Online recruiting investigation leads to rearrest of accused Miami sex trafficker

MIAMI – A 41-year-old Miami man has been rearrested on human trafficking charges following an undercover investigation in California, Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle and City of Miami Police Chief Manuel Morales announced Friday in a news release.

According to prosecutors, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office Human Trafficking Task Force was notified by the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office in California that “a 2018 online undercover California investigation aimed at identifying potential human traffickers and predators, led back to a Miami source identifying himself online with the username of ‘handsome_and_wealthy_305.’”

Authorities say the Miami-Dade Task Force members were able to identify the user as Ruben Gonzalez, who was already facing human trafficking charges in Miami-Dade County.

“The sheer boldness of human traffickers is so rarely visible to the public, but it is always felt by those children and adults who find themselves victimized by its demons of drug addiction, exploitation and brutality,” State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said in a statement. “Traffickers tempt their targets with colorful promises of a life of money, sophisticated style and excitement. Instead, victims find themselves becoming simple money-making machines for those exploiting them. I applaud the work of the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office, our Human Trafficking Task Force, and the City of Miami Police in putting this investigation together.”

According to the state attorney’s office, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy posed online as a 17-year-old girl named “Gina Felix,” who worked as a prostitute in the area at the direction of her trafficker in California.

Authorities say Gonzalez sent the undercover deputy his phone numbers and selfie photos and videos, which helped them identify him.

Police said he also spoke on the phone with the undercover deputy, urging her to come to Miami and prostitute “under his oversight.”

“On the phone call, he explained how he operated his business and outlined how much better her prostitution working conditions would be if she were with him in Miami, indicating that ‘Gina’ would not have to work the ‘track’ (soliciting prostitution customers while out on the streets) or have ‘car dates’ (sexual contact inside cars),” the news release stated.

After the undercover deputy consented to coming to Miami, Gonzalez sent her a one-way Greyhound bus ticket from San Fernando, California, to Miami, authorities said.

Gonzalez is now facing charges of attempted human trafficking involving transporting a minor from outside a state to within another state for the purpose of commercial sexual activity, and attempted human trafficking of a victim under the age of 18.

As of Friday, he was being held at the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center without bond.