Dallas man pleads guilty to trafficking hundreds of women in North Texas

A Dallas man pleaded guilty Wednesday to trafficking hundreds of women in North Texas.

Tremont Blakemore, 42, who additionally goes by the nickname “Macknificent,” admitted not solely to operating a large-scale trafficking group, however to utilizing violence to power women to “engage in commercial sex acts for his financial benefit,” the U.S. lawyer’s workplace for the Northern District of Texas mentioned.

“This defendant systematically brutalized his victims, convincing them that they had no choice but to live life according to his dictates,” U.S. Attorney Chad Meacham mentioned in a written assertion. “We hope that this guilty plea will be a balm to survivors as they work to rebuild their lives.”

Blakemore, together with Donna Gonzalez and Peaches Hurtado, was arrested in September 2018 at a house in Fort Worth the place officers discovered 11 women; they found 4 extra women at a Lancaster location. Authorities imagine Blakemore could have manipulated hundreds of women in a number of different Texas cities, together with women from Maine, Montana and Wyoming.

The U.S. lawyer’s workplace mentioned Blakemore admitted forcing these women to journey cross-country for industrial intercourse. He then demanded the women flip over all proceeds to him and required them to search permission for any private bills.

According to courtroom data, Blakemore made greater than $840,000 from December 2017 to September 2018. He spent extravagantly at luxurious retailers together with Versace and Gucci, and paid greater than $300,000 for luxurious vehicles. Blakemore additionally purchased diamond and gold jewellery and Rolex watches, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace mentioned.

Blakemore admitted that when the women disobeyed him — leaving the home with out permission or conserving cash for themselves — he would flip violent, the U.S. lawyer’s workplace mentioned. According to courtroom paperwork, the women advised officers he punched, choked and kicked them and burned them with cigarettes.

Blakemore faces up to 20 years in federal jail. His sentencing has been scheduled for Oct. 6.

David Finn, the lawyer representing Blakemore, didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark. Finn beforehand mentioned his consumer didn’t have interaction in intercourse trafficking.

“He was a big-time pimp, but these women knew exactly what they were doing, and he didn’t traffic any of them,” Finn mentioned in July.

In July, 29-year-old Deziree Lujan, who prosecutors mentioned was half of Blakemore’s operation, was sentenced to 34 months in jail for attempting to intimidate a sex-trafficking sufferer who was a witness in a federal prostitution case.

The costs in opposition to Gonzalez and Hurtado, which included aggravated promotion of prostitution, participating in organized prison exercise and cash laundering, have been dismissed, courtroom data present.