Human Trafficking: Man Lured Victims With Heroin, Deputies Say

NEW PORT RICHEY, FL — A 59-year-old New Port Richey man faces a long list of charges after Pasco County Sheriff’s deputies say he used his Polk Street home as a base for human trafficking and prostitution operations.

According to the agency, Clent Ruffin recruited women from local strip clubs between January and August of 2015. Ruffin is accused of “harboring the victims” at his 6430 Polk St. home and giving them heroin “for the purpose of coercion for commercial sexual activity,” an arrest report stated.

Ruffin, the report said, would drive the victims to meet with customers at various locations. While Ruffin received cash from customers who paid for the sexual encounters, the money was “used to satisfy never-ending debts owed to the defendant by the victims,” the report said.

Victims also told deputies they had sex with Ruffin and in front of him “in exchange for heroin on a recurring basis,” the report noted.

Ruffin was brought into custody Tuesday and his arrest was announced Wednesday. Deputies say there were multiple victims, but an exact number is not available. All of the women involved, however, were adults, Pasco County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Eddie Daniels Jr. told Patch.

As of Wednesday, Ruffin was being held in the Land O’ Lakes jail in lieu of $146,300 bond. He was charged with human trafficking, possession of cocaine, possession of marijuana, possession of paraphernalia, keeping a public nuisance structure for drug activity, trafficking in morphine, opium, hydromorphone and heroin. He also faces eight counts of possession of a controlled substance without prescription.

Booking photo courtesy of the Pasco County Sheriff’s Office

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