I applaud stupid criminals - especially when their stupidity lands their own sorry butts in jail. Like Marcelino de Jesus Martinez.
The California father has been charged for allegedly selling his fourteen-year-old daughter into a forced marriage with an eighteen-year-old. So how did police catch him?
Martinez allegedly called them when the groom-to-be, Margarito de Jesus Galindo, didn't turn over the agreed upon some for the poor little girl's hand. According to news reports, the neighbors had worked out a deal that would have included handing over one hundred cases of beer, $16,000, several cases of meat, wine, Gatorade and soda. When Galindo reneged, cops said Martinez called for help in getting his daughter back. Ah, so now she's worth something to him? Something more than the makings of a good backyard barbecue?
Martinez has been booked for "receiving money for causing person to cohabitate" and Galindo for statutory rape.
The most disturbing part of all of this? The girl went willingly - because it's an accepted practice where she's from.
The incident happened in Los Angeles, but her family hails from Mexico - and police in the LA area say they are finding more and more Mexican immigrants (generally from remote areas of the country) are engaging in similar practices. So while many people in America still think of "human trafficking" here only in relation to a coyote bringing people over the border and forcing them into slavery, it's happening within the confines of a family life too.
Sadly, that only compounds the problem for Martinez. He is obviously lacking as a father, but if he's from a community that condones this behavior, chances are, he doesn't even think he did anything wrong.
Image: NBC Los Angeles
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