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A man who allegedly smuggled a woman across the U.S.-Mexico border to Utah and forced her into prostitution has been arrested and charged with human trafficking.

In 2008, Mexican national Santos Moyica Mojica met the alleged victim in Guatemala, according to court documents. Mojica persuaded the woman, who is Guatemalan, to move with him to Mexico, promising her that if she came with him, "he would see that her [four] children were brought to Mexico later."

While in Mexico, Mojica would allegedly threaten the woman and lock her in a room when he left the house, not allowing her to eat or use the restroom while he was absent, documents state. Mojica would only permit the woman to leave the house for work at a sewing factory, charges state.

After two months, he told the woman they were moving to Utah — a place she'd never heard of before, charges say. The two walked through the Mexican desert for a week and entered the U.S. illegally through the southern Arizona border, she told police, where they were picked up by a man driving a truck full of immigrants.

Documents state that Mojica was a "coyote," or illegal human smuggler, and once they arrived in Utah, the woman began working at various markets, charges state.

After about six months, the charges say, Mojica told the woman to have sex with a man they'd met at the market for money, threatening that he would abandon her in Utah and make sure her children never made it across the border if she did not engage in commercial sex.

Mojica told the woman "he knew all the coyotes and that if he told them not to bring her kids across the border, she would not see them again," charges state.

The woman began to engage in prostitution "out of fear of not seeing her children" and continued to do so for eight years, according to the charges. Men would give money directly to Mojica in exchange for sex with the victim, the charges state.

The woman "reported she did not want to have sex with any of these men, but she was afraid," the charges state.

The woman told police Mojica "regularly threatened to kill her, leave her on the street or have her deported if she did not do what he told her."

The woman communicated what was happening to other people, "including calls to police on multiple occasions," according to the charges. "But she was afraid to follow through with these reports due to the threats against her."

The woman eventually began working with victim advocates, who made her feel comfortable enough to come forward, the charges say. Police interviewed witnesses, including one of the men who allegedly paid Mojica to have sex with the woman, documents say, and the witnesses corroborated the woman's story.

Evidence also suggests that Mojica had been using fraudulent identification documents to work in the U.S., police wrote.

On Thursday, 44-year-old Mojica was charged in 3rd District Court with one count of aggravated human trafficking, a first-degree felony, and one count of pattern of unlawful activity, a second degree felony.

Charges state that Mojica has a number of aliases, including Santos Esteban and Jose Martinez Fernandez.

Mojica was arrested and booked into the Salt Lake County jail Tuesday, where he is being held in lieu of $250,000 bail. Mojica is scheduled to make his initial court appearance Tuesday.

Twitter: @mnoblenews