Owings Mills Man Convicted Of Sex Trafficking, Related Charges

OWINGS MILLS, MD — An Owings Mills man was convicted Friday of charges including sex trafficking of a minor after a trial found him guilty of causing individuals to engage in commercial sex acts for his own financial benefit.

Feliciano de Jesus Diaz-Martinez, 43, was convicted of 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, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland announced.

Diaz-Martinez, a Guatemalan native, is in the United States illegally and has been in custody since his indictment on July 25, 2019, officials said. He will be sentenced on Feb. 11, 2022 at 2 p.m.

Evidence presented at Diaz-Martinez's nine-day trial showed that he "caused more than eight individuals, including minors, to engage in commercial sex acts for his own financial benefit by means of force, fraud, and coercion" from at least 2016 through May 2019.

Testimony confirmed that Diaz-Martinez knew Victim 1, who has not been named, was 16 years old when he first caused her to engage in commercial sex acts. She continued to work for him until she was approximately 18 years old, officials said.

"Diaz-Martinez maintained a network of friends and associates who paid to engage in commercial sex acts with the victims Diaz-Martinez advertised and made available to them," the news release said. "Diaz-Martinez sent his customers pictures of the victims available for commercial sex and set the prices that customers would pay to engage in sex acts with the victims he controlled."

Diaz-Martinez also transported or caused to be transported victims to his customers' homes or hotel rooms he rented, officials said, and evidence showed that he invited customers to engage in commercial sex acts with victims in his apartment and in a storage unit he rented.

Officials said Diaz-Martinez took half or all of the money earned by his victims, and sold some of them narcotics — often at significantly higher prices than he paid to purchase the drugs.

"The evidence proved that nearly all of the victims that Diaz-Martinez caused to engage in commercial sex acts suffered from serious substance abuse disorders, including addictions to heroin, crack cocaine, and Xanax," the news release said.

Diaz-Martinez faces a mandatory minimum 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; 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.

Read the full news release here.