LANSING (WWJ) – A Detroit man has been busted for allegedly running a prostitution and sex trafficking ring.
Alexzonder Rodriguez, 32, was arraigned last week on six total charges, including forced labor/commercial sex, Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel announced on Wednesday, which is National Human Trafficking Awareness Day.
Rodriguez is accused of conducting a criminal enterprise that involved sex trafficking and prostitution of numerous women in Detroit, Port Huron and St. Clair County's Kimball Township.
Officials say Rodriguez conducted the operation with at least five victims between February 2021 and June 2022.
He would allegedly arrange dinner dates to lure his victims, then escalate the arrangements to include regular commercial sex resulting from his forced fraud or coercion, according to Nessel's office.
Evidence showed Rodriguez arranged for other victims to engage in commercial sex, organized their transportation and then kept the earnings, the AG's office said. His coordinated and sustained sex-trafficking and prostitution activities amount to a criminal enterprise.
Rodriguez was arraigned on the following charges:
• Three counts of Forced Labor/Commercial Sex (Sex Trafficking), a 15-year felony;
• Two counts of Pandering, a 20-year felony;
• One count of Accepting Earnings of Prostitution, a 20-year felony;
• One count of Transportation for Prostitution, a 20-year felony; and,
• One count of Conducting a Criminal Enterprise, a 20-year felony.
"Human trafficking continues to plague some of the most vulnerable people among us," Nessel said, per a press release. "Using control and submission, traffickers exploit their victims, subjecting them to sexual, physical and emotional abuse."
