Three illegal migrants from El Salvador who were allegedly using a dating app to prey on teen girls more than half their age instead found themselves snagged in a sting operation in Texas, authorities said.
Houston Police Department officers posed as underage girls on the dating app Jaumo and arrested three adult men who are now being held on immigration detainer at the Harris County Jail, Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said earlier this week, according to Fox 26.
Abner Ruiz, 37; Erick Menjivar, 30; and Carlos Gomez, 33, were arrested in separate incidents within the past 10 days, and each is charged with online solicitation of a minor, the station reported, citing court records.
Two of the sickos believed they were meeting a 14-year-old girl while the third attempted to meet up with a 16-year-old, according to those records.
Cops said the ongoing sting did not specifically target illegal immigrants.
Gomez first entered the country illegally on Oct. 19, 2012, and was removed to El Salvador in 2020, ICE told Fox 26.
He returned to the US illegally at an unknown time and remained undetected until he was busted in HPD’s covert operation on July 17.
He fled in his vehicle after realizing the supposed teenager he was meeting was a cop — running stop signs, crashing into a gate and injuring a pedestrian in his failed dash for freedom, the report stated.
Gomez, the father of a child under 18, also faces charges of failure to stop and render aid.
He was convicted of violently assaulting a family member in 2015, per Fox 26.
Immigration officials do not know when Martinez Ruiz crossed into the US illegally, so the sting operation on July 17 was his first run-in with law enforcement, Fox 26 reported, citing ICE.
Menjivar entered the US illegally near San Ysidro, Calif., on July 25, 2018, and was arrested that same day by immigration officials who released him into the country three days later.
He had his immigration case dismissed in 2024 after the federal government exercised prosecutorial discretion, according to ICE.
He was nabbed on July 18, officials said.
Jaumo bills itself as “the first community-based dating app” and allows users to match with people in their area, according to its website.
Children under the age of 18 are not permitted on the platform.
Unlike more popular dating apps, users can message each other without previously matching, according to Fox 29.
