Former UNM President F. Chris Garcia was booked into the Metropolitan Detention Center this morning on charges of promoting prostitution, tampering with evidence and conspiracy, according to Bernalillo County Detention Center records.

Garcia, 71, was arrested for his alleged ties to a 1400-member, multistate, online prostitution ring called Southwest Companions. The prostitution ring, which is based in Albuquerque, also conducts operations in Colorado, Arizona, New York and New Jersey, Garcia’s arrest warrant said.

APD discovered the prostitution ring in December 2007, and has been investigating the case ever since, Chief of Police Raymond Schultz said.

“You have an organization that is actively conducting counterintelligence operations,” he said. “This could have easily been very dangerous to any of the detectives working on this case. This investigation could expand to include human trafficking.”

Garcia’s bond was set at $35,000 cash or surety bond after detectives searched Garcia’s home and University office on Thursday. Garcia’s detention comes just a few days after the arrest of David Flory, a 68-year-old professor at Farleigh Dickinson University in New Jersey.

Flory allegedly owns and operates Southwest Companions, according to his arrest warrant.

Flory was arrested June 19 at the Starbucks on Tulane and Central while conducting business operations for the organization. He was charged with 40 counts of promoting prostitution.

“This is just the beginning of this investigation, more arrests are possible,” Schultz said.

Detectives created false handles and used confidential informants to verify their accounts and grant them access to the lowest tier of the site.. The site operates on a three-tiered hierarchy, said Lt. William Roseman, the detective in charge of the investigation.

“There was a vetting process,” Roseman said. “You were required to actually engage in sexual activity with a prostitute, and once you engaged in this activity and paid the prostitute, she would send an email to the moderator and after you had done this twice or so you would gain access to the first level in the tier system.”

Users would continue climbing the tier system so long as they met the site’s requirements.

“Once in this verified status, you were required to spend some time with other women,” Roseman said. “An email would be sent to the moderator describing the act and amount paid, and the moderator would track it and when you reached a certain point, you would receive trusted status.”

According to APD, Garcia is known by the handle, “Burque Pops,” and is one of seven site moderators known as the “Hunt Club.” Moderators are in charge of bringing in new clients and new prostitutes and vetting members to ensure they are not law enforcement agents. Garcia and other moderators are paid little if anything for their moderation duties, Roseman said.

“If they received money for this, it was not a substantial amount,” he said. “This was about sex.”

Roseman said fees for engaging in sexual acts with prostitutes ranged from less than $200 to as much as $10,000.

“These are not your typical street prostitutes, the prices on them,” he said. “It was not a cheap organization.”

Through their investigation, APD detectives found that discussion boards exclusive to high-ranking members included guides on how to identify and avoid law enforcement, prevent STDs and even rate prostitutes using a starring system.

Flory set up a code of acronyms that referred to various sexual acts. Site members used the acronyms when soliciting sex online, according to Flory’s arrest warrant.

Roseman said the prostitution ring is unlike anything APD has ever seen.

“We’ve seen similar things, but not organized in this manner,” he said. “This is typically like what we would see in a drug operation. We haven’t seen anything like this, at least not here in Albuquerque.”

Roseman said officers found no evidence to suggest Flory and Garcia had made contact through their positions at their respective universities.

“It’s pure coincidence,” Roseman said. “At this time we cannot see any other ties — the other members are not in that same status so we cannot lump them into the same group.”

Flory’s arrest warrant indicates that he accessed the Southwest Companions website during work hours.

Roseman said that when APD officers searched Garcia’s home and UNM office on Thursday they found no evidence that would indicate Garcia accessed the site using his office computer. APD has not found any evidence suggesting Garcia solicited to UNM students, faculty or staff for Southwest Companions, but the investigation is ongoing, he said.

In December 2010, Virginia Herringer was arrested on charges of promoting prostitution, possession of drugs and child abuse. Through her arrest, detectives learned the full extent of the Southwest Companions operation.

APD detectives learned that the website had been up since 2005 and switched owners several times before Flory took over in 2009. A tip from an anonymous informant sparked an investigation into Garcia’s alleged ties with the prostitution ring.

UNM President David Schmidly said Thursday in a University-wide email that he was shocked to learn the news of the pending investigation, especially since Garcia has been affiliated with the University for 41 years and served as its president.

“We are all just coming to grips with the gravity and severity of this situation,” Schmidly said. “It is our understanding that the investigation is ongoing. The University is and will continue to cooperate fully with law enforcement.”

Garcia served as UNM President August 2002-July 2003. He has also served as dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, vice president for Academic Affairs, provost, and currently serves as a professor emeritus in the Department of Political Science. Garcia has written 12 books and is an expert on politics in New Mexico and Latin America.

Elizabeth Cleary contributed to this report.

UPDATE:
Garcia posted a $35,000 cash or surety bond last night and was released from the Albuquerque Metro Detention Center, according to the county’s website. He is in due in Metro Court today at 1:30 pm for a felony first appearance on charges of promoting prostitution, evidence tampering and conspiracy.