Mexican authorities announced the rescue of 29 women who were being sex-trafficked at a bar near the beach hotspot of Cancun.
The Quintana Roo Attorney General’s Office revealed that the rescue took place late last week in the resort town of Playa Del Carmen, 42 miles away from Cancun.
The raid took place in the downtown part of Playa Del Carmen when agents with the Attorney General’s Office and members of Mexico’s National Guard raided a local strip club where 29 women were being forced into sexual labor. The women were forced to have sex with bar patrons and tourists for fees ranging from $250 to $550 USD.
At the time of the raid, authorities arrested one suspect, identified as Alejandro N., who is wanted in the state of Chihuahua on sexual abuse charges.
According to authorities, 19 of the women were foreigners who had been lured by an international sex trafficking organization into Mexico with the promise of high-paying jobs, only to have their passports taken away and be forced into sex work under threats. The ten other women were Mexican nationals who had also been lured by traffickers with the promise of high-paying jobs. Investigators claimed that the women were in fear that the international mobsters would harm their loved ones back home.
The foreign women included one from Norway, one from Peru, two from Cuba, six from Venezuela, and nine from Colombia.
The raid comes weeks after authorities rescued 17 other women in a similar raid at two other bars in Playa Del Carmen, Breitbart Texas reported. In that case, the women included 15 from Argentina and two from Mexico.
Playa Del Carmen, like Cancun and the Mayan Riviera, is one of Mexico’s most popular tourist destinations, receiving thousands of U.S. and European visitors weekly. Despite trying to provide an appearance of peace, the region is under the influence of several Mexican drug cartels, as well as various international mafias tied to sex trafficking.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com.
Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.