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UTAH STATE PRISON — A Salt Lake massage parlor owner convicted of coercing a 17-year-old girl and her mother into prostitution in one of the first human trafficking investigations from the Utah Attorney General's Office will be paroled in 2022.
Luis Daniel Arano-Hernandez, 30, was convicted in 2013 of aggravated human trafficking involving a child. He was sentenced to five years to life at the Utah State Prison. Four others, who testified against Arano-Hernandez, were also charged and convicted. Authorities say all five men are in the U.S. illegally.
Arano-Hernandez ran a massage parlor that acted as a front for prostitution, according to prosecutors.
During a July 21 parole hearing for Arano-Hernandez, he was often tearful as he attempted to tell Utah Board of Pardons and Parole member Jan Nicol through an interpreter that he was offered work by others, but soon found himself over his head.
"They promised me that everything was OK. I know what I did was wrong, so it's not their fault. I accept the blame for what I did," he said. "I was trafficking people. … They asked me to do a business with them. They gave me part of the money that was earned … and they asked me to find people who wanted to work. I made it a business."
Arano-Hernandez claimed that the people he worked for beat him and threatened to hurt him and his family in Mexico if he didn't do what they said or if he went to police.
"I wanted to leave, but that's when they beat me with a pistol and put it up to my head," he said.
In fact, Arano-Hernandez spent much of his hearing attempting to minimize his role in the operation by claiming he was constantly threatened and forced to work for others, that he never touched the women who were working for him, and that he never forced them to have sex with clients.
"The people I worked with told them they were under contract and they had to fulfill their contract," he said. "I didn't tell them they had to have sex, but whatever they needed to do to earn their money."
He further claimed "at first it wasn't about prostitution, at first it was just about massages." But after some direct questioning from Nicol, Arano-Hernandez admitted the women had no training in giving massages.
"So basically they were sex slaves," she said.
"I didn't think they were because I never told them they had to have sex," Arano-Hernandez replied.
"But it was inferred," she continued.
"They weren't ever forced to be prostitutes. When they didn't want to be with a customer we didn't force them," he insisted.
When asked why then he got the strictest penalty of all his co-defendants, Arano-Hernandez claimed it was because he was the only one to take responsibility.
Nicol also noted in a recording of the parole hearing that the attorney general's office has evidence that while Arano-Hernandez was in jail awaiting trial, he tried to solicit people to murder the women, or the witnesses in the case — even though he was never charged with such a crime.
Arano-Hernandez contended he was not a violent person and tearfully claimed he wanted to do his part to stop human trafficking, and that he was encouraging his son to be a police officer when he grows up.
He concluded his comments by speaking in English while crying.
"I take my responsibility for my fault for what I did. I want to change my life and be productive to society," he said in part. "I want to correct things. … I don't want to be garbage."
According to the current sentencing matrix, the recommended time Arano-Hernandez should serve is 72 months, or until 2018. The board decided to incarcerate him longer, until 2022. Nicol also reminded him that he will likely be deported once he is released from prison.
The case was the result of an eight-month investigation by the attorney general’s SECURE Strike Force into sex trafficking.
"Stepping back and looking at the big picture, this was an early case prosecuted by the attorney general's office that helped stakeholders recognize that human trafficking happens in our state and led to allocating more resources toward fighting human trafficking, developing a better understanding of victim needs, and locating services for child victims," said spokesman Daniel Burton.
