Couple arrested for smuggling Hispanic women for prostitution

Vicenta Polanco and Luis Ariel Escalante arrested.

They claim that Hispanic women were smuggled.

They offered them work from Cuba.

«BEHIND BARS AT LAST! A Cuban couple, Vicenta Polanco and Luis Ariel Escalante, utilized their trip to Cuba to smuggle Hispanic women.

In their attempt to recruit women, they ended up offering them jobs as exotic dancers in the United States.

However, once in Miami Dade, Florida, the victims were coerced and threatened into performing the ‘worst’. What happened to the victims?»

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VICENTA POLANCO AND LUIS ARIEL ESCALANTE DID ‘THE WORST’ AGAINST HISPANIC WOMEN

Photo: Shutterstock

A Cuban couple remains behind bars for serious human trafficking offenses after two women accused them of illegally bringing them into the United States for prostitution.

According to court documents, the initial contact between Vicenta Polanco, 30, and Luis Ariel Escalante, 24, and the accusers occurred in Cuba during what was purportedly a vacation for the couple.

While on the island, Polanco and her partner allegedly offered the two victims, whose ages and names were not disclosed by authorities, jobs as exotic dancers.

The arrangement was straightforward: the couple would pay a smuggler to help them cross the southern border, and upon arrival, the women would work for them as dancers.

What was their modus operandi like?

Photo Shutterstock

Upon their arrival in Miami Dade, Florida, the situation took a turn. Both women were stripped of their passports under the guise of handing them over to an immigration lawyer to process their legal status.

The couple informed the immigrants that the dancing jobs were canceled and that they would now be engaged in prostitution.

The Hispanic women informed authorities during the interrogation that they were forced to attend to between four and five men each day of the week.

According to the arrest warrant, Polanco and her partner took suggestive photos of the victims and placed some advertisements.

They charged for them!

Photo: MundoNOW Archive

He was the one who received payment for the services, and both of them accompanied the women to their appointments when they were in other locations far from Miami Dade.

On Monday, April 29th, one of the immigrants decided to confront the couple and demanded their passports. Her compatriot joined the discussion, but they did not receive a satisfactory response.

Neither of the two would be free until they paid off a debt of between $10,000 and $12,000, as stated in the police report.

Due to the couple’s refusal to return their documents, the immigrants decided to report them to the authorities via telephone.

What did the authorities find?

Luis Escalante and Vicenta Polanco brought two Cuban women to Florida with the false promise of getting them jobs as exotic dancers, when in reality they wanted to prostitute them. https://t.co/XHHtD9kNb3

— Local 10 Spanish (@Local10Espanol) May 1, 2024

Hours later, agents executed a search warrant at the defendants’ apartment located at 811 NW 43rd Avenue in Miami Dade.

During the search, agents seized $9,000 in cash, approximately 8 phones, 3 laptops, 2 iPads, and a white envelope with dollars and the name of one of the victims written on the outside.

The arrest of Luis Ariel Escalante and Vicenta Polanco was carried out on Monday, April 29th, with both facing charges related to human trafficking.

These charges included compelling sexual activities, deriving support from prostitution proceeds, among others. They were denied bail at their initial court appearance.