He Should Have Gone to a Stripclub Instead . . .

May 31, 2008, 11:14 AM

"He arranged to have sex with a teenage prostitute in Costa Rica, only to learn the smooth-talking salesman booking his trip was an undercover detective working for the FBI.

For Jorge Muentes, 48, a West Palm Beach resident with no criminal record and no history of child abuse, it would be a very costly lesson.

On Thursday, a Fort Lauderdale federal judge sentenced Muentes to10 years in prison for attempting to cause a minor to engage in prostitution and trying to travel for sex with a minor.

Though Muentes was arrested at Miami International Airport before he could follow through on his alleged plans, U.S. District Judge James Cohn said he was bound to impose the mandatory-minimum prison term of 10 years.

'That's the way our system works, whether we like it or not,' Cohn said.

At his trial in March, the husband and father insisted he was entrapped and never intended to have sex with a teenager. Before his sentencing, he asked Cohn for a second chance.

'I love my country,' he said. 'I've never been in trouble in my entire life.'

Muentes worked as a chef and butler in wealthy South Florida homes, including former Palm Beach Mayor Lesly Smith's.

In September 2007, Muentes contacted Latin American Pleasure Tours, a phony travel agency the FBI ran. Muentes' calls were routed to the FBI's Miami headquarters and answered by Richard Love, a retired Fort Lauderdale police detective who posed as the agency's owner. Muentes ultimately paid $1,675 for air travel to Costa Rica, a hotel suite and 24 hours of sexual services.

In their first conversation, Love told Muentes he could hire a prostitute between 14 and 27 years old.

'Let's go young ... very young,' Muentes said. Love suggested a 14- to 16-year-old and Muentes agreed.

'That was a huge mistake,' Cohn told Muentes at Thursday's hearing."

sun-sentinel.com

I wonder if you unknowingly get a lap dance from a legally too young dancer at a stripclub here in the U.S., if there is a similar risk of doing 10 years or more in prison. It would be another good way to kill stripclubs.

Oh, if this criminal thinks he going to get a clean slate after 10 years of prison rehabilitation, then I think this loser is going to be in for a rude awakening. Hell, he might even volunteer to go back to prison for more rehabilitation.

comments (6)

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DickJohnson17 years ago

I will make this real short and sweet...this is just another example why I got out of the sex-for-hire game. I don't miss it a bit. Neither does my wallet.

Dudester17 years ago

It is said that one should not shop while hungry, likewise, one should not surf the net while horny-masturbate first-unload the gun.

There is a very concentrated effort to shut down "the commerce of child pornography". That means not only websites, but chat rooms, and travel agencies that specialize in "specialty tours".

It is easy to go overseas and get laid, but to let anyone know your plans in advance is not only stupid, but moronic as well. It is easy for the Justice Department to prosecute an American who goes over border to get laid-if the American is extremely obvious about what he is doing. With that said:

If you go to Mexico, South America, Asia, or Europe and end up in an Escort club, what you do and did is between you and the escort you do the deed with. There is no FBI agent lurking in the shadows with a camera-unless that American was stupid enough to tell others of his intentions.

And that's what this whole thing is about. FBI Agents and local smokies cruise chat rooms. If you are stupid enough to go to a chat room and presume what's going on there is private, you are a fool. If you electronically arrange to do anything that a chaste zealot would not do, you're going down a dangerous path.

jablake17 years ago

A man that I didn't know too well said regarding his incarceration experiences that the jails here in Dade County were far different than he had expected. The man was a white collar professional in some boring occupation and his intelligence seemed to be massive. Sort of irritating that he was so sharp and fast.

According to him the vast majority of prisoners he came into contact with were in prison solely because they were too slow mentally to be integrated into a modern society without someone holding their hand at every step: Adults in need of good parents. The next sizeable portion of the prison population were those that were too bright and who refused to play by established rules. The ordinary Joe of average intelligence was the smallest segment and was so small it could almost be dismissed.

Oh yes, why was this white collar professional possessing extreme intelligence being repeatedly incarcerated? Divorce Court.

The Chef who is going to spend the next 10 years in prison being rehabilitated seems like just another dumb dumb that got caught in the net. On the positive side he creates jobs---assuming of course job creation is a good thing. :)

Good advice, btw, DickJohnson. Dudester, I'm not sure about the FBI NOT lurking everywhere! ;) But, you're probably right . . . still I think the foreign governments are pressured to make arrests from time to time and receive U.S. kickbacks for doing so. Still if I was given a choice between doing time in a U.S. prison or a South American prison my guess from the propaganda I viewed on the Discovery Channel is to take the South American prison every time. But, heck Discovery Channel might just trying to make a buck more than provide news and education.

Yoda17 years ago

Lets not forget that trying to have sex with a minor is a long way from calling a woman past the age of consent for sex. One is a misdemeanor that involves a fine and no jail sentence and the other is a federal offense...and with good reason.

SuperDude17 years ago

Never arrange sex on the internet. The U.S. Government is watching everything. Privacy is dead.

Book Guy17 years ago

Right-to-privacy was never actually alive (though it should have been). It's just that now, the government has acquired the technology to invade it more.