MIAMI GARDENS, FLA. (WSVN) - Three suspects were arrested after police investigated a human trafficking operation in Miami Gardens.
A raid was conducted on Tuesday by the Department of Homeland Security and Miami Gardens Police at a home near the corner of Northwest 47th Avenue and Northwest 173rd Drive.
According to the Human Trafficking Task Force, the house was being used as a brothel, and multiple women were rescued.
7News cameras on Wednesday captured the home boarded up following the raid.
According to neighbors, the home was being used as a brothel. A neighbor who spoke to 7News said there was always suspicious activity going on at the home, especially at night.
Yasdid Paul Ortiz, Elibeth Tovar and Omar Jaimes were arrested and charged with running a home as a brothel, human trafficking and money laundering.
Tovar, 40, is accused of luring the majority of the women from Colombia and convincing them they would be working for an elevator company.
According to the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office, there has been an ongoing investigation to track down human trafficking and money laundering in the Miami Gardens neighborhood. In this case, the operation has been conducted for two years.
“The victim really feared going to the authorities both for herself and for her young son,” said Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle
Once the victims arrived in the United States, Tovar would drop the women at various brothels in Southwest Miami-Dade and Miami Gardens to force them into prostitution.
The State Attorney’s Office held a press conference Wednesday afternoon to provide more details on the investigation and how one of the victims was trapped in one brothel for two years.
“A victim was trapped. Tovar allegedly claimed that the victim owed her money for her daily housing and food needs. The victim was scared, vulnerable,” said Rundle. “She was illegally in this country, she was afraid to escape Tovar, and so, she had to work to pay for her cost of living and food.”
Among the victims was the mother of a 4-year-old.
“She feared for her life and she told the detectives later that a threatening letter that had been dropped off at her father’s store in Colombia. The letter translated from Spanish said ‘Snitches die,'” said Rundle.
According to Rundle, the mother and her child are safe.
Jaimes allegedly served as a security at the brothels and was seen by undercover agents driving Tovar to make deposits and transactions at a Western Union.
All three suspects allegedly drove the sex workers to different brothels.
All three suspects are being held on bond.
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