Backpage.com

A Florida man was arrested in Westlake last month and charged with prostitution after a sting on the classified ad website backpage.com.

(Backpage.com)

CLEVELAND, Ohio --A Florida man was arrested in the Cleveland suburb of Westlake last week and charged with promoting prostitution.

Kenneth Chester, 31, of Tampa, Florida was indicted Wednesday by a Cuyahoga County grad jury on prostitution charges.

Westlake police arrested him April 14 after he advertised one of his prostitutes on the website backpage.com, a classified website that is a common site for ads related to the sex trade.

Chester and 20-year-old Maria Guillermi Rosario, also of Tampa were arrested at a local hotel. The pair had traveled to the Cleveland area after spending time in Buffalo, New York, Westlake Police Cpt. Guy Turner said.

Rosario was charged in Rocky River Municipial Court with possessing criminal tools, resisting arrest and loitering to solicit prostitution.

Chester is free from jail on a $10,000 bond and is scheduled for arraignment May 18.

Out-of-state prostitution busts aren't uncommon, Turner said, but the arrest comes three months before the Republican National Convention when local police anticipate a bloom in prostitution activity in the Cleveland area.

"It's like any big event, a Super Bowl, an NBA Championship," Turner said. "It brings commercialized vice elements out of the woodwork. These women and their pimps will descend on Cleveland like a biblical plague."

Several local police departments, including Westlake, are tightening their relationships with local hotels in hopes of stemming prostitution.

A task force made up of at least 50 community service and law enforcement agencies in Northeast Ohio is focusing efforts to curtail human trafficking during the convention.

Political conventions and major national media events have played host to major busts in recent years.

Ahead of the 2012 RNC in Tampa, Florida there were at least 16 women arrested at strip clubs in that region, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

At least 30 men were arrested in Santa Clara County in the weeks before this year's Super Bowl, according to CBS, while 42 human trafficking victims were found.