LEXINGTON — Eight people were arrested Thursday following a multi-agency investigation into suspected drug activity and prostitution at residences on Edmund Highway and North Parsons Street, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.
Lexington County deputies, working alongside officers with the West Columbia Police Department, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Department of Homeland Security, executed search warrants at multiple homes where investigators suspected prostitution was taking place.
According to arrest warrants, those charged are:
- Yoselyn Maybeli Colomo-Rodriguez, 33 — prostitution.
- Esmerelda Roblero Arreage, 32 — prostitution.
- Maria Jovita Ruiz-Peria, 26 — prostitution.
- Aurora Garcia-Mena, 27 — prostitution.
- Fernando Benitez-Perez, 38 — prostitution and criminal conspiracy.
- Romeo Jijon Altamirano, 47 — prostitution and criminal conspiracy.
- Cristian Fidel Gonzalez-Jijon, 22 — prostitution and criminal conspiracy.
- Cirenia Jijon Altamirano, 44 — prostitution, criminal conspiracy and harboring an unauthorized alien.
“Details from a separate case led investigators to locations on Edmund Highway and North Parsons Street,” Lexington County Sheriff Jay Koon said. “The operation started Thursday morning when investigators searched multiple houses where prostitution was suspected.”
According to Koon, investigators determined that a man at the residences collected money from individuals seeking sexual services before distributing a portion of the proceeds to the women at the end of each week.
During the operation, deputies seized two firearms and more than $111,000 in cash.
“Without strong relationships between federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, operations like this would not be possible,” Koon said. “These arrests are the result of us all working together to make our community safer.”
Arreage was released after meeting the conditions of her bond. The remaining seven defendants were being held at the Lexington County Detention Center.
