If the 33-year-old outlives his 50-year prison sentence, he will be deported back to his home country of Mexico.
Mendez, who raped and beat teens and forced them into prostitution, was prosecuted in federal court, his case the launch of a campaign by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Memphis and federal agents to crack down on human sex traffickers.
Memphis is now considered a model nationally for its initiative to maximize prison stints for sex traffickers, said U.S. Atty. Ed Stanton.
Stanton, a Memphis native who took over the office in 2010, created a Civil Rights Unit, which encompasses human trafficking, in February. He has assigned three prosecutors to the unit, and has vowed to aggressively target traffickers.
"Human trafficking is nothing more than modern-day slavery. The victims often are some of our most vulnerable," Stanton said during an interview at his office Friday.
"There's no question it's a priority for this district and this office."
Veteran prosecutor Steve Parker, who heads Memphis' Civil Rights Unit, has been selected to train fledgling agents how to spot and investigate human trafficking at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va. He and local FBI Special Agent Tracey Harris also have trained prosecutors and police in Guam and Saipan.
Traffickers frequently target girls and women from poor families or those who were sexually abused, runaways, and minors in the state foster-care system. They advertise on the Internet and take the women and girls to truck stops and major sporting events.
Mendez used his girlfriend, Cristina Andres Perfecto, who also pleaded guilty to sex trafficking, to recruit girls as young as 12 from poor Mexican villages, promising them legitimate jobs in the United States so they could send money back home.
Instead, he would take the girls back and forth from Memphis and Nashville and to other areas of the South to brothels. One girl, age 14, thought she would be working as a waitress. Instead, she was forced to have sex with 40 men her first day, Parker said.
At the state level, Mendez likely would have faced 15 to 30 years and then could have shaved years off his sentence with good behavior behind bars. In contrast, federal prison sentences are often served day-for-day, said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Jeremy Baker.
"It's a high-priority issue right now with the FBI and Department of Justice overall," said Baker, who oversees the Memphis division's Public Corruption/Civil Rights Squad. "And that involves investigating and trying to make the public more aware to develop leads and better assist victims."
Baker also supervises a Civil Rights Task Force which includes members of the Shelby County Sheriff's Office.
The FBI teamed with Memphis police and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents on Oct. 13, 2006, to raid six Memphis brothels in a single day, netting Mendez and several others who have been sent to federal prison for trafficking.
Other Memphis cases have involved local women and minors.
"This is not only people being brought in from across the border," Baker said. "This also is happening in neighborhoods."
On Monday, Mitchell Lamont Chest was sentenced to 15 years and eight months in a federal prison for forcing an Illinois teenager into prostitution in Chicago and later in Memphis.
Convicted trafficker Leonard Augusta Fox, 43, is serving 25 years in a federal prison for recruiting Memphis girls ages 13-17 and forcing them into prostitution at apartment complexes and Tunica gaming hotels.
Memphis native Terrence Arnett Yarbrough is awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.
Prosecutors say he reigned over a dozen teens and women with intimidation and extreme violence. Yarbrough branded four victims with his nickname, "T-Rex"; knocked out a teen's front teeth and chopped her hair off with a knife; poured bleach on a woman before burning her with an iron and beating her with a padlock; and smashed another woman's head into a car before stripping skin off of her back, according to the federal charges against him.
Memphian Charles Kizer, 52, is scheduled to go on trial in federal court in September on sex-trafficking charges.
An 18-year-old told investigators she met Kizer in Knoxville and thought he was going to give her drugs.
Instead he kidnapped her and brought her to Memphis where he forced her into prostitution, the federal charges allege. He is accused of keeping a hatchet under his car seat and threatening to chop her head off if she didn't cooperate.
If convicted, Kizer and Yarbrough would each face a sentence of 15 years to life in prison.
-- Beth Warren: (901) 529-2383
Source: /www.commercialappeal.com
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