E. Texas psychiatrist charged with trafficking Indian women for sex, forced labor

TYLER, TX (KLTV) – An East Texas psychiatrist has been arrested and charged in connection with what’s being described as a ‘forced labor conspiracy’ in New York.

Riyaz Mazcuri, was arrested Thursday by the Gregg County Sheriff’s Office and booked in the jail on a federal warrant.

According to documents from the federal court in the Southern District of New York, Mazcuri, known as ‘The Doctor,’ was indicted along with three other men accused of organizing a human trafficking organization.

Mazcuri is a psychiatrist who has practiced in Texas for several years in Houston and most recently at a facility in Kilgore.

Federal court documents state the men would hire female dancers in India under the assumption they would perform cultural programs in the United States. Prosecutors allege when they would get to the U.S., the women would be forced to dance in nightclubs in front of men for twelve to fourteen hours per night, seven nights a week. Some of the performers were reportedly engaged in prostitution. The men would reportedly force the women to perform by confiscating their passports and by threatening them with physical violence.

The group reportedly operated in New York and in other locations from 2008 to 2010.

According to jail records, Mazcuri has a Houston address. He was ordered into the custody of the U.S. Marshals until a detention hearing, scheduled for July 29 in Tyler.

Mazcuri’s attorney, listed as Joel Androphy of Houston, was unable to be reached Friday for comment regarding on his client’s arrest.

Source: Cody Lillich, “E. Texas psychiatrist arrested, accused of trafficking Indian women for forced labor, prostitution,” KLTV-7 (www.kltv.com), July 25, 2014. 

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Bogota psychologist Elsy Marina de Guadalupe Perez sentenced in baby-selling scam

A doctor and a psychologist were sentenced to nine years and six months in prison for selling babies in Bogota, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo reported Friday.

Doctor Erber Jose Ochoa and psychologist Elsy Marina de Guadalupe Perez accepted the charges of trafficking and conspiracy in a plea bargain with the prosecution. In addition to almost a decade of jail time they will pay a fine of 533 times the monthly minimum wage.

Adenis Delgado Aguirre, who was also involved in the criminal scheme, was sentenced to seven years and five months in prison and will pay 433 times the monthly minimum wage.

The three worked at a Bogota health clinic called Ecomarly which apparently urged women to keep their babies instead of aborting them in order to sell the infants on. Investigations also concluded that they had told women that their babies had died in childbirth and then trafficked the newborns.

The trio, who were arrested eight months ago, were implicated in recordings of their conversations in which they offered babies for sale.

Source: Hannah Aronowitz, “Doctors convicted of Bogota baby trafficking,” Columbia Reports, March 4, 2011.