77-year-old man, pregnant woman, teen among dozens charged in prostitution sting:
Hot off the heels of their craigslist sting of 15 alleged child predators the Polk County Sheriff’s Department in Florida has produced another major bust.
This past weekend they arrested 44 said to be part of a prostitution ring that did business on both craigslist and the Village Voice Media owned backpage. Among those arrested were a 77-year-old pimp, a pregnant woman and a 17-year-old girl.
I’m not going to list the women because a lot of them are victims themselves but I will list some of the highlights. I’ll be listing some of the men who either solicited or profited.
Virgil Stanton, 77, of Auburndale is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution.
Shedy Ibrahim, 25, of Orlando is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution, Possession of Cocaine, Possession of Cannabis with intent to sell, Possession of Cannabis, and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Gerald Thomason, 19, of Lake Wales is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution, Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, and Resisting without Violence.
Lawson Bracewell, 23, of Deltona is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution.
Jerome Holt, 23, of Lutz is charged with Soliciting another for Prostitution.
Randy Casey, 29, of Sanford is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution.
Kabir S. Sanchez Diaz, 25, of Orlando is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution, Possession of Cannabis, Possession of Methamphetamine and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia.
Raymond Lewis James, 33, of Tampa is charged with Deriving Proceeds from Prostitution.
Joseph Renfort, 34, of Winter Haven is charged with Soliciting another for Prostitution.
Justin Shelley, 36, of Tampa is charged with Soliciting another for Prostitution.
These people are the real problem and should be jailed for a long time. Give them a sentence that really hurts and not some damn fine. If you want to do something serious about prostitution jail the pimps and johns. Cut off both the supply and the demand.
This story does bring up two issues though.
The first shows that craigslist isn’t really moderating the adult services ads. If they were then how did their ads get past the moderators? The police didn’t place these ads, they just responded to them.
The second is that Village Voice Media obviously doesn’t give a crap about child prostitution and human trafficking and they still escape most media and legal outrage.
Did I mention I know the people who run Geebo.com? The classifieds that actually have a conscience.
Help spread the word on craigslist human trafficking you can win a free CraigsCrimeList T-Shirt.
Craigslist crime post #1306
Backpage crime post #51
Prostitution/Human Trafficking post #587
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