Woman in country illegally ran prostitution ring at South Carolina home, feds say
A woman living in the country illegally is accused of operating a prostitution business in South Carolina, officials say.
Maria Antonia Zavaleta-Perez, 40, took women to meet with clients, who would sometimes come to her home for sex, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said in a criminal complaint filed Monday.
The house is in Goose Creek, near a high school and roughly 19 miles northwest of Charleston.
Two women visiting the home said they were in the United States illegally, according to the court document. One of them told immigration officials that she was doing the sex acts willingly.
During their investigation, officials learned Zavaleta-Perez or co-conspirators transported women back and forth from North Carolina for prostitution, according to ICE.
“The girls come from Atlanta, Charlotte, Virginia, Florida, Maryland, and New York,” the agency said.
In South Carolina, one woman said she paid up to $800 each month to live at Zavaleta-Perez’s home, the criminal complaint said.
There, agents seized about 100 condoms and “several bottles of personal lubricant gel,” according to the document.
Officials say there’s “probable cause” that Zavaleta-Perez “was involved in the transportation of females across state lines for the purpose of prostitution... and harboring illegal aliens.”
Zavaleta-Perez was arrested last week and is facing a charge of federal illegal entry, records show.
She was was being held Friday in the Charleston County jail, according to the records.
