A South Carolina man pleaded guilty to human trafficking charges for bringing teen girls to Birmingham and forcing them into sexual servitude.

Jeramine Omar Williams, 34, has been sentenced to 20 years in prison, authorities said, and won't be eligible for parole until he has served at least 15 of those years. Williams was arrested in Hoover two years ago as part of the FBI's nationwide crackdown - Operation Cross Country - on child sex trafficking.

Three juveniles, ages 13 to 17, were rescued in the Birmingham area during that sweep. Two of those cases, girls ages 15 and 17, happened in Hoover in July 2013. "These girls were being advertised on Backpage.com as 'Barbie Dolls' and being led into a lifestyle that usually has a disastrous outcome,'' said Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector. "It's really disgusting and hard to comprehend someone's ability to sexually exploit underage girls for financial profit."

Hoover police detectives, along with Vestavia Hills police, Birmingham police and the FBI, carried out an undercover prostitution sting at the Days Inn on Riverchase Drive. Hoover police Capt. Gregg Rector said Williams arrived at the hotel with the teen victims. He had brought them from South Carolina, and forced them to negotiate themselves for sex through the online ads.

Williams was charged with two counts of first-degree human trafficking and two counts of first-degree promoting prostitution. Last week, Williams pleaded guilty to the two human trafficking charges. The promoting prostitution charges were dismissed as part of the plea agreement.

Charges against an 18-year-old woman who was arrested with Williams in 2013 were dropped after police deemed she was, in reality, a victim herself who was also prostituting for Williams.

Rector said working prostitution stings are extremely important, and said this case demonstrates the primary reason they carry out such operations. "We generally arrest suspects for promoting prostitution, drug charges and outstanding warrants,'' Rector said. "Also, where you find prostitution, you also find subjects getting robbed and a whole variety of other crimes."

"And then we occasionally find individuals such as Mr. Williams, who was transporting 15 and 17-year-old girls across the country to have sex for money,'' he said. "Fortunately Mr. Williams has remained in jail since his arrest, and now he will spend several more years in prison. Hopefully, there will never be any more girls victimized by this individual."

Jefferson County District Attorney Brandon Falls said he is pleased with the guilty plea and the significant prison sentence for Williams. He said he expects the number of human trafficking charges to rise as law enforcement becomes more familiar and comfortable with the 2010 passage of laws that created human trafficking crimes and penalties.

"Although law enforcement is having difficulty getting cooperation from the women who are being used in these cases, we will continue to work toward securing their cooperation and doing everything we can to bring criminal charges against those responsible,'' Falls said.

Many of the victims involved in the human trafficking cases don't want to cooperate with authorities, Falls said, for several reasons. "They are either too caught up in the lifestyle or feel threatened by the person who is using and abusing them,'' he said. "It really takes having all the stars in alignment and all the players at the table helping to secure services for them to get them out of the lifestyle in order to get them to take the first step in cooperating."

Rector praised all involved in the Williams' case. "Deputy District Attorney Amanda Kistler spent a great deal of time on this case and did a phenomenal job getting an appropriate sentence for the suspect,'' Rector said. "District Attorney Brandon Falls has also show that prosecuting this type of case is a priority for his office. We appreciate his willingness to tackle cases such as this, and give them the attention they deserve."