60 Years For Sachem Area Sex-Trafficker

This article was written by Michael Sorrentino. 

A Patchogue man was sentenced to 60 years in prison on Wednesday after being convicted in 2011 of sex trafficking charges as part of a forced labor ring at the Lake Ronkonkoma and Farmingville bars that he formally owned.

Antonio Rivera, 38, was found guilty of conspiracy, sex trafficking, forced labor, alien harboring and alien transportation charges in 2011. According to a release from the United States Attorney’s Office, Rivera formally owned Sonidos de la Frontera in Lake Ronkonkoma and La Hija del Mariachi in Farmingville. 

The release said that the 2011 trial established that Rivera and others compelled undocumented Latin American women from Honduras, Guatemala, Mexico and El Salvador to work as waitresses in his bars to engage in commercial sex acts. The U.S. Attorney’s office added that violence, fraud, coercion and threats of deportation were used against the waitresses.

His co-defendants, Jason Villaman, 34 of Brentwood; and John Whaley, 33 of Bellport, who were also scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday, received 30 years and 25 years respectively. Villaman acted as a security guard and Whaley assisted Rivera with hiring waitresses, maintaining the bars and transporting waitresses between the two bars. United States District Judge Sandra J. Feuerstein sentenced the three men at the United States Courthouse in Central Islip.

The U.S. Attorney’s office said that victims who testified during the four-week trial described being raped and/or beaten while working as waitresses at the bars. Several of the victims also testified to having their wages taken under the guise of being placed into a savings scheme called the “Society” but never receiving the money back.

“The defendants lured vulnerable young women to the United States with the promise of a better life and the ability to earn a living to support their families,” said United States Attorney Loretta Lynch. “Once here, the defendants then turned their American dream into a nightmare, subjecting them to unspeakable physical violence and emotional abuse, as well as threats of deportation, in order to line their own pockets.”