Border Patrol Agent Arrested in Connection With Murders of 4 Women – Erika Peña Escaped The Border Patrol Killer – December 17th 2023 20th Intl Day To End Violence Against Sex Workers

Erika Escaped Border Patrol Killer

As you may have heard, Erika Peña, (mother of a 5 year old daughter) was the fifth victim that was able to escape the serial killer.

Unfortunately in resulting in Erika to have extreme trauma.

We are currently struggling to afford the expenses and the required resources to get the help that Erika needs in order for her to be able to recover from this very unfortunate and horrific event.

Please give generously to this brave hero that probably saved lives by running and reporting.

Here are more stories about the horrific circumstances and her unfathomable courage.

–A woman’s daring escape from a Border Patrol agent helped reveal a ‘serial killer,’ police say

–Border Patrol Agent Arrested in Connection With Murders of 4 Women

– US Border Patrol agent arrested in 4 deaths described as serial killer

Border Patrol Agent Arrested in Connection With Murders of 4 Women

Sept. 15, 2018

Law enforcement officers near the scene where a woman’s body was found north of Laredo, Tex. A Border Patrol agent was arrested on Saturday in connection with that killing and others.Danny Zaragoza/The Laredo Morning Times, via Associated Press

ALBUQUERQUE — A United States Border Patrol agent was arrested in South Texas on Saturday in connection to a calculated killing spree that left four people dead in recent weeks around the city of Laredo, the authorities said.

Webb County Sheriff Martin Cuellar said police officers arrested the agent, Juan David Ortiz, early on Saturday morning after a woman who claimed she had been abducted by Mr. Ortiz escaped half-clothed and sought help at a gas station in Laredo.

“We consider this man to be a serial killer who was preying on one victim after another,” Sheriff Cuellar said. “Fortunately, he’s now been apprehended.”

The case is the latest in a series of recent gruesome episodes involving Border Patrol agents, and comes at a time when protesters and some Democratic lawmakers are seeking to curb the actions of immigration officials. Some are calling for an end to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which was created in 2003. Customs and Border Protection, another agency in the Department of Homeland Security, has also come under fierce criticism.

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News About Violence Against Sex Workers from Around the USA

Seven Police Officers Charged with Running Eight NY Brothels

From our Friends at COYOTE Rhode Island

7 NY police officers have been arrested for running 8 NY brothels. They used women from Central America and yet the media doesn’t mention the word trafficking. This shows how much prosecutors and the police control the narrative in the media, because usually when a few sex workers who work together get arrested for prostitution the police and the media report that it is a sex trafficking ring.

By the 3rd day of the media reporting on the story, the narrative started to change.

The prosecutor recounted an incident in which honest cops had arrested a prostitute at the organization’s brothel in Sunset Park, Brooklyn. Samaniego had learned the Human Trafficking Bureau at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office was looking into the case.

“Upon discovering that Human Trafficking was interested in a simple prostitution arrest, he immediately leaped into action, reporting to the organization exactly what he was told to the point… that the intelligence from the Kings County District Attorney’s Office investigation [that] was provided to him was then provided immediately to the organization.”

The organization had then communicated with the prostitute who had been arrested, providing her with a script to recite while still in custody to the Human Trafficking Bureau so as to misdirect its investigation, the prosecutor said. This conduct was egregious,” the Queens prosecutor said in summing up Samaniego’s action. “It is far beyond any of the other officers that are charged here today.”

Yet from coast to coast human trafficking organizations, who are part of local trafficking task forces have always been allowed to groom sex workers and pressure them to report that they were forced and raped by tons of men. Now the cops don’t like the same narrative that they have been promoting since 2000.

GROUP THAT OPPOSES SEX WORK GAVE MONEY TO PROSECUTORS’ OFFICES — AND GOT STINGS AGAINST JOHNS IN RETURN

Vice stings targeting so-called “massage parlors” exploded in recent years, primarily in Chinese immigrant neighborhoods in Queens and Brooklyn. According to a 2017 report from the Urban Institute and the Legal Aid Society, arrests of Asian-identified people in New York City charged with both unlicensed massage and prostitution increased by 2,700 percent between 2012 and 2016.

Over 18,000 women have been dragged through NYC prostitution diversion court over the past few years. 91% of them are Asain women. The court mandates them to participate in some fake services which include the free yoga classes, some shamed based counseling, and immigration services. However, the program does not provide them with any of the vital services that they need such as affordable housing, jobs that pay a living wage or access to money.o

Texas Border Patrol agent accused of “serial killing spree” of Sex Workers in Laredo

Juan David Ortiz, an intel supervisor for the Border Patrol, has been accused of killing four women, including one transgender woman, and kidnapping a fifth woman, who escaped and alerted law enforcement.

