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ECATEPEC, STATE OF MEXICO

The body of a murdered woman has still not been identified

in Ecatepec, in the State of Mexico.

Several media outlets have claimed she is Kenni,

a Venezuelan escort who advertised on zonadivas.com.

I had a bad feeling.

She told me, "They're inviting me for a party."

I was insistent that she didn't go. "No. I'm going. I'm not going by myself."

"God bless you," I texted. She texted, "Amen," and put a heart emoji.

That was the last thing.

I noticed she wasn't texting me back.

"Kenni, Mom isn't doing well."

"She's worried sick. Text her. Call her."

"Reply to me." The texts were marked, "seen."

From then on, it was like a horror movie.

My phone rang around 2:00 a.m.

My husband was the one who got up, saw the incoming call, and said,

"You're getting a call from Mexico."

When he said Mexico, I imagined the worst.

They said they were calling on behalf of Kenni's friend, but didn't say a name.

Apparently, they'd seen in an article that my sister had been murdered.

She was taken at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning,

and found on Monday morning.

They took her early Sunday morning and kept her alive that whole day.

She was tortured and everything.

From there, it was like, "How do we tell Mom?"

"How do we tell Mom?"

We knew this would kill her.

She grabbed me, saying, "What happened to Kenni?"

I wanted to tell her, but the words wouldn't come out.

It was like there was a stone in my throat.

She called out for her, wailing.

Blessed are you among women,

and blessed is the child you will bear, Jesus.

We buried her on March 30th.

We saw a car pull up,

and a girl got out and told us she was with Kenni at the club

when Kenni was taken.

I'd never seen her before.

She said she didn't know anything, she didn't know who took her.

They had locked her in the bathroom,

and she heard Kenni telling them not to hurt her.

We noticed she was wearing some of Kenni's things, like her shoes.

I recognized they were Kenni's.

We tried asking her questions, but she was evasive.

What she did do was cry, she said Kenni was a good person.

She was drunk and didn't look well.

A non-believer...

It made us sort of afraid.

I told you!

THE PORTAL

MEXICO CITY

I'm an investigative reporter, I cover gender and safety issues.

I'm hiding my identity because we live in a country

where journalists disappear and are murdered.

The authorities are clearly in collusion with organized crime.

When Kenni was murdered,

none of her friends went to identify the body.

Kenni suffered such a level of violence,

that none of her friends wanted to take any risks.

I dug deeper into the case by contacting those closest to Kenni.

Her work friends, childhood friends.

I spoke with a lot of sex workers,

from those in Tlalpan to those advertising on the portals,

searching for testimonies about the violence these women experience.

Throughout this process of talking to Kenni's friends and other witnesses,

I found a video of Kenni documenting her injuries,

saying that her ex-boyfriend assaulted and tortured her.

I was kind of reluctant to publish that material,

because she was in such a vulnerable state.

It was highly sensitive material,

and I wasn't sure it was a good idea to make it public.

But I decided it was important to show what they'd done to her.

She had been threatened and tortured for months,

and she revealed the full name of her aggressor,

Brayan Mauricio Miranda, or Pozoles.

You want to wipe the smile off so many people's face

just because you feel like killing us.

We haven't hurt you.

We didn't cause you issues with the government.

We haven't done anything wrong to you, Brayan.

More like I fell in love with you too quickly and gave you everything,

and you crushed me as you damn well pleased.

Kenni's case caught my attention because of the level of violence

and because of society's indifference.

It was assumed a client killed her and the investigation stopped.

For any other person, just another girl had died,

but for us, she was a mother, a friend of our friends.

She was a minority, so nobody cared. It was just like, "Another girl died,"

"But she was an escort, she sold her body. She had it coming, she deserved it."

Both the authorities and society tend to criminalize victims.

YOUR DEATH WAS VIOLENT BECAUSE YOU MESSED WITH NARCOS

In Kenni's case, she was blamed for her own death.

People were pretty much saying she deserved it

because of the type of people she was involved with.

NO ONE WILL REMEMBER YOU, WHORE

Some comments were aimed at Mom. I didn't like that at all.

That yeah, she was suffering now,

but she was fine with what her daughter was doing

as long as she was sending her money.

Nobody really knew the details of the case,

or what she was really like, or anything like that.

