Paper game kept east Houston sex-slave ring open How a sex-slave ring kept its doors open

Paper game thwarted efforts to close east Houston compound

This the front of the bar that faces Clinton Drive. Investigators say that for more than 10 years, sex traffickers have used the site to conduct business. Previous efforts to target those behind the establishment have been difficult, mostly because of legal tactics used by the owners. less This the front of the bar that faces Clinton Drive. Investigators say that for more than 10 years, sex traffickers have used the site to conduct business. Previous efforts to target those behind the ... more Photo: Handout Photo Photo: Handout Photo Image 1 of / 6 Caption Close Paper game kept east Houston sex-slave ring open 1 / 6 Back to Gallery

Behind the brick-red cantina on industrial Clinton Drive, in the shadow of the Port of Houston, sex traffickers for more than a decade have sold women and girls for sex, some as young as 14, imprisoned by intimidation and fear.

So notorious is the bar that undercover Texas alcohol investigators long ago documented its seedy intricacies: an escape hatch, a hidden passageway leading to decrepit and gated houses of prostitution described as "horse stalls." Federal, state and local agents learned by name and face many key characters who operated La Costenita and made repeated - but only partially successful efforts - to stop them.

An unexpected break came last year when a trafficking victim dared beg for rescue during an unannounced state inspection of the bar. Last week, federal agents secured the indictment of alleged cantina owner and operator Maria "Nancy" Rojas and nine others, arresting them in a late-night raid on the club and compound and rescuing at least nine women and girls.

It is the third time since 2005 that federal prosecutors have charged alleged operators, owners and pimps linked to those rogue Clinton Drive cantinas. But in the past, the alleged ring members demonstrated an uncanny ability to regenerate their operation and continue trafficking and selling sex in the same locations, records show.

Various members of the ring, identified in the new indictments, have for a dozen years repeatedly used the Clinton Drive cantinas, including the Maria Bonita and La Costenita, to harbor women and girls illegally brought to the United States and sell them - along with paper towels and condoms - to clients in a lucrative cash business, documents allege.

A paper game

To avoid seizures and shutdowns, ring members repeatedly transferred business ownerships or property after past crackdowns, deftly playing a paper game that left some city and state officials frustrated and clamoring for stronger laws targeting people who profit from selling women, men and minors as virtual slaves, according to documents and interviews.

This time around, state, local and federal officers acting together as the Houston Trafficking Rescue Alliance hope the operation is shut down for good. Along with the latest indictments, federal officials filed criminal forfeiture paperwork to seize nine properties, including the Costenita Bar, houses and other proceeds earned by the sex-trafficking ring.

"There's a lot of money to be made," said Assistant United States Attorney Ruben Perez. "That's why they keep rearing their ugly heads. It's very lucrative."

Deep roots in Houston

Victims of human trafficking, often psychologically and physically damaged, typically receive shelter and short-term government assistance after rescues as criminal cases continue. However, some rescued in previous operations drifted away or fled before completing the long, difficult process needed to obtain T-visas reserved for trafficking victims.

Some of the players named in the latest indictments have 20-year roots in Houston. Rojas, 46, a cantina owner identified in last week's indictments of the Clinton Drive trafficking ring, started out as a prostitute in Houston in 1990, Harris County court records show.

That year, Rojas was arrested for prostitution together with Gregoria "Blanca" Salgado Vazquez, now 60, and another illegal immigrant leader in the ring, according to records. Both were deported but illegally returned, bought property and are alleged to be co-conspirators.

For years, Rojas oversaw operations at La Costenita while Vazquez ran other bars and actively imported girls from Mexico to sell as prostitutes, the indictment and other records allege.

Later, the ring turned to another ruthless supplier - Gerardo Salazar Tecuapacho from the Mexican state of Tlaxcala who earned the nickname "El Gallo" by tattooing his girlfriends and victims with his trademark rooster. Salazar, now in his mid 40s, long led a band of traffickers who specialized in conning unsuspecting young women into accompanying them to Houston where despite promises of love, marriage or legitimate jobs, a life of cantina slavery awaited, records allege.

In 2005, one of Salazar's teenage victims called a domestic violence hot line and told rescuers she'd been brutally beaten and sold in Clinton Drive clubs. Agents successfully made cases against five ring members. But neither Rojas or Vazquez, the two women operators, was indicted.

Salazar evaded arrest and fled to Mexico, making the FBI's Most Wanted List. Eventually, an anonymous tip led to his arrest last year in Mexico. He was taken to a state prison though he offered his red Pontiac Trans Am and a house in exchange for his freedom, Mexican documents say. Salazar remains in Mexico as the U.S. seeks his extradition.

Mother, son arrested

But the Clinton Drive cantinas continued, business as usual.

Vazquez and her U.S.-born son, David Salazar, were arrested in 2008 by the Jacinto City police department after another teenage trafficking victim called 911, claiming to be held captive in their house. Her calls, on a borrowed cell phone, prompted manhunts.

Once found, the girl told a Jacinto City detective she also had been forced to prostitute herself in cantinas. Vazquez and David Salazar were prosecuted for harboring an illegal immigrant; their house was seized. But their Clinton Drive cantina, the Maria Bonita, remained open for another year or more.

Bar owners who operate businesses as fronts for organized crime can be shut down, or even lose their property, under various state and federal laws, though the process can be complex. But lawless bar operators employ lookouts and bouncers to thwart agents and use legal tricks to keep operating by changing ownership on deed records or renewing liquor licenses under names borrowed from family or friends.

"It's been hard to stop them," said Mandi Sheridan Kimball, director of public policy and government affairs for the advocacy organization Children at Risk. "People are kind of at a loss for how to prevent it."

65 businesses targeted

The city of Houston in 2009 tried to target the Maria Bonita by using the state's nuisance law, which prohibits a range of crimes including prostitution. Two months later, the city was notified that the bar had changed hands, said Nirja Aiyer, a senior assistant city attorney.

"We all know they're just doing it on paper, but the problem the city has is that you can't go after the new owner and say, 'You're responsible for all the crime at this property,' when they weren't in fact the owner at the time the crimes were committed," she said.

In the past three years, the city has targeted 65 businesses, including cantinas, with a "high likelihood" of being havens for trafficking. So far, 40 have been evicted, closed down voluntarily or sued by the city. City officials shut down at least four sites involved in sex trafficking.

In the months before the latest indictments, new witnesses came forward with horrifying stories of abuse: One told of being repeatedly struck and having a gun placed to her abdomen while pregnant; her life and the lives of family were threatened if she refused to engage in prostitution. Other girls, including minors supplied with fake IDs, got slapped, hit and kicked often as owner Rojas watched, federal court records say.

None of the victims rescued so far from the Clinton Drive cantinas has received any restitution from arrests or seizures, something activists say they should receive.

"Why can't the victims own the buildings?" asks Dottie Laster, who helped rescue the first victim in 2004. "They were prostituted there."

lise.olsen@chron.com

susan.carroll@chron.com