A Seminole County man has admitted to turning a 14-year-old girl into a commodity. Rowy De Jesus Vasquez, 26, of Altamonte Springs, pleaded guilty today in federal court to sex trafficking of a minor, admitting he exploited a child for cold, calculated profit over a six-week period in 2015.
Vasquez, facing a potential life sentence, admitted in court documents that between April 24 and June 10, 2015, he forced the underage girl into commercial sex acts. He orchestrated her exploitation with the precision of a criminal enterprise: supplying her with a cellphone, directing her to post ads on Backpage, setting prices for sex acts, and pocketing every dollar earned from her abuse.
The indictment, handed down December 9, 2015, paints a damning picture of manipulation and control. Vasquez didn’t just facilitate the crime—he engineered it. The Backpage website, long exploited by traffickers before its 2018 takedown, served as his digital brothel, allowing him to market the child to predators across Central Florida.
Federal investigators from the FBI, aided by the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation, dismantled Vasquez’s operation through digital forensics and victim interviews. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Ilianys Rivera Miranda, who emphasized that exploiting children for profit is a federal offense met with zero tolerance.
This prosecution is part of Project Safe Childhood, a DOJ initiative launched in 2006 to combat child sexual exploitation. Task forces under the program combine federal, state, and local resources to hunt down predators, dismantle trafficking networks, and rescue victims before more damage is done.
Vasquez now awaits sentencing, where he faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and up to life behind bars. The case stands as a grim reminder: in the underground economy of human trafficking, children are the most vulnerable currency—and the law is watching.
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Key Facts
- State: Florida
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Human Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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