Former Ecuador expat sentenced to prison for offering sex tours with Ecuadorian and Colombian girls to North American tourists

A former Quito expat has been sentenced to four years and nine months in a federal prison for sex trafficking of Ecuadorian and Colombian girls. The sentence on Patrick Minga was announced in an Orlando, Florida federal court Wednesday.

Minga admitted in June to arranging “tours” for Americans to have sex with the girls following an FBI investigation after he had posted an ad on Craigslist.

“We have the best females from Colombia to Ecuador,” the Craigslist ad said. “Lodging, food and unlimited females for $1,395 for seven days.”

An undercover agent responded to the ad via email, and throughout a series of conversations, told Minga that he and a small group of men wanted to have sex with girls.

Brevard County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office agents and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigators arrested Minga in March, 2014 in Huntsville, Alabama after he returned from Ecuador.

According to his plea agreement, Minga told the agent he could arrange the sex trip in San Jose de Minas, Ecuador.

Minga said he looked for girls in indigenous areas because the parents there “don’t know what’s going on,” the plea agreement said.

He told the agent the sex-tourism business in Ecuador was different, because, “They really take it personal, it’s not about money, it’s about the possibility of getting a husband as well.”

In late September, Minga told the undercover agent he needed a deposit, because, “I have to go driving around with my nephew and start giving out lollipops and telling them that there’s a possibility that your whole life could change…”

Minga later told the investigator he had to give some of the girls money to “persuade them.”

During an October telephone call, Minga told the agent about a sexual encounter he had with two girls. Minga said it was great living in Ecuador because had he been in the United States, he would go to jail “for making a pass at a young girl like that.”

Minga, who once lived in Cape Coral, Florida, pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to procure the travel of a person for illicit sexual conduct. He could have been sentenced to up to 30 years in prison.

In addition to his sex tours, Minga also ran a Quito hotel and a “relocation service” for North Americans moving to Ecuador.

When he is released from prison, Minga will have 20 years of supervision and will have to register as a sex offender.