SJ Man Pleads Guilty To Child Sex Trafficking, Exploitation: DOJ

SAN JOSE, CA — A San Jose man pleaded guilty in federal court in San Jose last week to sex trafficking and exploitation of children, U.S. Attorney David L. Anderson and Federal Bureau of Investigation Special Agent in Charge John F. Bennett announced.

A U.S. District Judge accepted the plea.

Ariel Guizar-Cuellar, 38, admitted that from about September of 2014 until January of 2016, he and various co-conspirators operated an unlawful commercial sex venture in San Jose and Santa Clara that sold the sexual services of adult women and at least three minor girls, the Department of Justice reported.

Guizar-Cuellar was considered the primary facilitator, leader, enforcer and financial beneficiary of the unlawful commercial sex venture, recruiting minors through social media networks. He posted pictures of the minors as online advertisements promoting their sexual services on “backpage.com" and transported the minors to various lodging establishments in the San Francisco Bay Area to facilitate their prostitution dates with adult customers, the DOJ outlined.

A federal grand jury indicted Guizar-Cuellar on April 7, 2016, charging him with conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children and sexual exploitation of children. Guizar-Cuellar pleaded guilty to all counts charged in the indictment.

The defendant is currently in federal custody awaiting sentencing. His sentencing hearing is scheduled for Oct. 22, 2019. The maximum statutory penalty for each violation is life in prison with a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years.

The prosecution is the result of an investigation by the FBI, San Jose Police Department and Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Santa Clara County Human Trafficking Task Force.