Police officers rescue alleged human trafficking victim from Texas at hotel in Miami Beach

MIAMI BEACH, Fla. – Police officers reported rescuing a 19-year-old woman at a hotel in Miami Beach from a 39-year-old man who she believed was trying to sell her for $700.

The police officers responded to the Red South Beach Hotel, at 3010 Collins Ave., after the woman from Texas called 911 whispering, according to a police report.

“Come and help. I am scared,” she said, according to the police report.

Police officers found her in hotel room 501 with Jose Cuevas, a Puerto Rican who works at a liquor store and lives near Coral Way in Miami, according to a police report.

The woman told police officers that she met Cuevas after she got into a fight with her sister, and he offered to help her. She grew wary when he said he would give her $10,000 in exchange for her obedience, according to police.

The woman also told police officers that after he didn’t let her leave the room, she was pretending to be asleep while she secretly recorded him having a transactional conversation on the phone in Spanish.

Miami Beach police officers arrested Cuevas at about 5:15 p.m., on Sunday, at the hotel. Miami-Dade corrections officers booked him at about 3:20 a.m., on Monday at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center.

Cuevas appeared in bond court later on Monday. He was facing a charge of human trafficking or coercion to subject a victim to engage in commercial sex. Detectives were asking anyone with information about the case to call Miami-Dade County Crime Stoppers at 305-471-8477.