State Attorney Alleges Florida Foster Children Used In Prostitution Ring

The Miami State Attorney’s Office reports that 4 South Floridians were arrested Monday in association with a foster care prostitution ring.

Eric George Earle, 29, Willie Calvin Bivens, 65, Anturrell Nathaniel Dean, 30, and David Zarifi, 34, were charged with conspiracy, racketeering and unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

The men reportedly used a 17-year-old foster child to recruit underage girls in the foster system, reports the Miami Herald, paying them $40 of the $100 trick to have sex with men.

The human trafficking bust also targets Jean LaCroix, a Department of Children and Families employee who is suspected of having sex with a teenage foster child he was assigned to protect.

LaCroix was named in an earlier lawsuit alleging that DCF failed to properly handle the welfare of foster care twins Nubia and Victor Barahona.

Even though family members and school officials repeatedly reported abuse suspicions to the agency, the twins were tortured for years and Nubia was allegedly beaten to death by her adoptive parents.

This a developing story. Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle, Miami-Dade Police and the Department of Children and Families will hold a press conference Tuesday afternoon to release more details about the arrests.

Source: Huffington Post