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A jury from Palm Beach County, Florida, found Geisy Rodríguez Brito, 33 years old and a resident of Royal Palm Beach, guilty of human trafficking for illegally transporting a Cuban woman to the United States and subjecting her to sexual exploitation through threats, surveillance, and confiscation of documents.
The verdict was announced on Wednesday by the state attorney of the 15th Judicial Circuit, Alexcia Cox, following a trial held last week in which evidence showed that Rodríguez Brito manipulated, intimidated, and restricted the freedom of the 27-year-old victim for his own financial gain.
The jury found her guilty of human trafficking and the illegal use of a two-way communication device, although she was acquitted of charges related to profiting from prostitution and witness tampering.
According to the evidence presented, Rodríguez Brito assisted in transporting the victim from Cuba to the United States in October 2022, along with a co-defendant identified as Leonel Harari, for tens of thousands of dollars.
Once in Palm Beach County, she was forced to work in adult entertainment clubs in the center of the county and to engage in sexual acts with clients to pay off a debt that, as the victim herself stated during the trial, never decreased no matter how much she paid.
Rodríguez Brito confiscated the victim’s Cuban passport and other important documents to limit her ability to escape, and he threatened to report her to immigration authorities if she did not comply with his demands.
The victim also found photographs in her mailbox indicating that she was being followed.
To monitor his movements covertly, Rodríguez Brito went as far as to sew a tracking device into the victim's clothing, the prosecution revealed.
The victim initially hesitated to go to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office due to concerns about her immigration status, but authorities assured her that she would not be deported for reporting the incident.
Rodríguez Brito was arrested in 2023 following an investigation by the Sheriff’s Office. Her co-defendant, Leonel Harari, pleaded guilty in June of last year to human trafficking and deriving benefits from prostitution, and was sentenced to three years of probation and ten days in jail, with credit for time already served.
The case was prosecuted by assistant attorneys Victoria Thacker and Amanda McCabe.
This case follows a documented pattern of networks exploiting Cuban migrants in Florida through a debt system for transportation that charges tens of thousands of dollars for illegal entry into the U.S., and then forces victims to work to pay off a debt that never goes away, using the threat of deportation as a control tool.
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