El Paso lawyer charged with solicitation of prostitution
EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Officials say El Paso lawyer Mario Ortiz Saroldi is charged with solicitation of prostitution. Texas DPS and Homeland Security arrested several people, including Ortiz Saroldi, as part of a year-long human trafficking investigation.
Investigators have worked for the last year to uncover an international network of human smugglers and traffickers spanning from Cuba, through Central America and Mexico, into the Borderland. DPS officials say that female victims from Cuba were forced into prostitution once they arrived in the U.S. The money they earned from prostitution was used to pay off the smugglers who brought them into the U.S., DPS officials say.
"Different co-conspirators were responsible for advertising victims online and transporting them to distinct locations throughout El Paso to engage in prostitution," a Texas DPS official explained.
DPS's Criminal Investigations Division arrested nine people for a variety of charges, including prostitution, aggravated promotion of prostitution, online promotion of prostitution, possession of a controlled substance, alien inadmissibility, solicitation of prostitution, and engaging in organized criminal activity. Those nine people have not yet been publicly identified because the investigation is still ongoing.
"Some of the individuals accused of prostitution in this case were being represented in court by Mario Ortiz Saroldi, 38, of El Paso," the Texas DPS spokesperson explained. "Through further investigation, law enforcement determined that Ortiz Saroldi had solicited some those clients for sexual acts. He was arrested and charged with solicitation of prostitution and booked into the El Paso Co. Jail."
Yasiel Rodriguez-Amaro, 31, and Katherine Ventura-Amaro, 37, both El Paso residents, were also arrested. The pair were charged with aggravated promotion of prostitution, online promotion of prostitution and possession of controlled substance and booked into jail.
