Illegal Immigrant Indicted For Sex Trafficking A Minor

BALTIMORE, MD — A federal grand jury last week indicted a 41-year-old Guatemalan national on seven charges including sex trafficking of a child and enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution. Feliciano (Alex) de Jesus Diaz-Martinez, who resided in Owings Mills, allegedly caused more than 25 people, including minors, to engage in commercial sex acts for his own financial benefit.

According to the indictment, Diaz-Martinez, who was living illegally in the United States, forced or coerced his victims — including a 16-year-old girl — to take part in numerous sex acts over a three-year period beginning in May 2016. The indictment also alleges that nearly all of Diaz-Martinez’s victims suffered from serious substance abuse disorders, including addiction to heroin, crack cocaine and Xanax.

Diaz-Martinez allegedly lured his victims through the use of several different social media accounts under alias names. According to the indictment, Diaz-Martinez sometimes offered the people he communicated with heroin and crack cocaine in exchange for sex with others. Diaz-Martinez also directed the victims working for him to recruit their friends, many of whom were also addicted to narcotics.

Additionally, Diaz-Martinez kept a network of friends and associates who paid to have sex with the victims whom Diaz-Martinez advertised and made available to them, according to the indictment. He then sent his customers pictures of the victims before transporting them to customer homes or to hotel rooms to engage in sex acts with the customers. At times, he allegedly invited customers to his apartment or to a storage unit he rented.

The indictment also alleges that Diaz-Martinez frequently demanded the victims have sex with him, free of charge, and he retaliated against them if he was not personally satisfied. He also retaliated against the victims who violated his rules, failed to earn sufficient money from sex or otherwise displeased him. Retaliation included abandoning them at customer homes and on roadsides without their belongings or transportation. He also withheld drugs from the victims.

Diaz-Martinez is charged with sex trafficking of a child; enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution; sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion; and distribution of a controlled substance. Diaz-Martinez had his initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Baltimore July 29.

If convicted, Diaz-Martinez faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life in prison for sex trafficking of a minor and for enticement of a minor to engage in prostitution. He also faces a minimum mandatory sentence of 15 years and up to life in prison for each of four counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion, and a maximum of 20 years in prison for distribution of controlled substances.