Harris County has raised the charges against Guatemalan illegal alien Ruben Dario Visquerra Aguilar from harboring a runaway child to child trafficking and sexual assault of a child.
On October 10, the Boise Police Department in Idaho filed a missing teen report after a 16-year-old girl left home with a packed bag, leaving behind a note. Authorities allege that Aguilar paid $1,400 to arrange transportation for the teenager from Idaho to Houston, Texas. According to the BPD, the two had been communicating on Snapchat prior to her disappearance. Their chats included sexually explicit content.
After reaching out to the Houston Police Department, investigators were led to Aguilar’s residence by tracing the IP addresses of both Aguilar’s phone and the girl’s phone. On October 15, Aguilar was taken into custody and charged in Harris County with harboring a runaway child. Charges were also filed against him in Idaho, including first-degree kidnapping and human sex trafficking of a child.
A follow-up medical examination revealed that the 16-year-old victim was pregnant. Based on this discovery, Harris County charged Aguilar last week with trafficking of a child and sexual assault of a child. He is currently being held in custody in Idaho, where U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement issued a detainer.
Aguilar, a Guatemalan national, reportedly entered the United States illegally as an unaccompanied minor.
In a separate but similar incident, two men were charged in mid-October with child sex trafficking.
According to court documents, Brandon Andrews and Pedro Gonzalez posted photos of girls aged 16 and 17 on an adult escort website. Andrews was also charged with promoting child sexual material. Gonzalez faces charges of sexual assault of a child. According to court records, Andrews first contacted one of the victims through Instagram. At the time of the alleged trafficking, Andrews was out on bond for human trafficking charges filed earlier this year in Dallas County. Gonzalez, reportedly a Venezuelan national, is being held on an ICE detainer.
The 17-year-old victim remains missing.
Authorities report that since her disappearance in October, 37 additional children in Texas have been reported missing.
