Below is an official statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
A Lake Worth woman and a man pleaded guilty in federal district court to four counts of sex trafficking two minor girls on Jan. 23 and Jan. 9, respectively.
As part of their guilty pleas, Maria Eugenia Barrios Calero, 44, admitted that she planned with Ricardo Tobon Flores, 44, for Flores to pay her for having sex with two minor girls at a motel in Lake Worth, Florida.
On Aug. 6, 2023, a local motel owner observed two young females in a hotel room sitting on a bed, while Flores argued with another male about paying for the motel room and Calero stood by. The motel owner contacted law enforcement while Calero and Flores drove off in a car with the two young females. Calero, Flores and the young females then returned to the motel. Law enforcement officers from the Palm Beach County Human Trafficking Task Force, who had responded to the scene, confirmed that Flores and Calero had engaged in commercial sex trafficking of the two minor females. Law enforcement officers discovered that Flores had paid $200 to have sex with both underage females and had coordinated the transaction with Calero, who was to take $50 from each girl for having sex with Flores.
Calero’s sentencing is scheduled for April 2, at 11:00 a.m. Flores’s sentencing is scheduled for March 14, at 11:00 a.m., both before U.S. District Judge Robin L. Rosenberg in West Palm Beach. Calero and Flores each face up to life in prison, lifetime supervised release, and payment of restitution to his victims.
U.S. Attorney Markenzy Lapointe for the Southern District of Florida, Special Agent in Charge Anthony Salisbury of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Miami, and Sheriff Ric Bradshaw of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) announced the guilty plea.
HSI West Palm Beach Office and PBSO investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gregory Schiller is prosecuting it.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov or https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdfl/project-safe-childhood.
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