Four Queens-based sex traffickers sentenced

U.S. District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall has a distinguished legal career in commercial litigation and public service. Brooklyn Eagle photo by Robert Abruzzese.

QUEENS — Blanca Hernandez Morales was sentenced in Brooklyn federal court to 35 years for sex trafficking minors using force, fraud and coercion, among other crimes.

In addition to the term of imprisonment, United States District Judge LaShann DeArcy Hall ordered Hernandez Morales to pay restitution of $179,300.

Hernandez Morales was the last of four co-defendants who went to trial in October 2023 on various charges, including sex trafficking, to be sentenced. Her co-defendants and family members, Roberto Cesar Cid Dominguez, Luz Cardona and Jose Facundo Zarate Morales, were each previously sentenced to 375 months, 325 months and 300 months, respectively.

United States Attorney for the Eastern District of New York Joseph Nocella Jr., FBI New York Field Office Assistant Director in Charge James C. Barnacle Jr. and Homeland Security Investigations New York Acting Special Agent in Charge Michael Alfonso announced the sentences.

Nocella also expressed his appreciation to the New York City Police Department and the Putnam County Sheriff’s Office for their work on the case.

“This family orchestrated an international sex trafficking operation to route vulnerable victims, including minors, from Mexico into the United States to commit sexual acts,” stated Barnacle. “For more than a decade, these defendants lured young girls across the border with the enticement of the American dream before ensnaring them into a life of sexual servitude.”

“No person should ever be exposed to the dehumanizing atrocities these victims suffered at the hands of their own common-law and blood relatives,” Alfonso added. “HSI New York will never forget the strength of those who bravely came forward, and we owe the successful resolution of this case to their courage and willingness to speak out.”

As proven at trial, since approximately 2002, the defendants, all related by blood or common-law marriage, participated in a sex-trafficking organization called the Cid-Hernandez Sex Trafficking Organization.

They used force, threats of force, fraud and coercion to cause young women and minor girls from Mexico to engage in prostitution in the United States.

Members of the organization pressured the victims, including two minor victims, to travel to the United States with false promises of employment and a better life. When the young girls arrived in New York, the defendants forced them to work in prostitution.

During the trial, one victim testified that she was 15 years old and living in Mexico in 2007 when Cardona, her aunt, offered to pay travel expenses to New York City, where the teen could work as a cleaner.

The victim did not know that Cardona, along with her partner Zarate Morales, his mother Hernandez Morales and her partner Cid Dominguez, were operating a prostitution business.

After the victim arrived in Queens, Cardona and Zarate Morales brokered a deal with a client to sell the victim’s virginity. Thereafter, the teenage victim was forced to engage in commercial sex with 20 or more men daily.

Although the Cid-Hernandez Sex Trafficking Organization was based in Queens, young women and minor girls were transported to clients throughout New York State and Connecticut.

The organization controlled “routes,” made up of contact lists of potential clients in specific areas and drivers employed by the organization.

Cid Dominguez also bribed Brewster Police Officer Wayne Peiffer with free sexual services to ensure the organization’s protection from law enforcement in his jurisdiction. Peiffer pleaded guilty in April 2022 to conspiracy to commit Hobbs Act extortion and was sentenced to 36 months in custody.

The government’s case is being handled by the Human Trafficking and Civil Rights Section of Nocella’s office. Assistant United States Attorneys Rachel A. Bennek and Nicholas Moscow are in charge of the prosecution.