Photo credit: Saiyood Srikamon | Dreamstime.com

Two men from Hyattsville, Maryland were both sentenced to 26 years in prison on Friday for being behind the sex trafficking of three minors throughout the East Coast from September through November in 2016.

Trial and court documents show that the two men trafficked three underage girls in numerous locations including Northern Virginia; Richmond, Virginia; Maryland, Washington, D.C. and Atlanta, Georgia.

Partnering with two female co-conspirators whom the victims then worked for, the men behind the trafficking posted online advertisements of the girls on websites such as Backpage.com offering the minors for commercial sex with men across the region.

The men also took care of reserving hotel rooms where the victims would stay when travelling to engage in commercial sex acts. The two men served as the trafficked girls’ drivers to get the victims to the reserved hotels and other locations where the commercial sex acts took place. Another “crucial” role in the criminal act of the pair as complete pimps is that they collected the money paid by the sex customers.

Senior U.S. District Judge T.S. Ellis III for the Eastern District of Virginia sentenced 26-year-old Dennis Davis Jr aka Dee, and 28-year-old Ivan Williams aka Lucci. Judge Ellis ordered the pair to serve 10 years of supervised release after their 312-month prison sentence. They were also ordered to register as sex offenders.

Evidence showed also that the pair resorted to violence including the use of physical force and brandishing firearms when two of the minors tried to leave the gang and their “work.”

David and Williams also used the money the girls earned for their fancy needs and wants as they used the funds to create rap music. In their rap songs, the pair bragged about exploiting females. The two also used the money to take care of their day to day expenses.

The investigation leading to the arrests and eventual prosecution of the men behind said the trafficking of the three minors was achieved through the joint efforts of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and the local enforcement agencies concerned, including branches of the FBI and local police.

Davis and Williams were each found guilty by a federal jury on January 10, 2018, of three counts of sex trafficking and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking.

Source:

https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/pimps-sentenced-26-years-prison-sex-trafficking-three-minor-victims-throughout-east-coast