NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. (WFLA) — A Pasco County man is charged with human trafficking after detectives say he ran a prostitution operation from his New Port Richey home with strip club employees that he recruited and then paid with heroin.
Pasco County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Clent Ruffin, age 59, on Tuesday.
Investigators say he recruited his victims from area strip clubs and had them stay at his home. Ruffin then allegedly drove his victims to meet with customers so his victims could have sex with the customers. Ruffin would receive money from the sex acts, according to an arrest affidavit.
Detectives say Ruffin gave his victims heroin to help coerce them into having sex with customers.
Investigators say the victims admitted to having sex with Ruffin and performing sexual acts in front of him in exchange for heroin on a recurring basis.
“He would have these girls stay with him, feed their addiction. Also, if they went to jail, he would bond them out so he would hold that bond over their head,” Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco said. “There are other things in the investigation where we realized he was holding this over their head so they would stay with him. So then he would take them out to other locations, use them for prostitution.”
Nocco talked about the possibility of additional victims coming forward.
“We want to make the case even stronger against this individual so that he never comes out of prison again,” the sheriff said. “He has actually destroyed several lives. We don’t know how Florida many others he’s destroyed. For those women out there, come forward. ”
A neighbor who did not want to be identified said he thought Ruffin was simply providing a home for the victims.
“He was as good of a neighbor as you’d ever find,” the neighbor said. “I don’t know. I can’t say I was happy to see all these girls but I was thankful they weren’t sleeping in a doorway somewhere. And I said to him often, ‘You ought to go to the city and get a license and open some sort of halfway house here.”
Ruffin was arrested at the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center on the following charges:
- Possession of cocaine
- Possession of marijuana
- Possess of paraphernalia and or use of paraphernalia
- Keeping a public nuisance structure for drug activity
- Trafficking in morphine, opium, hydromorphone, heroin
- Possession of a controlled substance without a prescription (8 counts)
Ruffin remains in the Land O’ Lakes Detention Center with bond set at $146,300.
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