INDIANAPOLIS — A man who pleaded guilty to promoting prostitution in Indianapolis has been sentenced to five years in prison, with three of those years suspended.
Alejandro Santiago was arrested as part of a sex trafficking sting in February 2024. He reached a plea agreement with prosecutors on Thursday, Sept. 26.
Santiago was arrested after IMPD detectives received a tip that that a teenage girl told a neighbor she and four other women were being held and sex trafficked at a house on Eagledale Drive, near 30th Street and the Brickyard Crossing Golf Course.
The women were rescued as part of the raid.
A woman at the house told police she was driven to Indianapolis from Boston for work to help bring her family to the United States. When she got to the house, she says she was forced to have sex with “the boss,” then engage in sex for money.
The money was allegedly collected by Santiago, who police said was running the house.
The woman rescued by police received victim assistance and transportation to the bus station to get back to Boston.
Police did not catch the boss at the house. But detectives believe this operation is the work of the El Tren de Aragua gang based in Venezuela.
What is Tren de Aragua?
The gang started in a prison in Venezuela 20 years ago.
It specializes in human and drug trafficking. The organization has spread to Columbia, Peru and Chile, with other South American countries reporting activity. According to our NBC affiliate in Chicago, agents from this so-called mega gang were showing up there in October 2023.
U.S. border patrol agents have arrested at least 38 members of the gang in six different parts of the United States. Officials say one of the challenges is because the gang is based in Venezuela. The United States doesn't have diplomatic relations with Venezuela, so police in the two countries can't communicate about criminals and gangs.
In July, the Biden administration sanctioned the gang, placing it alongside MS-13 from El Salvador and the Mafia-styled Camorra from Italy on a list of transnational criminal organizations and offering $12 million in rewards for the arrest of three leaders.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott declared Tren de Aragua a Tier 1 threat, directing state police to target the gang and paving the way for stiffer penalties for members. Other states may soon follow suit.
The size of the gang and the extent to which its actions are coordinated across state lines and with leaders believed to be outside the U.S. are unclear.
