Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition

Cops: An online ad showed a Miami teen missing since 2019. Her pimp was arrested

- By David J. Neal

An online advertisem­ent offering sexual services from a 17-year-old girl who had been missing since 2019 led to Saturday’s human traffickin­g arrest of a man attempted to pimp her out, according to Miami-Dade police.

An arrest report says once missing persons investigat­ors saw the online ad, undercover cops made a one-hour, $500 appointmen­t for sex. The report says at the hookup spot, near Northwest 25th Street and 107th Avenue, police saw the girl get out of a white Mercedes driven by 27-yearold West Miami-Dade resident Christian Carvajal. That’s when they arrested Carvajal and took everybody east on Northwest 25th Street to Miami-Dade Police Department headquarte­rs.

The girl told police she’d met Carvajal last week on Instagram. He agreed to drive her to the undercover cop appointmen­t for $250, half the agreed upon session rate, and made two other appointmen­ts that day for her. One would pay $1,000 of which she said he expected to get $500 from her.

Carvajal’s version, according to the arrest report, was he met the girl on on Instagram this week, and he would make $200 for taking her to the undercover appointmen­t. When he picked her up in Little Havana, he told police, he suspected she might be a minor but did no checking other than asking her age, which she gave as 18. Carvajal said he was supposed to drive her to Homestead after the undercover appointmen­t.

In addition to charges of being a pimp, custodial interferen­ce, human traffickin­g of a minor and contributi­ng to the delinquenc­y of a minor, Carvajal also has been charged with grand theft auto in a separate case. He was granted $2,500 bond on the grand theft auto case, but will remain with Miami-Dade Correction­s because he was granted no bond on the charges related to the 17-year-old girl.

The National Human Traffickin­g Hotline is 888-373-7888. Crime Stoppers of Miami-Dade & the Florida Keys can be reached online or at 305-471-8477 (TIPS).

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