A Venezuelan man living in the United States without legal status has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for his role in a trafficking operation that prosecutors say forced migrant women into prostitution across Chicago and its suburbs. The case came to light in January 2024 when Chicago police officers rescued two Venezuelan women after one of their captors brought them to a West Side hospital for medical treatment.
The women, ages 20 and 22, told investigators they arrived in the United States in October 2023 with the help of a man they knew as Victor. Once here, they said, he forced them into prostitution to repay an alleged “debt,” keeping all of the money paid by clients.
According to prosecutors, the women escaped from Victor near the end of 2023 and fled to a hotel in Elgin. They encountered another man at the hotel, identified as Yession, who offered them protection from Victor if they worked for him.
Instead of finding protection from Yession, the women found themselves being held at gunpoint when he and three other men arrived at their hotel room with firearms. The group took the victims’ phones, told them they owed money, and forced them into separate vehicles, prosecutors said.
Both women were ultimately taken to the same location, a residence in the 5000 block of West Gladys Avenue in the Austin neighborhood.
Inside the home, prosecutors said 24-year-old Wilson Albeiro Vasquez Roman held the women at gunpoint, and multiple men, including Vasquez Roman, told the victims they would be sent out of state to work as prostitutes. At one point, Vasquez Roman allegedly racked the slide of a firearm to threaten one of the women.
On the second day of their captivity in Austin, one of the victims required medical attention, so Vasquez Roman drove both victims to Loretto Hospital. While the woman needing treatment was being examined, she disclosed her situation to a hospital employee. Staff members contacted CPD.
Officers took Vasquez Roman into custody at the hospital. Prosecutors said he admitted to participating in the trafficking operation for about a month, telling investigators that he and others transported women to and from hotels and that he believed they were being prostituted.
Court records show Vasquez Roman has resolved the case by pleading guilty to two counts of kidnapping by force or threat and two counts of involuntary servitude by threat of physical harm. Judge Steven Watkins sentenced him to concurrent prison terms of 10 years for the involuntary servitude convictions and 7 years for the kidnapping charges.