A U.S. Border Patrol agent has been accused of going on a nearly two-week-long “serial killing spree” that came to an end on Saturday after he was arrested him in connection with the deaths of four women and the kidnapping of a fifth woman.

Webb County-Zapata County District Attorney Isidro Alaniz told The Texas Tribune that Juan David Ortiz, an intel supervisor for the Border Patrol, fled from state troopers after the fifth woman escaped and alerted law enforcement. Officials found him hiding in a truck near a gas station close to a Laredo hotel and arrested him without incident.

“He picked [the fifth woman] up, she went willingly with him and then while she was with him things started to get dangerous for her and when she tried to escape from him at a gas station that’s when she ran into a trooper,” Alaniz said. “In our opinion he is the sole person responsible for this horrific serial killing spree.”

Alaniz, whose office is assisting the Texas Department of Public Safety and Texas Rangers in the investigation, called the killings “just a horrific case overall.”

Alaniz said Ortiz has killed four women since Sept. 3, including one transgender woman. Two of them were U.S. citizens; the other victims’ nationalities are unknown. All of them were sex workers, he said.

Alaniz said the killings happened when Ortiz was off duty and in his own vehicle, a white four-door Dodge truck.

Documents provided to The Texas Tribune by the Webb County District Attorney’s office describe the dramatic escape of the woman who could have been a fifth murder victim.

Erika Pena approached a state trooper after she said Ortiz pointed a gun at her when she tried to escape from his vehicle, according to the documents. “Erika stated David began to act weird when she began to speak about Melissa, a female she knew who had been discovered dead the week before,” according to a criminal complaint. Later, the two stopped at a gas station and Pena struggled to get free, the complaint says.

“David grabbed her shirt to prevent her from exiting the vehicle. Erika began to scream for help. Erika pulled off her shirt allowing her to escape and run away from the vehicle,” the complaint states.

A manhunt ensued after Pena provided details on where Ortiz lived and what he drove.

An arrest affidavit states that Ortiz provided officers with details about picking up a woman he identified as Melissa Ramirez on Sept. 3. Ortiz said the two drove outside city limits and stopped so Ramirez could urinate, the affidavit said.

“Juan David Ortiz then used a firearm (handgun) to shoot Melissa Ramirez multiple times [in] the head,” the document states.

On Sept. 13 Ortiz picked up Claudine Ann Luera and drove her outside city limits on U.S. 83, the affidavit said. She exited his truck and Ortiz shot her “multiple times in the head” according to the affidavit. She died later at a local hospital.

The affidavit says that on Sept. 15, Ortiz picked up a woman identified as “Jane Doe” in the document. He drove outside Laredo’s city limits, ordered the woman out of the vehicle and shot her in the head, the affidavit said. He then picked up a “John Doe” and again drove north beyond the city limits, ordered the person out of the vehicle and fired one shot to the victim’s head, the document said.

“Sheriff’s deputies and DPS personnel went to the mile 15 marker exit and found the body of an unidentified male,” the affidavit states. “At said location, a single spent casing was discovered near the body.”

Alaniz said, “There’s nothing that suggested that [Ortiz’] did this under the cover of authority or the law.”

Law enforcement plans to charge Ortiz with aggravated kidnapping and murder, Alaniz said, adding that his office will pursue four first-degree murder indictments against Ortiz.

“It’s super unfortunate and tragic,” Alaniz said. “It’s not a reflection of Border Patrol, they do a great job protecting our borders they’re super professional and the work they do is important.”

The Associated Press first reported the news of Ortiz’s arrest.

December 17

International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers

On Monday, December 17, 2018, we will recognize all of the sex workers we have lost this year. These names are curated throughout the year by a very devoted team of sex workers and sex worker activists from around the world. You can submit a name or submit an event on the December 17 Website. Look for more information about events, press releases, toolkits and more very soon.

SWOP Behind Bars will be attending, presenting and tabling at the International Human Trafficking Conference in Toledo on September 20 and 21st! We will be hosting a Sex Worker Meet and Greet on Thursday Evening (the 20th) so if you are in Toledo Ohio and want to come hang out with us – Drinks and Snacks are free from 7-9. Email us at swopbehindbars@gmail.com for location. Sex Workers and Allies Only.