This holiday season, Special Agent in Charge (SAC) of the Houston Field Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Perrye K. Turner is announcing an increased reward for international human trafficking fugitive Alfonso Diaz-Juarez, aka Poncho, aka El Greñas. Diaz-Juarez is one of 16 defendants charged federally in 2013 for operating an international sex trafficking organization which forced women and minors into prostitution. A Clear Channel Outdoor digital billboard campaign launches today across the Greater Houston area touting an up to $50,000 reward for information leading to the location and arrest of Diaz-Juarez.

“Mr. Diaz-Juarez needs to be brought to justice,” said SAC Turner. “The longer he eludes justice, the greater the chance there will be more victims. The FBI will continue to work alongside our local, state, and other federal partners, until Diaz-Juarez is captured.”

The case prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas is the result of one of the largest Houston-area sex trafficking investigations conducted by members of the Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA) in Houston, which includes the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation, Texas Alcoholic and Beverage Commission, Department of State, Texas Department of Public Safety, and the Houston Police Department.

The three year investigation revealed the conspiracy operated beginning in the summer of 1999 across the Houston area and beyond. Undocumented women and girls were compelled into performing commercial sex acts inside various cantinas in Houston, Texas through the use of force, violence, fraud, coercion, and a combination of such means, including the use of locked rooms to maintain control over the young women and girls. All the women and girls are now being assisted by non-governmental organizations.

It was part of the conspiracy that the defendants relied on “padrotes,” or pimps, to supply women and girls for their brothels. The defendants profited from the entrance fees, drink sales, and by charging for providing a room for sex acts, as well as condoms. The amount of money charged for a commercial sex act varied from $65 for 15 minutes up to $500 per hour for minors.

Diaz-Juarez is charged for his role as a padrote in the conspiracy. Diaz-Juarez is a 47-year-old Mexican citizen. Investigators believe he may be in Houston or Mexico or traveling between Texas and Mexico.

If you have information about Diaz-Juarez, call the FBI Houston Field Office at (713) 693-5000 or the nearest embassy. Tips may also be submitted to the FBI online at https://tips.fbi.gov/. Tips may be reported in Spanish or English.

As a public service to the community, Clear Channel Outdoor is donating space and time on its digital billboards throughout the area to publicize the reward and feature a photo of fugitive Alfonso Diaz-Juarez.

To anonymously provide tips of suspected human trafficking or for more information about human trafficking, call the National Human Trafficking Resource Center at 1-888-3737-888, 24 hours a day, every day of the year. The hotline is available in more than 180 languages through the use of interpreters, including in Spanish.