Once the Zona Divas website found out about her femicide,

they published a statement that reads as follows,

"Kenni was the model featured on our logo."

"This model was paid for the use of her image."

"She also advertised with us,

and paid us to do so."

"This was in her own interest,

and we hope she benefitted from it greatly."

In Mexico City,

the Office of the Mexican Attorney General has confirmed an arrest

for alleged human trafficking.

The attorney general's office has arrested Guillermo Hans N., or Memo,

founder and partner of the Zona Divas website.

According to authorities,

Memo is a relative of Ignacio Antonio N., Soni.

A house in Mexico City's historic center

was used as a clandestine photography studio

by the sex service website, Zona Divas.

This is where photographer Armando N. took pictures of the women

who offered sexual services on the website.

Eighteen women, including ten Venezuelans, seven Colombians, and one Paraguayan,

have been rescued in an operation by the attorney general and federal agents

at seven apartments in Ciudad Deportiva.

In April 2018,

is when they, voluntarily,

decided to post a statement on their website, zonadivas.com,

announcing they were ceasing activities.

In April 2019,

Ignacio Antonio Santoyo Cervantes, Soni, is arrested in Quintana Roo.

An arraignment judge has indicted Ignacio Santoyo, also known as Soni,

for the crime of human trafficking for sexual exploitation purposes

against a victim who advertised sexual services on the Zona Divas website,

which he owns.

Investigators found international wire transfers,

with outward financial flows to several countries.

Attorney General Ernestina Godoy

stated that Soni was sent to Reclusorio Oriente,

where today's preliminary hearing will determine whether he is indicted.

We need time, we need forensics, we need to do an investigation.

No, organized crime isn't winning this battle.

We've been reporting for weeks on the murders of escorts

that have taken place in Mexico City and the State of Mexico.

A man was arrested today for his possible involvement

in the murder of at least one of these young women.

Footage from the hotel's security cameras

shows Génesis arriving with the 22-year-old male

some time after midnight on November 17th.

I met Daniel Uribe at a social gathering.

He hired me to drive him to collect money from women at different hotels.

They owed his boss money.

They hadn't paid the fees to be on an escort website.

I think it was called... Divas.

The last time he called me, it was to take him to Puebla.

I asked him if this was related to collecting money from those girls.

He said no.

That he had to pick up a foreign friend.

We drove up to Puebla on November 16th.

We went to the Punta Palmas Motel.

Daniel asked his friend to go back to Mexico City with him.

I didn't hear much of their conversation because they spoke in low voices.

Daniel's demeanor towards Génesis

was the same the whole way.

There was no intimidation.

She seemed comfortable with him,

and he looked normal.

We got to Mexico City before midnight.

Daniel asked me to take him to Hotel Platino.

He told me to wait outside while he asked for a room.

He then signaled for me to leave, and so I left.

After that day, I never saw Daniel again.

I later heard on the radio what happened at Hotel Platino.

I didn't know if it was Daniel who took... Génesis's life.

But I know it was her that I left with him...

in the early morning of November 17th.

They discovered who it was, the time, and the car through toll tickets

found in her purse.

I heard through a statement that the young man took them from the driver

and put them in her purse to take out later,

but he forgot and left them in her purse.

At that moment, I could only imagine,

according to the file we had, everything she went through, how she died.

So I looked him in the face and asked, "You did all this. Why?"

A hitman.

He never said why he killed her.

As far as I know, he never said why.

Behind a hitman, there's always someone else.

That's why they're hired.

The alleged killer of escort Génesis Gibson has been captured.

Daniel allegedly murdered Génesis

inside the Hotel Platino in the Venustiano Carranza borough.

This isn't the only murder he's being charged with.

Today, Mexico City's Office of the Attorney General

confirmed there is proof of his involvement

in the murder of another Venezuelan, Wendy Vaneska.

Aside from DNA analysis,

Daniel is linked to the murder through security footage and his own handwriting,

which matches the registry from Hotel Príncipe.

No one ever contacted me.

No one asked me for a statement.

This is the first time I'm speaking about what happened to Wendy, or about Daniel.

Daniel showed up back when we were being threatened.

He knew people at all the hotels we used.

Even back then, we had misgivings about him.

Someone so young, who knew everyone at the hotels,

who had so much money, and always knew every move we made.

