A resident of Guatemala who has lived several years in Chattanooga is facing federal charges for allegedly enticing his young female cousin to be smuggled into the U.S. and then having sex with her.
Agents said German Rolando Vicente-Sapon knew that the girl was only 15 or 16 when he had sex with her. She continued to live with him, though they never married.
Vicente-Sapon was arrested this week after he had already been processed for deportation and was awaiting an order from an immigration judge.
It is charged that Vicente-Sapon "was engaged in the importation of minors for immoral purposes" from February, March or April 2006 to September 2007.
The girl told authorities that she knew he was her first cousin and she did not want to have sex with him. But she said she relented because she did not know anyone here, had nowhere else to go and was in the country illegally. She said they had sex on the same day she arrived in Chattanooga.
Vicente-Sapon, who was interviewed on Tuesday, said he had contacted her in Guatemala and they had flirted on the phone. He said they basically became engaged by phone.
He said he told her she could make more money in the U.S. and could send money to her mother, who was seriously ill with diabetes.
Vicente-Sapon said he had met an individual at an Hispanic church in East Ridge who told him of a man in Mexico who was a human smuggler. He said he contacted the smuggler and agreed to pay him $5,000 to get the girl to Chattanooga. He said he paid him the final $2,000 after they arrived here.
He acknowledged that they had sex on her first night here.