A Lynwood man pleaded guilty this week to recruiting teenage girls from local schools in the Inland Empire and forcing them into prostitution in Los Angeles.

Paul Edward Bell, 29, an alleged member of the Rolling 60s Crips gang, pleaded guilty Monday as part of a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that will send him to prison for 30 years. His trial was expected to begin Monday.

Bell was one of eight people indicted in 2012 by a grand jury investigating reports of sex trafficking in Riverside County. Sheriff’s deputies there learned teenage girls from local schools were being lured into prostitution by a student who said they would be wealthy if they worked for a Los Angeles pimp.

Bell admitted to recruiting four girls ages 15 to 17 in 2011 and forcing them to prostitute in Lynwood and Compton. In at least one instance, he physically abused one of the girls for not performing sex acts, prosecutors said.


Bell is scheduled to be sentenced March 31.

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Joseph.serna@latimes.com