The Polk County Sheriff's Office in Florida, reported Thursday that more than 200 people were arrested following an undercover operation focused on human trafficking.
Grady Judd, sheriff of the county, explained in a press conference that for seven days several agencies worked together to carry out an investigation, which led to the arrest of 219 people including several who were in the country illegally, a high school teacher, three Disney employees and an athletic director.
The police said that in the operation 119 prostitutes were arrested, of which 21 are possible victims of human trafficking; 83 suspects were arrested for soliciting prostitutes and traveling to the undercover location for sex, and 17 more for related crimes.
"Not only did we arrest more suspects during this single operation than we have ever arrested before, we identified 21 human trafficking victims; during a similar operation in February, we identified 24 victims," Judd said.
Among those arrested, 35 are suspected of being in the country illegally. María Guzmán, 36, and Freddy Escalona, 30, are two of them. Both are accused of human trafficking and profiting from prostitution.
According to police information, Escalona lent money to a victim to fix her vehicle and when she could not return it, he forced her into prostitution while he kept most of the profits. Once Escalona took the victim to the undercover location, authorities detained him and the alleged criminal reported that he worked with several women.
“He’s come here illegally to victimize people in the United States,” Judd expressed.
Guzmán, for her part, trafficked two victims from an Orlando hotel and reportedly organized meetings and profited from the money they made.
“She is the one facing a felony charge which is 30 years in prison. She’s the one that was setting the appointments. She’s the one that was prostituting two young ladies. She was taking 60-70 percent of their money,” he said.
Judd revealed that 42 of the suspects were carrying illegal drugs such as fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana. The detectives managed to seize them.
"This is the single largest operation of its kind in the history of the sheriff’s office," Judd said.
