HOUSTON — A mother and son who operated a sex trafficking ring out of a Houston-area cantina were sentenced to federal prison Oct. 8 following an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Houston, the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission, the Houston Police Department and the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance.
Maria Botello-Morales, a 57-year-old unlawfully present Mexican national, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas to 280 months in federal prison for sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; and sex trafficking of minors. Botello-Morales will also be required to register as a sex offender. Following her release from prison, Botello-Morales is expected to face removal proceedings.
Edgar Adrian Botello, a 31-year-old Houston resident and Botello-Morales’ son, was sentenced to 180 months in federal prison immediately followed by 15 years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking; sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion; and possession of child pornography. He will also be required to register as a sex offender. While on supervised release, Botello will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet.
Botello-Morales and Botello both pleaded guilty to the charges in 2023. Restitution for their victims will be determined at a later date.
“Driven exclusively by greed, these individuals preyed on the innocence and desperation of marginalized and vulnerable communities such as minors and migrants to force them to engage in commercial sex,” said HSI Houston acting Special Agent in Charge Robert Kurtz. “To maintain control and ensure their victims complied with every demand, they used physical abuse, threats of harm and psychological manipulation. HSI Houston is committed to bringing the full weight of our resources and personnel to confront atrocities like this to help victims restore their lives and ensure that the criminals responsible for this exploitation are held accountable.”
Botello-Morales ran Puerto Algre with Botello and others from 2015 to 2020. Puerto Algre was a cantina where numerous females were forced to engage in commercial sex in backrooms built specifically for that purpose. Botello-Morales, Botello and others threatened and intimidated these victims with violence to manipulate them into engaging in commercial sex for their own financial benefits.
The victims reported they started at the bar as waitresses. However, Botello-Morales soon told them they had to engage in commercial sex. If they refused, she threatened them with violence.
Some witnessed violence and weapons at the bar and in the back area where the sex acts occurred. Each described how they had to take customers to the backrooms through a door and hidden from view of the bar. They were given a condom wrapped in a paper towel, were to spend no more than 15 minutes in the room and charge approximately $70. On the way out, they had to turn the money over to whoever was guarding the room.
During the investigation, one victim also explained when she refused to come to work, Botello-Morales sent someone to physically assault her.
The victims explained that Botello, who regularly carried a weapon, was the enforcer. He would also pass out the condoms and collect the money. During the execution of a search warrant at the home Botello-Morales and Botello shared, law enforcement found several loaded firearms in his room along with a computer containing child sexual abuse material.
Two other individuals were also involved in the conspiracy but have yet to be sentenced. Botello-Morales’ nephew, Arian Botello, 26, was convicted of multiple sex trafficking-related crimes for his role in the conspiracy and is scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 16. Esteban Toribio, a 65-year-old Houston resident who held the liquor license for the cantina, pleaded guilty to misprision of a felony on June 17.
Both Botello-Morales and Botello will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Sherri L. Zack prosecuted the case.
For more news and information on HSI’s efforts to aggressively investigate human trafficking and child exploitation in Southeast Texas follow us on X, formerly known as Twitter, at @HSIHouston.