6 men arrested in Manatee County in 'Operation Refuge' for human trafficking charges

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. - Six men are facing human trafficking-related charges after the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said they traveled to meet a minor for sex.

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said the arrests last Thursday and Friday were part of ‘Operation Refuge,’ which focused on fighting human trafficking. 

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Sheriff Wells said detectives put ads on websites known to predators about meeting minors for sex. Nearly 200 men responded.

"It's extremely disturbing and alarming to me because these are these six men here had no contact with law enforcement," he said. "So, they have this strong desire that we don't know about to have sex with a minor. How prevalent? This is extremely prevalent. We see it in every city in the state of Florida."

One of the men arrested in Operation Refuge (Photo courtesy: Manatee County Sheriff's Office)

Sheriff Wells said some of those men stopped talking when they heard the girls’ ages, or when they didn’t get pictures to prove the girl was on the other end of the phone. 

Those six who showed up drove from North Port, Tampa and parts of Manatee County, Wells said.

"We often hear people talking about how these people that are arrested have been entrapped. That's a bunch of bull," Wells said. "You have to be willing to engage in sexual contact with them with a minor."

Jerome Jeffson, Marckendy Dariste, Edward Aji, Juan Ojeda, Miguel De La Cruz, and Andrew Lang are charged with engaging in human trafficking labor, traveling to meet a minor, and unlawful use of a two-way communication device.  

Photos courtesy: Manatee County Sheriff's Office

"It worries me like it worries everybody else," Wells said. "That's why all I can do is stress how important it is that you take care of monitoring your children's activities and do what you can to keep them safe because these predators don't give a dang about these kids."

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"They start by communicating with juveniles either on social media through gaming devices and then some, and then they can get through to them there, and then you have these pimps, these lowlifes that are on these websites that will also try to farm out these young girls to the predators," he said.

The sheriff said Operation Refuge involved sexual predators, local massage parlors engaging with human traffickers and prostitution.

"We need to pay a lot more attention to what's going on with women involved in prostitution. They're not, for the most part, doing this from a free will. There's always someone behind the scenes that is driving this business for them, and they feel helpless, and they feel like they have no way out," Wells said.

According to the Sheriff, there’s one human trafficking victim in this investigation who was brought to the United States from another country. Detectives are talking to the other women involved to see if they’re victims too. 

"Our main focus is why are you in this line of work, and sometimes when you're dealing with victims of human trafficking, it takes a lot of time. You have to build a lot of trust for them before they will seek out that help. We did have one true victim of human trafficking that we know was brought here from another country, and right now she was paying off a debt that was owed for that exchange for her to be here in the U.S.," Wells said.

Deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution charges are pending for the owner of Royal Relaxation massage parlor and an employee at Latin Relaxation. 

Photo courtesy: Manatee County Sheriff's Office

Manatee County Code Enforcement cited VIP Sauna for numerous business violations. Detectives continue to work with Code Enforcement to shut down the businesses permanently. Detectives shut down Sun Spa. 

Sheriff Wells said they’ll continue to have this type of operation and won’t stop until it’s not an issue anymore. He admitted, though, it’s not going away any time soon, and said if you see something suspicious, report it to law enforcement.