Two indicted in Anne Arundel sex trafficking ring

Police say a Baltimore man and his accomplice used drugs, intimidation and violence to force numerous women into a regional sex trafficking ring, holding them as prisoners in a rotating list of hotel rooms while they worked as prostitutes. Maryland Attorney General Brian E. Frosh issued a statement Thursday announcing the results of grand jury proceedings last month that led to the arrest of Valdez Lawrence of Baltimore and Mary Carr of Dundalk.The April 14 indictments followed a nine-month investigation by Anne Arundel County police, launched as police were responding to a “surge” of prostitution in hotels along the Interstate 95 corridor, court records show. Lawrence was taken into custody April 29 at a motel in Baltimore County, while Carr was stopped for a traffic violation and arrested May 3 on Belle Grove Road near Brooklyn Park, according to police and court records. Together, officials said, Lawrence and Carr forced women to engage in sexual acts for money in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Baltimore City and Howard County. Charges in the indictment include human trafficking, conspiracy, receiving earnings of a prostitute, and identity fraud. Nucamendi, 14, of Lothian. Online court records did not list an attorney for them. Escobar and Hernandez-Nucamendi are in the county jail being held without bond and Ponce is at a youth detention center, police said. Investigators are working to identify a fourth person suspected to be involved in the slaying of Ariana Funes-Diaz, of Adelphi, police said. The killing, police allege, occurred because the four suspects feared FunesDiaz intended to go to police with information about a crime she and the suspects reportedly had been involved in on April 17 in the District. FunesDiaz’s body was discovered about 10 a. m. Wednesday in a wooded area in the 6300 block of 64th Ave. in Riverdale, about one month after she was killed, police said. Law enforcement located her after the Prince George’s County gang unit received information about a possible killing that occurred in April, said Maj. Brian Reilly, commander of the police department’s criminal investigation division. Fuentes-Ponce and Escobar are members of MS-13 from the “Sailors” clique, according to Reilly, which operates mostly out of Prince George’s County. Hernandez-Nucamendi and Funes-Diaz had earlier been reported missing out of Anne Arundel County, police said.