Crime

Woman Gets Over 6 Years Imprisonment For Recruiting Vulnerable Women, Including 17-Year-Old For Prostitution Operation

ST. THOMAS — U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert has announced that Yohanna Gonzalez-McFarlane, 40, of the Dominican Republic, appeared before Chief District Court Judge Robert A. Molloy and was sentenced on three counts of bringing illegal aliens to the United States for financial gain and for one count of transportation for prostitution. Chief Judge Molloy sentenced Gonzalez-McFarlane to 78 months imprisonment, followed by ten years of supervised release. In addition, the court ordered Gonzalez-McFarlane to pay a total of $942,007 in restitution, $400 in special assessments, as well as $20,000 in additional special assessments pursuant to the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act of 2015. Judge Molloy described Gonzalez-McFarlane’s admitted conduct — recruiting and harboring vulnerable women to work as prostitutes for her financial gain — as “heinous,” pointing out that her offense involved profiting from twelve different women, one of whom had been only seventeen at the time Gon...