State officials and an ABC Action News are reporting on an eight-month long investigation of state human trafficking that involved teen age victims used as “sex slaves.”
Florida’s newly-installed State Attorney General, Ashley Moody said that, “This case is just one example of how I will work daily with my Office of Statewide Prosecution and Florida’s great law enforcement officers to combat human trafficking and rescue survivors. The teenage victim in this case was lured away from his family with promises of a better life. Instead, he was moved into a filthy trailer and used as a slave for nearly a year. As a mother, I cannot even begin to express how disturbing the facts of this case are to me.”
Six people were arrested in the troubling case. The investigation reportedly was launched when Louisiana law enforcement contacted St. Petersburg, FL police department, with information about a missing 17 year-old boy. They said they thought the 17 year old was in what was described as a “mobile home” at “4000 24th St. North, Lot 12, Silver Lake Mobile Home Park in St. Petersburg.”
The brief still of the home in question is not clear, but it may indeed be a pre-HUD Code mobile home.
Investigators are working under a belief that the victim was lured through an online gaming app, called Discord. The gaming ap allows users to communicated directly with each other. The ap was allegedly used it to coordinate picking the teen up and then driving him to St. Pete.
The minor victim is reporting receiving specialized trauma-care designed for victims of human sexual trafficking.
Four adults – Mark Earl Dennis, Andrew Barry Dennis, Curtis Lee Gruwell, and Michael Wayne Schwartz – were reportedly in the “mobile home” with what last year was the 16 year old boy.
Mark Dennis, Andrew Dennis, Schwartz, Blasdel, Gauthier and McGlamory are all charged with conspiracy to commit human trafficking and interference with custody. Dennis claimed to be the boy’s biological father, but could provide no proof of that claim, per reports.
Mark Dennis, Andrew Dennis, Blasdel and Gauthier are also charged with sexual battery. However, Gruwell is still at large. Authorities are asking for leads from the public, at the time that this article is being drafted – Monday night – for Tuesday morning publication.
The Department of Children and Families and Homeland Security reportedly assisted in this tragic, but increasingly common, criminal investigation. See the related reports, below the byline and notices. “We Provide, You Decide.” © ## (News, analysis, and commentary.)
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