Skip to footer

Florida police break up high school prostitution ring

Students from two Florida high schools were involved in a prostitution ring, according to Venice Beach, Fla., police. One teen was arrested, and another arrest is expected Tuesday. 

  • By Staff Associated Press

| Venice, Fla.

 Authorities in Florida say a 17-year-old high school student organized a prostitution ring of students from nearby high schools.

The teen was arrested Friday on felony charges of human trafficking of a person under 18.

Police say at least one act of prostitution took place, which led to the arrest of 21-year-old John Michael Mosher. He's accused of paying $40 and a bottle of liquor to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.

Police Capt. Tom Mattmuller told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune another arrest is expected Tuesday.

Officials say the ring was uncovered when four students confided to administrators at Venice High School, reported the Herald-Tribune:

In early October, four female students approached Venice High administrators and said a male Venice High student and De Armas wanted them to join their prostitution ring, according to police documents.

Students told officers that De Armas coordinated at least three prostitution deals — including the one with the 15-year-old — by using Facebook private messaging.

After Mosher paid for the sex, the police reports said, De Armas and an accomplice began trying to recruit other girls to have sex with clients to gain money and alcohol. They planned to use some of the money to buy narcotics, according to witness statements to police.

Documents indicate the teen and at least one other student concocted the plan over the summer to prostitute teens for money and alcohol.

___

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Florida police break up high school prostitution ring
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Latest-News-Wires/2014/1125/Florida-police-break-up-high-school-prostitution-ring
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe