United States.