Woman arrested after luring six young women with the promise of modeling work before they were kidnapped and held for $100,000 ransom

A woman was arrested by in Mexico for allegedly luring six young women from Colombia for modeling work and then sexually exploiting them, the Veracruz State Attorney Generals Office said.

Yésica Ramírez, 34, was tracked down Thursday to a home in Xapala-Enriquez, a town in the southern state of Veracruz and 66 miles away from the city of Boca del Rio, where the women were found wandering on a street Tuesday.

The victims detail in a correlated manner that they were contacted by the accused in different places and on different dates, being transported to various sites, in particular to a property located in the city of Boca del Río, Veracruz, Veracruz State Attorney Generals Office said in a statement. 

In this place, the victims were received and housed by the accused for the purposes of sexual exploitation, since she advertised them to offer sexual and escort services to men who contacted them. For these services, the accused benefited financially, since the victims gave her various amounts of money, of which she kept most of the profit.

Colombian online news portal El Colombiano reported that authorities are investigating if Ramírez was an employee of the Social Service of the Government Secretariat of the Comprehensive Center for Justice for Women, an agency that combats human trafficking, after the victims found shared an image of a department identification card with their family members while seeking help to be rescued. 

Mexican authorities rescued six Colombian women on Tuesday after they were kidnapped by a sex trafficking ring, which demanded their families pay $100,000 in exchange for their release

The state prosecutors office in Veracruz announced Thursday the arrest of Yésica Ramírez, who allegedly lured six women from Colombia and promised to find them high-paying jobs before she and her associates forced them into sex work

Their families said the womens profiles appeared an online modeling agency which Ramírez has previously contacted.

Ramírez reached out to the six women, who lived in the cities of Bogotá, Cali and Medellín, and offered to obtain their passports and plane tickets to fly to Veracruz. 

Once there, they were told they would be transported to Mexico City, where modeling, high-end restaurant waitress and events hosting opportunities awaited.

The victims were reportedly flown to Mexico between June and September and were allegedly forced into sex work.

One of the first women who was contacted quit her job as a restaurant table host in the Medellín district of Parque Lleras.

The young women were located safely on a street in the Veracruz city of Boca del Río on Tuesday after they were abandoned by alleged members of a sex trafficking ring

Colombias consul general in Mexico, Andrés Hernández, revealed that some of the women fear that the sex trafficking may seek revenge if they return home

The women grew worried September 24 when they alerted their family members that the feared for their lives. They took advantage that Ramírez had left her identifications cards in the open and relayed pictures of them as well as the location of the stash house where they were being held.

The families were able to get in contact with Ramírez, who advised them not to go public with the incident and warned them that doing so would only make matter worse with her associates.

Ramírez reportedly took the womens cell phones and travel documents, and promised to return them once they paid back the money that trafficking network had invested on their trip and lodging.

After not hearing from any of the women on September 25, the families contacted authorities.

Ramírez contacted the families Monday and requested $100,000 in exchange for their release and told the families to stop talking to the press and authorities before they abandoned the women on a Veracruz neighborhood Tuesday.

Intelligence reports reviewed by Colombian news portal El Colombiano indicate that the sex trafficking network in Mexico is linked to four gangs, including a Venezuelan criminal group, that operates in Medellín and recruit women, promising the chance to make large sums of money working in in Mexico and forcing them into prostitution when they get there.

They paint a world of illusions for them, just the wonderful proposal or the perfect world and what they end up with is living the worst nightmare of their lives, Medellín Mayor Fedérico Gutiérrez told the outlet.

They dont give away that much of that good thing, he said while adding that it is a case because there was a complaint from one of the relatives and that was what saved these six young women from these criminal structures.

Colombias consul general in Mexico, Andrés Hernández, told the outlet that some of the women fear that the criminal groups which played a role in linking them with Ramírez would attempt to harm them if they return home. 

We are waiting for the rest of the women to report this incident and from this moment on all the investigations by the prosecutors office and the judges will begin, Hernández said.