Two foreign nationals arrested in connection with a “multinational criminal organization linked to human trafficking” are illegal aliens, The Tennessee Star has learned.
In the fall of 2023, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Human Trafficking Unit arrested Yilibeth Rivero De Caldera on nine counts of Trafficking for a Commercial Sex Act. Her victims, the agency said, were Central and South American female migrants who were forced into sex slavery to pay off debts owed to Rivero De Caldera in exchange for Rivero De Caldera smuggling them into the United States.
Wednesday, TBI along with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Metro Nashville Police Department (MNPD) and the United States Marshals Service arrested Kleiver Daniel Moto Rivero in what is now being called an ongoing investigation into the sex trafficking operation.
De Caldera and Moto Rivero are being held at the Davidson County Jail, which confirmed Saturday that they both have active Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detainers, meaning they are present in the United States illegally.
“Both Kleiver Daniel Moto Rivero and Yilibeth Rivero De Caldera have active ICE detainers,” Jon Adams, the Davidson County Sheriff’s Office Director of Communications told The Star.
Moto Rivero has been charged with two counts of Trafficking for a Commercial Sex Act and one count of Aggravated Assault with a Deadly Weapon, according to TBI. He has ties to the criminal organization Tren de Aragua, described as “the most powerful criminal structure in Venezuela.”
WKRN first reported the news of Moto Rivero’s arrest, but did not report on his or Rivero De Caldera’s immigration status.
Illegal alien crime has been a hot topic of discussion under President Joe Biden’s administration, which has opened the floodgates and allowed more than seven million non-citizens to enter the country since Biden took office.
Recently, illegal aliens living across the United States have been charged with violent crimes including murder and rape.
In the most high-profile case, University of Georgia (UGA) nursing student Laken Riley, 22, was allegedly murdered by Jose Ibarra, an illegal alien from Venezuela.
Tennessee Senators Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, both Republicans, recently cosponsored the Laken Riley Act, which would require ICE to issue a detainer for illegal aliens who are charged or cited even with minor crimes like theft, burglary, larceny or shoplifting.
That bill has already passed the U.S. House of Representatives.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
