2 plead guilty in human trafficking case; judge orders men deported
Published 3:20 pm Tuesday, July 17, 2018
- Star Photo/Abby Morris-Frye Robelio Flores Rivera, at left, and Adan Vasquez Rodriguez, at right, entered guilty pleas in connection with an investigation into human trafficking by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. The pair are shown here during a previous court appearance.
Two men entered guilty pleas on Monday in connection with a 2017 investigation by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation into human trafficking.
Adan Orlando Vasquez Rodriguez, 35, and Robelio Enrique Flores Rivera, 27, both of Elizabethton, each entered a guilty plea to a charge of aggravated statutory rape. Criminal Court Judge Stacy Street ordered Rivera and Rodriguez to two years in prison and ordered the Carter County Sheriff’s Office to turn over custody of both men to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials on Monday. The judgments for the two men state Rivera and Rodriguez are to be deported by ICE.
As part of the plea agreement, charges of trafficking for a sex act and solicitation of a minor against the two men were dismissed.
The charges against Rodriguez and Rivera stem from an investigation by the TBI’s Human Trafficking Unit in April 2017.
According to a statement released by the TBI following the men’s arrest, the investigation revealed that on April 22, Rivera and Rodriguez made contact with two females, ages 14 and 17, and offered them money in exchange for sex. Court documents allege that the sexual encounters took place and money was exchanged. According to the warrants, both alleged sexual encounters occurred at the Americourt Hotel in Elizabethton where both Rivera and Rodriguez were residing.