POLICE ARREST SUSPECTED PROSTITUTION RING LEADER
WEST PALM BEACH — A Palm Springs man suspected of running prostitution houses in West Palm Beach was arrested Tuesday on multiple charges.
Domingo Diaz, 30, is facing three counts each of deriving proceeds from prostitution, maintaining a house of prostitution and soliciting another person to commit prostitution. He remained in the Palm Beach County Jail on Friday after a judge set his bail at $45,000.
West Palm Beach police alleged Diaz operated prostitution houses on Belvedere Road, Miller Avenue, Independence Road and Pilgrim Road, all in the southeastern part of the city.
Three men who were allegedly employed by Diaz as doormen were arrested in May on felony prostitution charges, which police investigators said were connected to human trafficking.
Bartolo Mazariegos-Chay, 41, Edictor Perez-Morales, 33, and Octavio Diaz, 21, all remain in custody as they await their next court hearing. All are citizens of other countries and could face deportation after their court proceedings in Palm Beach County have concluded.
Human trafficking is described as the exploitation of another person for labor, domestic servitude or commercial sexual activity through the use of fraud, force or coercion.
In 2017, Florida ranked third in the nation in the number of human-trafficking cases reported, and Palm Beach County was third in the state, according to authorities.
According to a police report, Mazariegos-Chay told investigators in May that Diaz hired him to work as a doorman at a house on the 3800 block of Miller Avenue, paying him $50 a day.
A woman told investigators Diaz approached her at a nightclub and offered her work as a prostitute for several thousand dollars a week. Another woman told investigators she was a victim of human trafficking and alleged a girl as young as 16 was being sold into prosti- tution at one of the houses.
The woman told police Diaz was one of the main bosses who came to collect money every night.
Some of the women were recruited from different countries, and threats were made against their families if they refused to cooperate, police said.
The arrest report for Diaz says he is a citizen of Mexico, and jail records indicate an unnamed government agency was reviewing the status of his case.