A couple has been arrested and charged with human trafficking after they allegedly bonded three women out of jail and gave them housing but forced them into prostitution.
Joselito Martinez and Tanya Wurster of Marion County, Florida, are charged in connection with the human trafficking of three women between 2019 and 2021 at various locations throughout Central Florida, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation said in a press release.
After the couple paid the bonds of the women to bring them out of jail and provided them a place to live, the women were allegedly forced to engage in “commercial sex acts with customers,” which helped the pair rake in more than $300,000 from the victims over two years.
According to investigators, Martinez used “narcotics, threats of violence, and humiliating acts such as shaving the victim’s head to control the victim.”
Police said he also forced two women to receive tattoos to brand them as his property.
Police officers said the child Martinez and Wurster share together was also in the home where the alleged prostitution had occurred.
Orange County Sheriff’s Office Investigators said they believe there are likely additional victims since Martinez and Wurster were often looking for new victims.
Martinez and Wurster have been arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail.