Veteran U.S. Customs and Border Protection agent Luis Uribe tried to tell a federal jury this week that he was raised to respect women, that “no means no” and “stop means stop.”
“I’ve never raped anybody in my whole life,” Uribe said emphatically from the witness stand Tuesday. “I never robbed anybody in my whole life. I never beat a prostitute — or any woman — in my life, ever.”
On Thursday, though, the jury delivered a forceful message of its own, finding Uribe guilty of all counts alleging he used his gun and badge to rob, sexually assault, and beat four Chinese sex workers in Chicago-area hotel rooms in 2022.
After deliberating for about 6 1/2 hours beginning Wednesday, the jury of six men and six women found Uribe guilty of 11 counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, and brandishing a firearm during and in relation to a crime of violence.
Uribe, 45, dressed in a dark sport coat and checkered shirt, showed no reaction as the verdict was read in U.S. District Judge Jorge Alonso’s courtroom. A handful of supporters sat in the front row of the gallery and one female relative began quietly crying.
As he was being led out of the courtroom by security officers, Uribe turned to his relatives and said, “Take care of my kids,” and then shouted “I love you, babe!” as the door was being closed. His supporters left the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse without comment.
Uribe faces anywhere from 7 years in prison up to life. Sentencing was set for Jan. 21.
The sweeping conviction marked a swift end to a trial that featured lurid testimony of the Chinese sex trade, which, according to the testimony of one trafficking expert, entices new immigrants to the U.S. with the promise of easy money giving massages, but can quickly devolve into forced labor in dingy motel rooms in cities across the country.
A veteran customs agent stationed at O’Hare International Airport, Uribe was arrested in December 2025 on charges alleging he attacked four women over the span of nine months in 2022 in hotels in Chicago’s suburbs, using his police powers to rob and sexually assault them.
Prosecutors told the jurors in opening statements last week that Uribe “perverted” his duty to serve and protect, going from investigating crimes to committing them.
But Uribe’s attorneys argued that while Uribe is a weak and “flawed” man who indeed visited prostitutes, the alleged victims were liars who had sought his help with immigration issues before setting him up.
Among the evidence presented at trial was Uribe’s government-issued black Glock handgun and gold Customs and Border Protection badge, which the victims testified appeared similar to those used by Uribe in the attacks. Uribe’s DNA was found on hotel bedsheets after one attack in October 2022, the jury heard. Prosecutors also presented a selfie pulled from Uribe’s phone showing him scowling and holding up the gun in a locker room mirror.
Meanwhile, all four victims testified through Chinese interpreters during the weeklong trial, identifying Uribe, whom they believed to be a “fake cop,” as their attacker.
Another key piece of evidence shown to the jury was a photo of Uribe taken by one of the women in the sex trafficking ring at a seafood buffet in Hoffman Estates and sent to others in the community through the WeChat texting app as a warning.
One witness, who used the Americanized name “Lisa” and was described as a mid-level boss of the organization, testified she had helped lure Uribe to the lunch meeting, where an offer was made from her superiors in China that Uribe could get free sex once a week if he stopped attacking women.
She told the jury he never denied participating in the attacks, and that he cashed in on the offer almost immediately after the lunch ended.
“He followed us back to the hotel and he had sex with the other two women,” Lisa testified.
Testifying in his own defense, Uribe claimed he was actually offered $7,000 plus free sex as a bribe for helping members of the trafficking ring with immigration problems and getting more girls into the U.S. He also vehemently denied ever raping or robbing anyone, saying that all of the encounters were consensual and that the women threatened to frame him after he refused to help.
Uribe’s testimony was punctuated by a shocking moment in cross-examination, when Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathan Shih asked him about one encounter where he left work early purportedly to hit the gym, but went instead to a hotel to meet with Tina.
“You never went to the gym, did you?” Shih asked.
“I got a good workout in,” Uribe responded with a slight grin.
Shih immediately shouted back: “You’re describing the rape of Tina as a good workout?”
“It wasn’t a rape, it was consensual sex,” Uribe said.
In closing arguments Monday, Uribe’s lead attorney, Michael Clancy, tried to mitigate the damage, calling it a “horrible answer” that came out of frustration over all the lies being told about him in the courtroom, and saying the jury should simply disregard it.
“He had had enough,” Clancy said. “He was frustrated by all the lies. He was frustrated by all the accusations. He was frustrated by the government’s questions of him. … It’s a frustrated answer, a horrible answer. But it’s nothing you can consider. You can’t consider that he said something so crass.”
Shih, meanwhile, asked the jury to compare the testimony of the victims with that of Uribe. The women, he said, were “emotional, they were raw, they were direct” in their testimony. They had the courage to come into the courtroom and face their abuser, Shih said. One wept uncontrollably as she tried to point to Uribe at the defense table. Another grew angry as she pantomimed the sex acts Uribe had forced on her.
Uribe, meanwhile, “made jokes” on the witness stand, Shih said.
“He made a rape joke. Actually, he compared the rape of Tina to a workout,” Shih said. “I think that is all you need to know about the defendant.”
Shih also said the victims’ assessment of Uribe as a “fake cop” wasn’t entirely off base.
“He kind of was a fake cop,” Shih told the jury. “He wasn’t a cop, he was a rapist with a gun. He was a rapist in a police uniform.”
jmeisner@chicagotribune.com