Two women β one of them the wife of a police officer β were arrested for allegedly running a prostitution ring in Boca Raton. Palm Beach County criminal defense attorneys understand this was not a typical operation.
There were no women trolling strips or waving down potential johns from the sidewalk. Rather, it something in the middle. Investigators say the two women who acted as madams to at least six escorts also prostituted themselves on occasion. Authorities say the pair made hundreds of thousands of dollars, with one owning a six-bedroom house in a gated community.
They are both now facing charges of money laundering and procuring prostitutes, but they evaded human trafficking charges because investigators said there was no evidence any of those who worked for the pair were doing so against their will. This was despite the fact that one of the women who worked for the two told investigators she had been forced into it.
The five-month investigation, involving city police, state police and the U. Department of Homeland Security, was sparked by the detention of one of the escorts on an immigration violation. While she was in custody, she told immigration officials that she was forced into working as a prostitute over a period of nine months.
She said she flew in from Brazil in the late summer of , and was introduced to the two alleged madams, who were also Brazilian. The woman agreed, but when the two leaders of the operation learned she had no passport and was in the country illegally, they reportedly began to threaten that if she did not have sex with the male clients, they would turn her into immigration authorities.
