A sex trafficking ring allegedly selling a 13-year-old girl for sex to hundreds of men in less than a month has been rounded up by the Florida Police.
In recent times, parents and adults alike, especially black folks have become increasingly cautious about sex trafficking, but this Florida teenager’s story underpins the threats of sexual predators and perpetrators.
Reportedly, the teenager ran away from home and was successively hired by sex traffickers. More disheartening is the involvement of a police woman who was later identified as Souprina Blanc as well as 19-year-old Racquel Bijou.
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According to the criminal complaint filed by the girl, both Blanc and Bijou made her have sex in exchange for money with numerous older men, some reportedly about 50 years old.
The 13-year-old child made so much money for them, they nicknamed her “breadmaker.” Even though the girl reportedly told Bijou that she was underage, she was instructed to tell everyone she was 21-year-old, Sun Sentinel reported.
The alleged traffickers were busted when a disturbed relative told investigators about a text the girl sent three days after her departure from home. The text read that she had had sex with “so many people.” Her phone was turned over to investigators, who established that the girl’s phone had been in constant contact with a number listed on several online prostitution advertisements.
Aided by the FBI’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force, Miami-Dade Police investigators used that number to set up a surveillance on June 11 around a Miami residence they suspected sheltered the girl.
As the teenage girl was seen exiting the residence, authorities captured her and went into the home where they found Blanc, 27, an unidentified naked female and a man, also naked, hiding in the shower.
Recounting her ordeal to investigators, the teenage girl says she left home on the evening of May 19 because “she was bored,” according to federal court documents. Subsequently, she met a 19-year-old woman named Racquel Bijou at a party.
Bijou offered to help her make money, and she took her up on the offer even though Bijou told her she needed to prostitute herself, the court records say. In a quest to make money, the teenage girl who had no place to stay went along with Bijou’s business idea and prostituted herself several times a day.
Afterwards, Bijou started to arrange the buying and the selling where she met men of different ages and told to text Bijou with the time and the dollar amount of each sex act, according to police.
Bijou and her associates went on to take pictures of the teenager and posted them online on websites that advertise commercial sex acts, prosecutors say.
Along with her associates, 22-year-old Jeremiah Horenstein and 25-year-old Ashton Lewinson, Bijou booked hotels for the teenage girl and in less than a month she was made to sleep with over 100 men.
However, the federal court seems to believe that she wasn’t the only minor trafficked by the three. She told investigators about her participation in one prostitution-related sex act with another unnamed 15-year-old.
Bijou allegedly fell out with Horenstein, and the 13-year-old ended up working for 27-year-old Souprina Blanc.
Bijou and Horenstein were arrested on Aug. 15 while Lewinson was arrested on Nov. 21, and Blanc was recently arrested. They are being held without bond. Blanc is also held without bond after appearing in Miami federal magistrate court.
The four alleged traffickers have been charged with sex trafficking a minor and they face life in prison.
It is estimated that over 293,000 American children are at risk of becoming child sex trafficking victims. Lately, the case of sex trafficking is on the rise. Earlier, nine children were recovered as part of the sting targeting metro Atlanta.
