VIRGINIA
During the time the teen worked as a prostitute in several states, she was forced by pimp to have sex an average of 10 to 12 times a night, every night, until she paid off a debt owed by another co-conspirator in this case, according to officials.
Ismael Antonio Mendez, 20, plead guilty on Dec. 29 to sex trafficking of a 15-year-old minor. Mendez, of Annandale, Virginia, was sentenced today to 10 years in prison and will be required to register as a sex offender.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.
In connection with his plea, Mendez admitted that from at least November 2014 through February 2015, he and two adult co-conspirators recruited the girl to engage in commercial sex acts to pay off a debt that Mendez owed to one of the co-conspirators.
The adults taught the girl how to prostitute, took photos of her to use in ads and created commercial sex ads that were posted on the Internet, he admitted, according to officials
Officials said Mendez admitted that the co-conspirators knew that the girl was a minor and instructed her to lie about her age to customers.
According to Mendez’s plea, over a three-month period, the co-conspirators traveled with the girl throughout Virginia, New York and every state in between for the purposes of advertising and engaging the girl in sex.
Mendez admitted that during that time period, the defendants prostituted the girl every day, with an average of 10 to 12 customers a night until she earned enough to repay Mendez’s debt, at which point she was directed to leave the co-conspirators, officials said.