By: Richard L. Smith
U.S. Attorney Philip Sellinger reported that a husband and wife from Passaic County have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a sex trafficking scheme.
According to federal officials, Enna Gonzalez, 58, of Paterson was sentenced on July 6, 2023, by U.S. District Judge Madeline Cox Arleo to four years in prison and five years of supervised release.
Gonzalez previously pleaded guilty to an indictment charging her with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.
Gonzalez husband, Jean Noriega, 52, of Paterson, was sentenced June 14, 2023, to 20 years in prison and five years of supervised release.
U.S. Attorney Sellinger said Noriega previously pleaded guilty to an indictment charging him with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and the sex trafficking of six different victims.
Judge Arleo imposed the sentences in Newark federal court.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
From 2016 through 2017, Noriega coerced multiple women to engage in commercial sex acts in New Jersey and New York.
Noriega used violence, threats of violence, threats of drug withdrawal, and other means, to compel the victims to engage in commercial sex for his profit, including after his incarceration in New York on unrelated charges in 2017.
Gonzalez helped Noriega control the victims through various means, including, collecting the proceeds of the commercial sex acts.
She also carried out Noriega’s sex trafficking activities while Noriega was incarcerated.