VENICE, Fla. — Students at a Southwest Florida high school told administrators that two teens tried to recruit them into a “prostitution ring” and that one 15-year-old boy had been “pimping out girls,” according to an arrest affidavit.
By Tuesday, detectives in Venice, a small community in Sarasota County, had charged three people in connection with the case.
A 15-year-old boy and a 17-year-old girl were charged with human trafficking and a 21-year-old man was charged with sexual battery on a victim older than 12. Police said he paid a 15-year-old girl from Riverview High School $40 and a bottle of alcohol for sex.
Venice police say the investigation continues, and there may be more victims.
The idea to form a prostitution ring gained traction through a series of online messages between the two around Aug. 13, according to investigators who searched the pair’s Facebook accounts.
In the messages they discussed prices, ages of prospective prostitutes and details of the operation, according to the police report. The 15-year-old was already in the custody of the Department of Juvenile Justice for unrelated charges.
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