New Details: El Paso lawyer charged with solicitation of prostitution
Update (November 3, 2025): According to court documents newly obtained by ABC-7, HSI investigators first started looking into the alleged human trafficking investigation in March 2024.
An investigators was looking through a known escort website and found an ad for a Hispanic female listed with a 915-area code phone number.
Over the next month, investigators pieced together more information. They were able to identify the woman in the add as a 21-year-old Cuban migrant who had entered the U.S. on January 27, 2024, and whose immigration paperwork listed an El Paso address.
The investigators say they were next able to connect another victim. The second victim was being advertised in a similar way on the same website. The second victim also had connections with known associates of the first victim. Court documents state that through surveillance, HSI investigators were able to determine that both victims, along with a man who is believed to have facilitated the alleged prostitution, lived together in a house in East El Paso.
While surveilling the house, court documents state that on the evening of May 22, 2024, investigators saw El Paso lawyer Mario Ortiz Saroldi walk up to the house. He left with the second victim a few minutes later, according to court documents. The documents add that the pair drove off and returned about four hours later. Court documents state that the second victim told investigators later that Saroldi allegedly took her to a downtown restaurant, then to a downtown hotel to have intercourse with her. Court documents state that financial records show that Ortiz Saroldi transferred $850 to the man believed to have facilitated the alleged prostitution. The second victim also told investigators that she was obligated to give all money earned to the man, and that she was working to pay off a debt, according to court documents.
From May 22 to May 30, court documents state that Ortiz Saroldi had meetings with the victim on several occasions. On May 27, 2025, court documents state that Ortiz Saroldi had a meeting with both victims.
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.
