JACKSON, Mississippi (AP) — A man arrested as part of a kidnapping and human trafficking investigation was sentenced Thursday to one year in prison for transporting a woman across state lines for prostitution.
Ruperto Moncillo Flores was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Hattiesburg on one count of a violating of the federal Mann Act. The sentence is to be followed by three years supervised release, court officials say.
Flores and another man were arrested June 27 after a woman walked into the Hattiesburg, Miss., Police Department and said she’d been abducted in Panama City Beach, Fla.
Authorities have said Flores had no knowledge of the abduction, but was asked to transport the woman to Louisiana for prostitution.
Authorities say Flores, of Lawrenceville, Ga., was arrested in Mississippi when his van broke down before picking up the kidnapping victim.
Another woman with him at the time said Flores was taking her to Louisiana for prostitution, authorities say. He pleaded guilty in October to transporting that woman for prostitution.
When Flores pleaded guilty, assistant U.S. Attorney Annette Williams said the victim heard her abductors call someone to take her to a “house of prostitution” in Baton Rouge, La.
Williams said at the time that the abduction started an investigation into a “multistate prostitution ring and human trafficking organization.”
Feliciano-Francisco, also known as Uriel Castillo-Ochoa, is charged in U.S. District Court in Panama City with kidnapping the former witness. He pleaded not guilty on Aug. 12 to five charges, including kidnapping and retaliating against a witness.
Authorities said the victim was in her yard in Florida when Feliciano-Francisco and an unidentified man forced her into a car and drove to Feliciano-Francisco’s house in Hattiesburg. Investigators say Feliciano-Francisco sexually assaulted the victim and planned to force her to work as a prostitute.
The kidnapping victim escaped through a bathroom window that evening and went to the Hattiesburg Police Department about 6:30 p.m.
Feliciano-Francisco was arrested at the house that night. Flores was arrested on Interstate 59 in Jones County.
