Sex Traffickers Sentenced to Combined 81 Years in Prison

"From April 2018 through Jan. 14, 2019, five of the defendants sex trafficked a minor victim throughout Virginia and Maryland. The minor was housed at multiple hotels in Alexandria and Fairfax for the purposes of commercial sex, and the defendants advertised the minor victim through various means, including prostitution advertisements online on Bedpage.com, CityXGuide.com, and Backpage.com (shortly before it was seized by the federal government). They also advertised the minor victim through the communications platform WhatsApp by sending her picture out to a list-serve of known customers. As a form of grooming, the male defendants engaged in sexual intercourse with the minor. As a form of enticement, the defendants permitted the minor to keep about 50 percent of the commercial sex proceeds while the defendants collected the remaining 50 percent."

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