Five Colorado men arrested for targeting teen girls in sex-for-drugs schemes

Five men in their 20's have been jailed on allegations they dealt drugs to juvenile girls as young as 12 years old, often exchanging sex acts for the contraband.  

Both sets of the young men used Snapchat accounts to advertise illicit drugs to middle school- and high school-aged girls. They often established contact with the girls at the beginning of the school year, according to case documents. 

One of the main players is, in fact, charged with selling drugs on or near school grounds. School resource officers were often notified of the activity by friends of the victims, according to the case documents.

The documents did not identify specific schools where the officers worked, or where the drugs were distributed. In press releases announcing the arrests, the 20th Judicial District Attorney's Office stated the investigations were conducted by the Longmont Police Department and the Boulder County Sheriff's Office. A spokesman for the Boulder Valley School District told CBS News Colorado that he was not aware of the arrestees' activity having occurred at BVSD schools or involving any of its students. Messages for comment sent to the St. Vrain Valley School District were not returned.   

A spokesperson with the DA's Office, meanwhile, said such activity is by no means is it confined to Longmont or Boulder County.

"The recent investigations into Human Trafficking in our community are not specific to one location," Shannon Carbone wrote in an email. "It is insight into the culture (in which) our youth are rapidly exposed to the prevalence of trading and coercing sexual acts for drugs. The access to social media has provided more access to youth and opened the door for online exploitation. Human trafficking affects all genders, ages, cultures, and socio-economic status. These are issues that the entire community should be vigilant about throughout Colorado. Our Human Trafficking Unit is helping us to identify these crimes and bring them to light, but these types of acts occur in every community."

The arrests are the result of two separate investigations. 

Nov. 29, 22-year-old Angel Gomez Rubio was arrested in Texas after returning from a trip to Mexico. He will be brought back to Boulder County to face 19 charges, all felonies. Those charges include kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual exploitation of a child and human trafficking. 

According to case documents, a 12-year-old girl alerted authorities to Rubio's alleged behavior in June. After other girls came forward, investigators obtained Rubio's Snapchat history from February to September of this year. They found Rubio allegedly communicated primarily through Snapchat (but also Instagram) with the account handle "sesame_stbird" and would sell drugs, namely psilocybin mushrooms, MDMA (ecstacy), marijuana and vapes, to juveniles. 

Many of those Snapchat messages are listed in Rubio's arrest affidavit, such as "i got white already," "buy coke off me," and "imma have shrooms by then."

But other messages noted by investigators in the arrest affidavit suggest Rubio became coercive regarding sexual acts. Rubio allegedly sent "head rn" via Snapchat to a juvenile girl, and asked her to allow pictures be taken while she participated in a threesome. He also allegedly messaged a separate 14-year-old girl "You down to f***?" Both conversations, and others, involved the exchange of sex for free narcotics, investigators claimed. 

Rubio's alleged victims were between 12 and 16 years old. According to investigators, they considered Rubio a "plug," or a dealer who provides marijuana to users who are too young to buy the drug legally from dispensaries.

An alleged accomplice, 19-year-old Fernando Pacheco, was arrested Nov. 24. He is charged with four felonies. One of those felonies is for an alleged sexual assault. Investigators believe drove Rubio around and delivered drugs to his clients. A 12-year-old told investigators she was raped in a vehicle by Pacheco after she smoked marijuana with Rubio and Pacheco, per the arrest affidavit.  

Rubio and Pacheco are scheduled to appear in Boulder County court Wednesday and Friday this week.

'Labor-intensive investigation'

Earlier this year, in January, the district attorney's office announced a grand jury indictment of three other young men for similar activity. These men - 25-year-old Mario Moreno, 22-year-old Angelo Torres, and 24-year-old Aldair Garcia Rodriguez - allegedly sold cocaine, MDMA, marijuana and marijuana concentrate to SVVSD students. Longmont PD investigators used records from the trio's social media accounts, bank accounts and phone records to construct their case. The group's activity from July 2021 to January 2022 was the focus of the investigation.

Moreno is accused of being the ringleader. He faces 59 charges. Those include sexual assault, trafficking, child abuse, and numerous drug counts. Three counts against Moreno are for allegedly selling drugs on or near school grounds. 

Moreno used the Snapchat handle "StingRay303," according to his arrest affidavit. He also advertised his available drugs for purchase, including one message that showed a picture of three bricks of cocaine, per the affidavit. 

The case against the three men started when Torres was pulled over after a suspected drug deal in a Longmont park. As stated in the affidvait, Torres told investigators that he and and other people, including Rodriguez, would drive Moreno to various locations. They conducted an average of 15-20 transactions a day, he said.

Several girls testified to the grand jury that they received drugs from Moreno in exchange for sexual intercourse or sex acts with Moreno and sometimes Torres. Some girls were coerced to allow photos taken of them in their underwear. The girls were 14-17yo at the time.  

"This was a significant and labor-intensive investigation," Longmont Police Chief Jeff Satur stated in the press release. "We are proud of our team. Their commitment to our community's well-being, the safety of the school–aged children, and the community's safety is second to none."  

Satur said his officers' work included hundreds of hours of surveillance, over fifty search warrants, and combing through thousands of lines of conversation in social media files.

All three men have pleaded not guilty to their charges and are scheduled to go to trial in May 2024. 

Rubio and Moreno could both spend the rest of their lives behind bars if the prosecution of their cases are successful, the district attorney's office stated. 

Investigators will all the involved agencies are asking for additional victims to come forward.