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A Cuban migrant is among the victims of a human trafficking network dismantled in El Paso, Texas, where a well-known local attorney was arrested for allegedly paying for sexual services from the woman, who was forced into prostitution to settle a debt with the traffickers who brought her into the United States.
According to the American channel KFOX-TV, the lawyer Mario Ortiz Saroldi, 51 years old, allegedly paid $850 for engaging in sexual relations with a Cuban migrant who had entered the country in January 2024.
The medium, affiliated with the Fox Broadcasting Company and based in El Paso, reported that the lawyer was captured on video several times picking up the woman from a home in the east of the city, where she is believed to have been sexually exploited by her captors.
The investigation, conducted over more than a year by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Department of Homeland Security (HSI), and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), led to the dismantling of a human trafficking network with international connections. Nine individuals were arrested on charges related to prostitution, human trafficking, aggravated promotion of prostitution, drug possession, and organized crime, according to documents cited by KFOX-TV and El Paso Times.
The DPS confirmed in an official statement that the network had international reach, operating “from Cuba, through Central America and Mexico, up to the El Paso area.” Authorities determined that, once in the United States, Cuban women were forced into prostitution to pay off the debts to the traffickers who had helped them cross the border.
The newspaper reported that the Cuban victim was kept under constant surveillance and was required to hand over up to $300 daily to her captors, identified as Yasiel Rodríguez-Amaro, 31, and Katherine Ventura-Amaro, 37, both residents of El Paso. Investigators also found bank transactions linking the attorney to Rodríguez-Amaro, confirming the payment of $850.
Furthermore, the media specified that Ortiz Saroldi has been practicing law since 2004 and that the statement from the Texas Department of Public Safety indicates that "he is believed to represent some of those involved" in the network. In the court records, he is listed as the defense attorney for Tamara Batista-Ramírez, one of the suspects also arrested in the operation. Authorities added that Ortiz Saroldi allegedly solicited sexual favors from some of his own clients, which complicates the case due to the possible abuse of his professional position.
Batista-Ramírez was arrested as a suspect of aggravated promotion of prostitution, while Rodríguez-Amaro and Ventura-Amaro face charges of online prostitution promotion, involvement in organized criminal activities, and possession of controlled substances.
Ortiz Saroldi was arrested on October 8 under the charge of solicitation of prostitution. He was released the following day after paying a bail of $7,500, according to court records cited by El Paso Times. Authorities have not specified whether the attorney was aware that the woman was a victim of trafficking.
The investigation remains open, and authorities do not rule out further arrests linked to this network. Meanwhile, the Cuban victim is under the protection of U.S. agencies, awaiting progress in the judicial process against her alleged exploiters.
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