If we went out somewhere, did anything, he always knew about it.

We didn't know how, but he always knew what we were up to.

We didn't know if he worked for the agency.

We didn't know if he hurt Wendy on orders from them,

or because she wanted to go back to Venezuela. We didn't know.

But he was the last person to see her alive.

He hired her as a client and when she got to the hotel,

it was him. And she didn't know.

Today, more than a year after his arrest, Daniel Uribe Reyes has been sentenced.

Daniel will serve 80 years in prison

for the murders of Wendy Vaneska and Génesis Gibson.

Daniel is believed to be an alleged member of Unión Tepito.

ESCORT MURDERER CONVICTED

MEXICO CITY

My name is Antonio Nieto.

I'm an investigative journalist,

and I specialize in homicide and organized crime issues.

Unión Tepito is a cartel founded 100% in Mexico City.

They have ties to other significant cartels.

Over time, they have become the biggest drug distributors

in Tepito, Mexico City, and municipalities in the State of Mexico.

The connection between Unión Tepito and the Zona Divas page

was detected around 2015, when "El Jamón,"

one of the cartel kingpins who is already in prison,

requested a monthly fee of 100,000 pesos

from Zona Divas management to operate in Mexico City.

Pozoles evidently knew about this arrangement,

and he also knew how to get to these girls,

typically at electronic music parties.

And this is how he was able to approach Kenni Finol,

who was one of the girls who advertised on this page.

Brayan, how am I supposed to give you 27,000 pesos?

You're so evil. A guy just told me you want 27,000.

You never gave me anything and now I have to pay you

to leave me alone?

My dad, my mom, and my relatives were afraid for me when I went to Mexico.

My dad said to me, "Karina, don't get involved."

"Don't talk to anyone."

"I don't want what happened to Karen to happen to you."

I think it was someone who wanted her out of the way.

She always stood out.

Maybe she knew something about someone, about a mobster or something.

Or maybe she argued with someone and they killed her to teach her a lesson.

Because what happened to her wasn't the same as the other girls,

who were burned or dowsed with acid.

She had a quick death.

There were two gunshots, including a fatal one to the head.

During my research into Kenni's case, there was a key moment.

Some audio messages came into my possession,

in which Kenni mentions Karen is being extorted.

She called to warn her because they wanted to kill her.

I called Karen and told her "I usually don't get involved, dude."

"And I can't speak clearly or I'll get in trouble,

but you can't trust anyone, girl. Believe me."

One of her closest friends actually told me

that Karen apparently knew her murderer.

She said, "When we're working, we never dress how Karen was dressed."

"We never see clients like that who we don't know."

So Karen must have known the person who killed her.

KENNYFINOL90 TBT

Karen was saving up to start a business.

All that changed overnight.

In her last WhatsApp text to me, she said she was distraught.

Someone was extorting her.

Karen was very scared of this person from Tepito.

This was 15 days before she was killed.

The threats went on for 15 days before I found out what happened to her.

I had a million questions but no one would answer them.

Like a cover-up.

Still, Karen Ailén was murdered at the Hotel Pasadena on December 27th.

The man who murdered her later called Kenni

to confess what he'd done, and to tell her she was next.

It wasn't a client or anything.

He killed her at the Pasadena, he shot her dead.

He called me afterwards, before anyone knew about it.

"See that, you bitch?"

"I'm gonna kill you by the 31st. I'll get to you somehow."

"You're going to think everything's quiet,

but I'm coming for you when you least expect it."

In November 2019, authorities from the State of Mexico arrested Pozoles.

Not for Kenni's murder, but for drug trafficking.

In November 2022, he was released.

Sadly, the case against Pozoles was never strong

due to State of Mexico prosecutors.

They could never prove he was responsible for this crime,

even though he was brought in for drug trafficking,

and they had plenty of time to tie him to both investigations.

Unfortunately, in the end, Pozoles avoided those charges.

According to investigators who have followed his case,

he continued to operate in more or less the same way

as before he was arrested for drug trafficking.

Even though authorities had him in custody and could've interrogated him

or collected new evidence, they haven't been able to do it yet.

Not because they're protecting him, but due to incompetence.

NO ONE IS SURPRISED POZOLES IS FREE

UNIÓN TEPITO IS PARTNERED WITH THE JALISCO CARTEL

We never tried to get in touch with prosecutors, or anything like that...

