By KRWG News
El Paso, Texas – EL PASO, Texas (KRWG) Five men and five women from Baltimore are due for arraignment after they were accused of luring women to West Texas and forcing them into prostitution.
The arraignments will be Wednesday in federal court in El Paso.
According to a federal indictment, alleged ringleader Alarcon Allen Wiggins and nine other people have been persuading women into traveling to El Paso to become prostitutes since December 2009. The indictment also alleges that the ring took the women's earnings, documents, cellphones and computers so they could not ask for help.
Aside from the criminal charges, federal prosecutor are asking that the defendants forfeit about $1 million upon conviction that they're accused of earning through illegal activity.
All 10 defendants were arrested in Baltimore on Oct. 12 and extradited to Texas.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press. KRWG