The federal case collected evidence from May 2020 through December 2020, which showed that Lazzaro was sexually trafficking teenage girls aged 15 and 16. He would have his 19-year-old associate befriend these women, bring them to his condo or a hotel, give them alcohol and gifts, and ask for specific sexual favors for specific amounts of money. Lazzaro was arrested in August 2021, and his co-conspirator Gisela Castro Medina was arrested one week later. Castro Medina cut a plea deal to testify against Lazzaro in the federal case.
“Lazzaro met Castro Medina in May of 2020 through the Seeking Arrangements website, which is known as a “sugar daddy” website. Lazzaro directed Castro Medina to identify girls she knew and others on social media who would have sex with him for money. Lazzaro specified that he was looking for young girls of a certain skin color, petite body type, and those who were considered vulnerable, referring to them as “broken girls.” Castro Medina would show Lazzaro photographs of minor girls and if Lazzaro “approved” Castro Medina would provide the minor’s contact information to Lazzaro. Castro Medina told the minors that Lazzaro was an older guy with a lot of money, and that he wanted to be a sugar daddy to younger girls. For her role in recruiting multiple minor girls, Lazzaro paid Castro Medina more than $50,000.”
Lazzaro now joins other notable Republicans who have been convicted or tried or investigated for human trafficking—people like Rep. Matt Gaetz’s buddy, Joel Greenberg, and former elected county assessor for Maricopa County, Paul Petersen. At the same time, the right-wing movement, buoyed by the Christian conservative boogieman of faux moral outrage, has mutated their classic gay panic narrative to include trans children as a part of some evidence that the LGBTQ+ community is grooming American children.
Lazzaro also faces a civil lawsuit from one of his victims’ families that alleges Lazzaro tried to pay off the family for their silence in his crimes. He faces a minimum of 10 years in prison.
If you want to see what Lazzaro looks like outside of his mugshot, here are a few examples.
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