Police bust prostitution ring in hotel where missing girl, 15, is found

Published 1:05 pm Monday, August 10, 2015

SALEM, N.H. — Five men were charged — and the first has already pleaded guilty — in a prostitution ring operated out of a New Hampshire hotel and involving a 15-year-old runaway. 

Enoc Ayuso, 26, of Dorchester, Mass., will be sentenced in November after pleading guilty Thursday in U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., according to acting U.S. Attorney Donald Feith.

Following an extensive investigation in which police used the aid of Facebook, officers responded to a room at La Quinta Inn & Suites in Salem one night in February 2014 after Boston police notified them that the 15-year-girl — reported missing by her family — may be at the hotel. 

Andy Pena and Steven Garcia, both of Jamaica Plain in Boston, were found in the room with the young girl, who told police she was 19.

The girl admitted to police she had sex with five to six clients a day and gave all the money to Pena, her boyfriend.

Pena had approximately $500 to $600 when he was arrested — money the girl earned as a prostitute over a two-day period, police said.

Outside the room, police also found a broken gun that had been thrown through the window into the parking lot.

Garcia told police that Pena served as the girl’s pimp. He said Pena would pay him to drive the two around.

Ayuso was also charged with driving the girl. Two other men, Hansel German and Rafael Reyes, have been charged in the case as well. 

Nude photos found online

Detective Sgt. Donna Gavin of the Boston Police Department has said the teen had been listed on the Internet as a female escort. Partially nude photos of the girl were found online.

Boston police tracked the girl through Facebook, leading officers to La Quinta, according to an affidavit by Salem police Detective Brendan Gleason.     

Ayuso also pleaded guilty to conspiring to transport an individual in interstate commerce for prostitution. The cases against the other suspects are being handled by federal authorities and are still pending in court, Salem police Lt. Joel Dolan said. 

Police from Salem, Manchester and Boston worked with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations and the New Hampshire Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force to apprehend the suspects as part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Project Safe Childhood program, Feith said in a statement.

The federal initiative was launched in February 2006 to protect children from online exploitation and abuse, he said.