Press Release

Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Hector Galindo Capultitla was arraigned on sex trafficking charges for forcing a Mexican woman to engage in sex for money in Mexico and the United States, including Queens. During her three-year ordeal, whenever the victim failed to produce the amount of money Galindo Capultitla required of her, he hit and choked her and threatened to kill her family in Mexico.

District Attorney Katz said: “The fight against human trafficking and traffickers is a difficult one. We have to do everything that we can to save the victims being sexually exploited and physically abused. It is why I created a Human Trafficking Bureau and why cases such as this one are so important.”

Galindo Capultitla, 39, of 40^th Road in Corona, was arraigned yesterday on a seven-count indictment charging him with three counts of sex trafficking; promoting prostitution in the fourth degree; two counts of coercion in the second degree; and assault in the third degree.

Galindo Capultitla faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Supreme Court Justice Peter Vallone Jr. ordered Galindo Capultitla to return to court on March 21.

According to the charges:

• Galindo Capultitla met the 25-year-old victim in Mexico in 2021 and forced her to engage in sex for money there. In May 2023, he forced the victim to come to the United States for this purpose. She sent money to him in Mexico on a weekly basis.
• In August 2023, Galindo Capultitla came to the United States and moved in with the victim at a residence on 40^th Road near Roosevelt Avenue in Corona. He demanded she give him at least $2,000 a week from prostitution. The defendant took the victim to locations in New York, New Jersey, and Virginia to engage in sex for money and kept all of the victim’s earnings.
• If the victim failed to produce the required amount of money, Galindo Capultitla hit and choked her and threatened to kill her family in Mexico.
• On January 7, 2024, at approximately 3:30 a.m., Galindo Capultitla waited outside the 40^th Road residence, where video surveillance shows that he accosted the victim, hitting her in the chest and neck.
• The assault continued inside the apartment, where he punched her in the head, shoved her and grabbed her arm.
• A call was made to 911 and Galindo Capultitla fled the apartment. The victim went to live elsewhere, and police arrested the defendant Monday.

The sex trafficking investigation was conducted by Detectives Cynthia Oliva, Denis Regimbal and Paul Mastronardi; Sergeant Kevin Kavanagh; Lieutenant Amy Capogna; and Captain Thomas Milano of the NYPD’s Human Trafficking Team under the overall supervision of Chief Carlos Ortiz.

Assistant District Attorney Felicia Thomas of the District Attorney’s Human Trafficking Bureau is prosecuting the case under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Jessica Melton, Bureau Chief, Tara DiGregorio, Deputy Bureau Chief, and under the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney for Investigations Gerard A. Brave.