-Complete distrust. We trusted no one. -Yes.

We never asked for updates. We knew it could be dangerous for our family.

We never considered taking revenge, never.

All I want is justice. She shouldn't have died like that.

I just want justice, this can't go unpunished.

For her soul's sake and mine, please help me.

The murderer has to pay for what he did. She didn't deserve to die like that.

There's this prayer she liked me to recite because she didn't know it by heart.

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.

Blessed be your purity, may it be blessed for ever,

for no less than God takes delight, in such exalted beauty.

To you, heavenly princess, Holy Virgin Mary,

I offer on this day my whole heart, life, and soul.

Look upon us with compassion, do not leave us, my mother.

And give us your blessing, which we receive,

in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Amen.

I will always be grateful to Génesis because I grew up so much with her.

She taught me many life lessons.

Things I could've learned by myself, but I was a step ahead thanks to her.

"If you don't work, you don't eat," coming from your parents

is not the same as from someone fighting in the trenches with you.

I have to see my daughter buried here.

I want to take her back to Venezuela so I don't have to come to Mexico anymore.

At least he's in prison.

It doesn't fully comfort me, because it was my daughter that he took,

a human being.

No one has the right to take another person's life.

But at least he's in prison. I hope he stays there.

Sometimes I think that...

I'd like to travel to Mexico and look him in the eye.

To confront the man who killed my daughter and ask him,

"What did my daughter do to you to justify you taking her life?"

"What was happening in your head...

that you could take a human being's life?"

"What did my daughter do to you?"

"Do you know how much pain you've caused me?"

"Do you know how much pain you've caused my family?"

WENDY VANESKA DE LIMA CORTÉS 6/13/1990 - 2/3/2017

I want my daughter to be remembered just as she always was. Smiling, happy...

charitable.

She was impulsive and argumentative, but she was always smiling.

She was happy with what she did,

and she was brave considering everything she went through.

I'm grateful to my daughter because

she showed me that life is meant to be lived.

And...

what happened to her was awful, obviously.

For me, there is a before her death and an after.

I'll often have these questions pop up that no one can answer.

And that will never end. But, at the same time, life goes on.

Imagen noticias spoke with Karen's mom, Karina Lescano,

who demanded that Mexico City's Office of the Attorney General

give her an explanation about the investigation.

She wants to know what happened to the evidence

that was in the case file she was shown.

Karen's mom condemns the prosecutors for not communicating directly with her,

and accuses them of delaying information to the Argentinian embassy in Mexico.

I started getting calls from her "friends."

"Yeah, I was Kenni's friend."

They started having conversations with me.

I could immediately tell something wasn't right.

They'd be like, "Question. Who has Kenni's phones?"

"Who collected her things? Who has them?"

I think she left some evidence behind. She left proof...

that would expose him.

She knew this was coming, that he would end her life,

so she left behind evidence to expose him.

Escorts have two phones,

one for personal use, and another for work.

Kenni's personal phone,

which was the source of the audios and videos published in 2018,

somehow survived, but we don't know how.

We don't know who, but someone retrieved the information.

Honey, happy birthday, I love you.

Well, I don't know how much it's worth it, it's the first thing they ask me.

Machi, I still need to dry my hair because I washed it yesterday.

-Awful things. -I'm the one in the photos, okay?

How can I go back to Venezuela with nothing to show for it?

One week, because they're going to kill me.

MEXICO CITY, OCTOBER 2023

We have breaking news.

We are getting reports that Mexico City police

have arrested the man on the screen.

Remember who he is?

This is Brayan Mauricio, also called Pozoles.

He was in an SUV with his girlfriend, who was also arrested.

They were found in possession of 271 drug doses,

a handgun, and cash.

We must say, Pozoles is not only identified as a drug dealer,

but also a source of violence in different parts of Mexico City.

This is how Pozoles, at 31 years old, presented himself on Instagram.

Watch him drive a RZR car along the Acapulco coast

with his current girlfriend,

a Venezuelan woman who lived in San Pedro de los Pinos.

Monday, Thursday, and Friday hearings were held

in which attorneys for Pozoles tried to get their client released.

However, their efforts were unsuccessful,

and the judge handed down an indictment on drug charges.

