Posted on 03/13/2019 7:42:21 AM PDT by Gamecock
A jury found him guilty of holding women in Manatee County against their will, giving them drugs and forcing them to prostitute themselves.
A man has been convicted of holding women against their will and forcing them to prostitute themselves in Manatee County.
According to the office of Ed Brodsky, state attorney for the 12th Judicial Circuit, a jury on March 8 found Juan Cruz Jr., 43, guilty of two counts of human trafficking and four counts of deriving support from the proceeds of prostitution.
Throughout 2017, Cruz offered several women who were homeless and addicted to heroin a place to stay, food and drugs. He then told them that they had to work for him because they owed him for the housing and drugs.
Cruz set up “dates” with men online and gave the women heroin and crack in exchange for them having sexual encounters. Cruz never gave any of the money to the women, instead using it to purchase drugs for them.
Cruz, a registered sex offender and felon, was arrested in November 2017 after one of the women escaped and reported him to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office.
“Human trafficking is modern day slavery,” the lead prosecutor, Ashley Dusnik, said in a news release.
Cruz faces a maximum sentence of 120 years. A sentencing date has not been set.
I am shocked at the lack of tats on the neck and face. But I guess the gold teeth make up for it.
120 years of taxpayer’s money for this creep.
Was he a citizen?
Act of love..................Yeb!
Family values don’t stop at the Rio Grande.....GWB
Has anyone kept a running list of all of the things “Florida Man” has done???
Fairly certain it will be a few pages long.
Dude gets around. Seems to make the news every week.
Y’all make sure to keep “Florida Man” in Floriduh, mmmmmK?
Most of the time “Florida Man” is not even a US citizen.
Wish we could keep them in their own countries....
Good point. The Herald Tribune could spare a few more column inches and give us a breakdown of his other crimes. And maybe the crimes committed by his parents. Let's start out the demons among us...
Yeah, he’s a pig and deserves a bastinado. But he didn’t get these women hooked or kick them out of their homes. Their lives were crap long before he got there. He just exploited that, which is plenty heinous in itself.
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