{"id":2046,"date":"2014-03-31T15:51:22","date_gmt":"2014-03-31T22:51:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=2046"},"modified":"2014-03-31T18:36:03","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T01:36:03","slug":"l-gang-member-gets-30-year-sentence-sex-trafficking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cjnotebook.com\/?p=2046","title":{"rendered":"Gang Member and Leader of Prostitution Ring Gets a 30-Year Sentence for Sex Trafficking"},"content":{"rendered":"

RIVERSIDE, CALIFORNIA<\/strong> \u2013 A Lynwood gang member and leader of a prostitute ring, who used force, fraud and coercion to get teen-age girls to work as prostitutes across Southern California, was sentenced to 30 years in federal prison today.<\/span><\/p>\n

U.S. District Judge Virginia A. Phillips sentenced\u00a0Paul Edward Bell, 30, a member of the Rolling 60s Crips street gang, to prison after he plead guilty to federal sex trafficking charges.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors wrote in a sentencing report that Bell “not\u00a0only used his fists, a cane, a shoe, and other objects against the females, he also pepper sprayed one of the victims in her face.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the report stated that Bell “also threatened the victims with physical abuse, put a gun to the head of one of the victims, and locked at least two of the victims in his apartment. The physical and mental abuse and anguish suffered by the victims at the hands of defendant has and will continue to deeply affect the victims and their families.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Bell had been convicted of two state criminal cases that are sex-trafficking related, according to officials.<\/p>\n

Bell is among eight defendants convicted in the case stemming from a federal grand jury indictment filed in August 2012.<\/p>\n

Bell and his co-defendants used minors as prostitutes to make money. \u00a0He was the leader of the organization that preyed on vulnerable victims, convinced them to become prostitutes, and verbally and physically abused them when they did not perform as required, federal officials said.<\/p>\n

Bell admitted that in 2011 he forced at least four minor victims \u2013 aged 15 to 17 \u2013 to work as prostitutes in Lynwood and Compton.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0investigation began in January of 2011, when the Riverside County Sheriff\u2019s Department learned that teen-age girls attending schools in the Inland Empire were being recruited to work as prostitutes, authorities said.<\/p>\n

The investigation later revealed that\u00a0Kimberly Alberti, 21, of Riverside, who was the lead prostitute for Samuel Rogers,\u00a0attended one of the schools and recruited underage females by \u201cgrooming them\u201d \u2013 or gaining their trust.<\/span><\/p>\n

She told them that they could make large sums of money by working as prostitutes for Alberti’s pimp. <\/span><\/p>\n

The girls who were successfully recruited to work as prostitutes were brought to the Los Angeles area, where they were housed at hotels or at the pimps\u2019 apartments. Some of the victims were housed at Bell’s apartment, according to authorities.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Rogers brothers and Bell also often housed the victim prostitutes at motels located in the Los Angeles area.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other seven defendants in this case who previously pleaded guilty are:<\/p>\n