Bissonnet Sex Trafficker “Mumbles” Sent to Prison for Forcing Teenage Girls to Engage in Sex Acts
September 29, 2024 – HOUSTON – A 27-year-old Houston resident has been sentenced for sex trafficking of a young woman, announced U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
Michael Anthony Gonzalez aka Mumbles pleaded guilty June 27.
U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr. has now ordered Gonzalez to serve 240 months in federal prison. In handing down the prison term, the court noted the things Gonzalez had done, the attitudes he had displayed and the people he had hurt. Gonzalez will also serve 10 years on supervised release following completion of his prison term, during which time he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. He will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
From April 2019 to February 2020, Gonzalez and his co-conspirators worked to recruit young teenage girls and force them to engage in sex acts with “clients” for money in cars and hotels around the Bissonnet “blade.”
The blade or “track” is an area near I-59 Southwest Freeway and Bissonnet Street in Houston where pimps and traffickers commonly place their victims to engage in commercial sex.
The co-conspirators passed around or reassigned victims amongst one another, taught each other “the pimp game” and forced young girls to walk the blade while they kept the proceeds.
To switch between pimps, the young girls had to pay an exit fee or get “beat out.” Some traffickers required daily quotas each night from their victims. If the victims failed to meet their daily quotas, they were severely punished through beatings and humiliation.
Co-conspirators Jerreck Michael Hilliard aka Jmoney, 35, and Javon Yaw Opoku aka Glizzy, 23, were previously sentenced to 292 and 365 months in prison, respectively, for their roles in the sex trafficking conspiracy.
The Houston Police Department initiated the investigation with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations and the Harris County District Attorney’s Office as a part of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA). Established in 2004, the U.S. Attorney’s office in Houston formed HTRA to combine resources with federal, state and local enforcement agencies and prosecutors, as well as non-governmental service organizations to target human traffickers while providing necessary services to those that the traffickers victimized. Since its inception, HTRA has been recognized as both a national and international model in identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking and prosecuting those engaged in trafficking offenses.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kate Suh and Anthony Franklyn prosecuted the case.
