Houston gang leader William Alberto Lopez faces at least 15 years in prison after pleading guilty to sex trafficking several women from Central America. At the same time, Illinois state lawmakers plan to introduce legislation this week that would make it the first state to decriminalize sex work fully. This significant move would allow victims of sex trafficking, like those trafficked by Lopez, to be able to report crimes against them without fear of consequences.

A brutal operation unveiled

The trafficking operation spanned several locations, including apartments and properties in Houston, where the women were housed and exploited. As reported by Houston Landing, Lopez, along with his mother, Maria, and his four brothers, operated brothers in the Gulfton area of Houston using threats, abuse, and coercion to control their victims. Lopez reportedly played a central role in arranging for syndicates to traffic at least four women into the U.S. between 2010 and 2017.

One woman was told that she could pay off a $4500 entry fee by working at his mother’s restaurants; however, when the woman arrived in Houston, she was told there was no restaurant and that she would have to pay off her debt by having sex with men.

According to the plea agreement,

Forced into sex work, the woman was repeatedly abused and threatened by Lopez, who acted as her pimp[…] She was also forced by Lopez to tattoo his initials on her body. Another woman was also forced by Lopez to tattoo his initials on her neck and thigh while working at a brothel he operated in Cancun, Mexico, in 2016, the agreement says.

The second woman was able to escape from the Cancun brothel but was forced into sex work a second time. At times, she refused to prostitute herself to pay off the $9,000. Those refusals were met by threats from Lopez that he would harm her son and family in Nicaragua if she didn’t do as she was told. Lopez also told the woman that she owed him an additional $20,000 for fleeing from the Cancun brothel. 

The plea agreement details how the women endured physical and emotional abuse, with some being branded with Lopez’s initials to signify ownership. A third woman, after escaping a brothel in Cancun, was forcibly returned to sex work in Houston under threats to harm her son and family. Another was coerced into cosmetic surgery because Lopez deemed she was not earning enough. A fourth woman was threatened with deportation without her American-born child if she refused to comply.

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