Nine Venezuelan nationals have pleaded guilty for their roles in a family-run sex trafficking ring that exploited vulnerable women by luring them to the U.S. with promises of jobs before forcing them into prostitution in the Nashville area.

The Department of Justice announced on Thursday, July 16, 2026, that members of the organization recruited women in Venezuela, arranged for their smuggling into the United States, and transported them to Nashville. Once there, prosecutors said the victims were told they owed inflated smuggling debts that could only be repaid through commercial sex acts. Women who refused were threatened with violence against themselves and relatives still living in Venezuela.

Prosecutors also stated that traffickers took a share of the women's earnings while collecting on these debts. Authorities identified Yilibeth Carmen Rivero-de Caldera and her son, Kleiver Daniel Mota Rivero, as the leaders of the operation, enlisting relatives and associates to help run the scheme. Investigators reported that Rivero, Mota, and co-defendant Ramon De Jesus Velasquez Martinez used firearms and threats of violence to intimidate victims.

Court documents identified a Super 8 motel in Nashville as one of the locations where the trafficking ring operated.

Officials emphasized the dangerous convergence of exploitation and lawlessness represented by human smuggling and trafficking operations. "These perpetrators profited off human suffering while chipping away at the integrity of our border. These convictions show that protecting vulnerable individuals and securing our border are not competing goals," a DOJ statement said.

Sources

Reported by Brittany Miller, Fox News Digital breaking news writer and Syracuse University graduate.