Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Lourdes Suero, 46, of Biddeford, Maine, was sentenced today by U.S. District Court Judge Nancy Torresen to five months in prison and three years of supervised release for using a facility of interstate commerce to promote prostitution. After completing her prison sentence, Suero must serve up to five months of home confinement as a condition of supervised release. She pleaded guilty on March 18, 2019.

Court records reveal that on April 22, 2017, Suero went to a motel in Scarborough, Maine, where she met up with her adult son, Isaac Suero, and the female victim, who was 15 years old.  The defendant booked a room at the motel for the evening of April 22, exchanged telephone numbers with the victim, and left the victim in the rented motel room. The defendant and the victim later texted about the victim’s prostitution activities, with the defendant agreeing to drive the victim to meet with a client. The victim engaged in multiple commercial sex acts while she was staying in the room the defendant rented, and ultimately left the motel on her own the following day. The defendant’s son, Isaac Suero, was sentenced in a related case in June to nine years in prison for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor. Records in that case show that in the days before Isaac Suero and the female victim met with the defendant in Scarborough, Isaac Suero was trafficking the victim in the Bangor area.

The District of Maine is one of six districts designated through a competitive, nationwide selection process as a Phase II Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam), through the interagency ACTeam Initiative of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor. ACTeams focus on developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion through interagency collaboration among federal prosecutors and federal investigative agencies.

The Southern Maine Gang Task Force—comprised of investigators from the FBI; the Portland, South Portland and Lewiston Police Departments; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration—investigated the case. The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office also provided assistance.

Portland, Maine:  United States Attorney Halsey B. Frank announced that Isaac Suero, 23, of Biddeford, Maine, was sentenced yesterday in U.S. District Court by Judge Nancy Torresen to nine years in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor.  Suero also was ordered to pay $750 in restitution to the victim of the offense.  Suero pleaded guilty on January 16, 2019.

Court records reveal that on April 19, 2017, Suero and the victim, who was 15 years old at the time, connected online.  Thereafter, Suero and three others picked the victim up at a Hannaford store and drove her to a private residence in the Bangor area.  While there, there was a discussion about prostitution, and it was suggested that the victim, who had no money, would engage in prostitution with Suero’s assistance and give him a portion of the money.  Suero paid for a hotel room in Bangor for the victim and another adult female, and between April 20 and 22, the 15-year-old victim engaged in multiple commercial sex acts, giving a portion of the proceeds to Suero.  On April 22, Suero paid an associate to drive him and the victim from Bangor to a motel in Scarborough, Maine, where Suero introduced the victim to his mother, Lourdes Suero.  Isaac Suero left the victim at the motel with his mother, and the victim continued to engage in commercial sex acts in the Scarborough area.  Lourdes Suero pleaded guilty in March to using a facility of interstate commerce with the intent to promote prostitution and is scheduled to be sentenced in August.

The District of Maine is one of six districts designated through a competitive, nationwide selection process as a Phase II Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team (ACTeam), through the interagency ACTeam Initiative of the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security and Labor. ACTeams focus on developing high-impact human trafficking investigations and prosecutions involving forced labor, international sex trafficking and sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion through interagency collaboration among federal prosecutors and federal investigative agencies.

This case was investigated by the Southern Maine Gang Task Force, which is comprised of investigators from the FBI; the Portland, South Portland and Lewiston Police Departments; the York County Sheriff’s Office; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.   The Androscoggin County Sheriff’s Office and District Attorney’s Office also provided assistance.