Pozoles's latest arrest was again for drug trafficking.

They added the disappearance later.

He still hasn't been sentenced.

Within the account that Kenni left on her phone,

are the pieces of her own murder.

And in that phone, is an in-depth analysis of a human trafficking network, as well.

Zona Divas brought hundreds of women to Mexico.

They were brought into a context of extreme violence against women,

as well as extreme violence due to organized crime.

There's one person that hasn't been tied to the femicides,

but who's involved in this story from beginning to end.

That man is Ignacio Antonio Santoyo Cervantes,

or Soni.

KENNY FEBRUARY 25TH, 2018

What we can say for certain is that

Andreína, Karen, Kenni, and Génesis were all friends,

they were roommates and were linked.

If we add Wendy to this list,

we can say that all five of them had personal ties with Soni.

As far as justice goes,

all we know for certain is that Soni is still free today.

We're a company that doesn't violate the law.

We simply advertise escort services,

which, in the eyes of many, is morally reproachable.

But, in the legal framework of Mexico, we're not committing any crime.

The charges brought against Ignacio Antonio Santoyo Cervantes, Soni,

are for human trafficking for sexual exploitation,

and illicit advertising to facilitate sexual exploitation.

In Soni's case,

he was released when the court of appeals pardoned his sentence.

It's very difficult to break news like that to the victims,

to tell them we won't be getting the results we had expected.

It's very frustrating,

but, at the same time, we turn that frustration into resilience,

continuing with next case, and the next, learning from our mistakes.

To highlight some of the police absurdity, as I call it,

when they raided the apartment at Illinois 76,

all of us working in that field knew there were no escort agencies there.

That was where independent girls lived after quitting those agencies.

The authorities said, "We'll have results."

"We'll make people believe we're doing our job."

So they chose the first building where they knew there would be girls,

they went and busted in, and then they deported them.

It was an injustice. No real traffickers were ever arrested.

Why are there so few arrests in the Zona Divas case?

Throughout this process,

authorities never connected the femicide investigations

with the human trafficking.

The only people who are still in prison

are women who were never high up in the trafficking network.

Though Zona Divas no longer exists,

we now have other websites that operate in the same way.

Various social media users are reporting a new website

that emulates or copies Zona Divas, but under a different name.

It's called La Boutique VIP.

Whether Soni is the actual owner of La Boutique VIP or not,

don't you think he's out there watching all the pretty jewels coming in?

ABOUT SONI

Some things aren't easy to talk about, this kind of work affects you emotionally.

It eats you up inside.

You no longer trust men, you don't trust those around you anymore.

You end up completely broken.

I came to Mexico as a trafficking victim, and later I became a sex worker.

My goal is to stop working in such a tough industry.

I just want to close the chapter on Candice Miller.

What have I learned from Brenda?

I learned how to adapt. It's all about resilience.

That's what I think matters.

Being able to accept who you are, knowing who you are at all times,

and enjoying the duality of the alter ego.

I am very satisfied with my past.

I believe that...

if I hadn't gone through all that, I wouldn't be where I am today.

I can't be ashamed of Brenda, or pretend she doesn't exist.

I could delete everything related to my online presence tomorrow,

but the truth is, I would continue to exist.

Since she was a sex worker, some people believe she was heartless,

or that her family was broken, but that's not true.

Sex workers are regular people.

They're not monsters.

It's not that they decide to be sex workers,

but rather, they come up with a temporary solution

because if they don't, they'll die.

But she was always so full of joy.

Full of joy and beautiful.

She had it all.

Most beautiful of all, she was humble.

She was charismatic.

Everyone fell in love with her, men, women, cross-dressers.

She always said, "Everyone wants me."

I didn't know about this photo of just us two.

She was fooling around, look at her pose.

She was different.

Even as a kid.

Because she was mischievous.

She had a short life, but she lived it to the fullest, like she wanted.

Anything she wanted to do, she did.

-In her own way. -In her own way.

Check out this electronica. Venezuela's Pilón, but electronic.

Can you imagine how wild we get when they play it at the club?

Check out this beat, you'll see.

Look! Gucci!

LUCIANA QUINTERO MEXICO CITY

THE PORTAL

ZONA DIVAS IMAGES HAVE BEEN MODIFIED TO PROTECT IDENTITIES.