Florida couple forced women into prostitution while their child was present in their home: Officials

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Credit: MBI

MARION COUNTY, Fla. - A Marion County couple was arrested on human trafficking charges after they allegedly bonded three women out of jail and forced them into prostitution, the Metropolitan Bureau of Investigation (MBI) said. 

Joselito Martinez and Tanya Wurster reportedly trafficked three women between 2019 and 2021 at various places throughout Central Florida after bonding the women out of jail and providing them a place to live, the MBI said. 

The women were allegedly forced to engage in "commercial sex acts with customers" allowing Martinez and Wurster to make upwards of $300,000 over two years from the victims. 

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Investigators said Martinez used "narcotics, threats of violence, and humiliating acts such as shaving the victim's head to control the victim."

He also forced two of the women to accept tattoos — branding them as his property, deputies said. 

The child Martinez and Wurster share together was also in the home where prostitution was happening. 

Martinez and Wurster were constantly looking for new victims, so investigators believe there are additional victims. 

Anyone with information about the duo's criminal acts is asked to call the MBI.

They were arrested and booked into the Orange County Jail.