Prostitution sting leads to arrest for sex trafficking
Sheriff Ken Mascara announced that undercover detectives conducted a two-day prostitution sting that resulted in the arrest of two women and five men. The operation used both male and female undercover deputies.
“Prostitution is a gateway crime that makes other crimes like robbery and theft, battery, drug dealing and human trafficking easier,” said Sheriff Ken J. Mascara. “Both females arrested admitted to be addicted to heroin and opiate drugs and relied on prostitution to support those addictions.”
According to the Sheriff, one male was arrested for human sex trafficking and recruitment/procurement for prostitution.
“In the course of the undercover operation, a male contacted one of our undercover deputies and became very aggressive, making numerous threats to her and stated that he owned an escort service with 15 other girls working for him,” Sheriff Mascara said. “He promised her more money, better clients and better living conditions if she were to work for him.”
According to the Sheriff, the calls continued and became more aggressive and threatening in nature and a controlled meeting was scheduled between the male and the undercover deputy. At the meeting, detectives intercepted the male, identified as 45-year-old Dorio Marcus from the 10,000 block of SW Chadwick Drive in Port St. Lucie. He was booked into the St. Lucie County Jail on a $100,000 bond. Marcus has prior arrests for robbery, armed sexual battery, stalking, false imprisonment, and deriving proceeds from prostitution in both St. Lucie and Broward counties.
“This type of criminal element is below scum,” Sheriff Mascara said. “He preys on women who are trapped in addictions and exploits them for his own personal gain knowing full-well they have no recourse but to comply. If there are any other women in the South Florida region who have been victimized by Dorio Marcus, they are encouraged to call our Special Investigations Unit at (772) 462-3300.”
