BALTIMORE — A 41-year-old Owings Mills man is facing federal indictment for sex trafficking of a child, enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution, sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion, and distribution of a controlled substance.
According to the seven-count indictment, Feliciano de Jesus Diaz-Martinez, a Guatemalan national in the United States illegally caused more than 25 individuals, including minors to engage in commercial sex by means of force, fraud and coercion beginning no later than 2016 and continuing through May 2019.
The indictment alleges that Diaz-Martinez knew that Victim 1 was 16-years-old when he first caused her to engage in commercial sex acts and had her work for him until she was 18. The indictment also says that nearly all the victims suffered from serious substance abuse disorders including addictions to heroin, crack cocaine and Xanax.
As alleged in the indictment, Diaz-Martinez maintained a network of associates who paid to engage in sex acts with the victims he advertised and made available to them.
Diaz-Martinez also allegedly maintained several different accounts on a social media platform which he used to recruit and communicate with the victims in order to get them to work for him. According to the indictment, Diaz-Martinez sometimes offered the users he communicated with heroin and crack cocaine, referred to as “boy” and “girl,” in exchange for engaging in commercial sex with his customers.
The indictment continues, alleging that Diaz-Martinez frequently demanded that victims engage in sex acts with him free of charge and retaliated against the victims if he was not personally satisfied with the sexual encounter.
The indictment further alleges that Diaz-Martinez retaliated against the victims who violated his rules, failed to earn sufficient money from commercial sex, or otherwise displeased him in a number of ways, including abandoning them at customers’ homes and on roadsides without their belongings or transportation, and withholding drugs from the victims whom he knew to be addicted.
Diaz-Martinez faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and for enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution; a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison for each of four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and a maximum of 20 years in prison for distribution of controlled substances.
An indictment is not a finding of guilt. An individual charged by indictment is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty at some later criminal proceedings.
