A Cuban citizen residing in Texas was extradited from Panama to the United States and will appear before a federal court in Houston to face multiple felony charges, including sex trafficking, human smuggling, extortion, and cyberstalking, the Department of Justice announced on Thursday.
According to court documents, Michel Cedeno Castillo (or Cedeño Castillo), 41 years old and residing in the Southern District of Texas, allegedly used threats, violence, and other coercive means to force four Cuban women to engage in commercial sexual acts for profit.
With false promises of lucrative jobs in the U.S., Cedeno Castillo persuaded the four victims to travel from Cuba to Texas. Once on American soil, he transported them within the Southern District of Texas, knowing they had entered the country illegally, and then subjected them to threats of violence, physical abuse, and other coercive methods to force them into prostitution for his economic benefit.
Cedeno Castillo is accused of sex trafficking through force, fraud, or coercion, importing a foreign national for immoral purposes, conspiracy to transport a foreign national to the United States for profit, transportation for prostitution purposes, extortion, and cyber harassment.
If found guilty, he faces a minimum sentence of 15 years in prison and up to life imprisonment, confirmed the Department of Justice.
"The accused was charged with luring vulnerable women from Cuba to the United States with promises of economic stability, only to force them to engage in sexual relations with men in exchange for money for his own benefit," stated Deputy Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Criminal Division of the Department of Justice.
The acting federal prosecutor for the Southern District of Texas, John G. E. Marck, was emphatic: "Cedeno-Castillo allegedly lured women with lies and forced them into prostitution. Every human trafficker attempting to flee the United States should know that we will work with our international partners, exhaust all legal avenues, and take whatever time is necessary to bring them to justice."
Cedeno Castillo was arrested on April 22 at the Tocumen International Airport in Panama, after arriving on a flight from Suriname and heading to Mexico as the final destination.
Panamanian immigration authorities identified him during routine checks due to an outstanding arrest warrant issued in Texas for alleged conspiracy related to sexual trafficking, human trafficking, and other related crimes.
The Suriname-Panama-Mexico route used by the accused is typical of the irregular migration pathways utilized by Cubans to reach the latter country and eventually the U.S., circumventing direct checks.
The case was investigated by the Houston field office of the ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force.
Lucía Cabral De Armas, special agent in charge of the HSI office in Houston, emphasized the significance of the case: "The successful capture and extradition of this alleged human trafficker sends a powerful deterrent message to transnational criminal organizations around the world that are involved in human trafficking."
The investigation and formal charges were supported and processed by the Joint Task Force Alpha (JTFA), a partnership between the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security aimed at combating human trafficking perpetrated by cartels and transnational criminal organizations. To date, the initiative has achieved over 455 international arrests, more than 400 convictions, and over 345 significant prison sentences.
In 2023, three Cubans were sentenced in Houston, Texas, for operating a network that recruited young women in Cuba, illegally bringing them into the country, imposing debts of up to $30,000 on them, and forcing them to work in entertainment clubs under threats and violence.
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