CORAL SPRINGS, FL - According to an online news report provided by coralspringstalk.com, a 21 year old woman from Coral Springs and her alleged accomplice, a 19 year old woman from Hollywood, Florida, was arrested in Coral Springs, Florida, for their association in trafficking children for sex. The Coral Springs Police Department, along with seven other law enforcement agencies, joined forces in the child sex trafficking case, which led to the two suspects' arrest. The two suspects were arrested and taken into custody by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), according to a press release distributed by the FBI and the news report. The two female suspects were arrested and taken into FBI custody without a struggle.
The two female suspects were being investigated and were part of an operation conducted with the help of several state and federal law enforcement agencies. The Broward County Human Trafficking Task Force is a team comprising of the U.S. Attorney's Office for South Florida, the Broward County State's Attorney, the Coral Springs Police Department, the Fort Lauderdale Police Department, and the Miramar Police Department, according to the FBI press release. In addition to the Broward County Human Trafficking Task Force, the case was also being investigated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Broward Sheriff's Office, the Davie Police Department, the Hollywood Police Department, and the Plantation Police Department.
According to the news report, the Broward County jail documents show that Ramirez was booked into the Broward County Main Jail without bond. The 19 year old female suspect was booked into the Paul Rein Detention Facility and was denied a bail bond. The news report states that the two suspects are scheduled to appear before the federal court, which is located in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The suspects' arrest reports have remained sealed in accordance with a federal court order. Therefore, no additional information has been made public concerning the details of the investigation or what precipitated the arrest of the two women.
According to the FBI's press release, the Broward County Human Trafficking Task Force was created in an attempt to fight all types of human trafficking while rendering help and resources aimed at addressing the specific needs of human trafficking victims.
If you have any information concerning this or a human trafficking matter, or any FBI investigation, please visit the FBI website or contact your local police.
Human Sex Trafficking Federal and State Charges
According to Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 §22 U.S.C. 7102, the Federal definition of “human sex trafficking” is when a sex act, for-profit for the benefit of the perpetrator, is provoked by fraud, force, or coercion, or in matters when the victim if induced and is under the age of 18 years of age; or the perpetrator engages in harboring, recruitment, provision, transportation, or capturing an individual to be used to provide services or labor through the use of fraud, force, or coercion for the intention of being subjected to involuntary peonage, servitude, slavery, or bondage.
Under Florida Statute §787.06(2)(d), “human trafficking is defined as soliciting, harboring, recruiting, enticing, providing, transporting, maintaining, or capturing someone else with the intention of exploiting that person.
The Difference Between Human Trafficking and Human Smuggling
When an individual, voluntarily, by their own free will and without force, coercion or fraud by another, decides to engage in activities of being transported, kept, housed, or maintained by another person in human smuggling.
Human trafficking is involuntary. The victim, by no choice of their own, is forced, defrauded, or coerced into involuntary slavery, servitude, peonage, or bondage.