A woman and her boyfriend were arrested and her son was being sought after authorities said they ran a large-scale prostitution operation out of massage parlors across Broward County.
The investigation began in October 2022 when Broward Sheriff's Office detectives began looking into multiple massage parlors and spas operated by Catalina Soto, her boyfriend Yonleno Carmenates and Soto’s son Diego Molina Prieto, officials said.
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WATCH HEREDetectives focused on four different locations, two in Fort Lauderdale, one in Pompano Beach and one in Deerfield Beach, where officials said prostitution activities were generating large sums of money.
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With the help of Homeland Security Investigations and the Fort Lauderdale and Miramar police departments, BSO discovered the trio were using multiple financial institutions to launder more than $100,000 of prostitution proceeds, officials said.
Soto and Carmenates were arrested Monday, after a search warrant was issued for their home.
A search warrant was also issued at the house of Molina Prieto, but he was found to be out of the country, officials said. He'll be arrested when he returned, BSO said.
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All three face charges including deriving support from the proceeds from prostitution and money laundering and racketeering
Records showed Soto, 49, and Carmenates, 44, were booked into the Broward jail where they were being held on $250,000 bond each. Attorney information wasn't available.
