17-year-old girl arrested for running prostitution ring in Florida involving teenage girls

© WTSP

A teen girl in Sarasota, Florida was arrested Friday and charged with running a high school prostitution ring that included girls from Sarasota High School and nearby Venice High School.

The reported that Alexa Nicole De Armas was charged with a felony count of human trafficking of a person under the age of 18.

One client was arrested, 21-year-old John Michael Mosher, who paid $40 and a bottle of liquor to have sex with a 15-year-old girl.

The scheme came to light when four girls at Venice High School confessed to a school administrator that they had been approached about joining the prostitution ring.

Venice Police Department Captain Tom Mattmuller told the that a third person will be arrested on Tuesday, but declined to comment further, saying the department's investigation is ongoing.

De Armas is believed to have concocted the scheme over the summer as a way of making money and getting access to alcohol and drugs. She ran the business via Facebook private chat.

"Why pimp out old hoes when I have fresh young hoes I can give up for money?" De Armas wrote to one business associate. "As long as I'm getting paid I'm trafficking all these (expletive deleted)."

The encounter between Mosher - a homeless dishwasher at a local restaurant - and the 15-year-old girl took place in an empty pool shed in August. According to evidence in De Armas' Facebook chats, the girl tried to back out of the transaction at the last minute, but Mosher became angry and assaulted her against her will.

Mosher is being held without bail at Sarasota County Jail on charges of felony sexual battery on a victim older than 12.

Sarasota County School District spokeswoman Debbie Tippen said that the district is declining to comment on an ongoing investigation, but echoed the police, who said that none of the illicit activities took place on school grounds.

According to police, who obtained a search warrant for De Armas' Facebook chats, De Armas was charging "$50 to $70 to perform oral sex and $100 for intercourse with a virgin" with 40 percent of profits going to the girls who performed sex acts for clients.