Three Broward Men Plead Guilty to Sex Trafficking Conspiracy
From the Miami office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
Michael DeFrand
Wifredo A. Ferrer, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; John V. Gillies, Special Agent in Charge, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Al Lamberti, Sheriff, Broward Sheriff’s Office, announced that defendants Johnny Saintil, 28, Michael Defrand, 25, and Stanley Wilson, 26, of Broward, pled guilty on August 23, 2010 to conspiring to sex traffic minors and sex trafficking by force, threats of force, and coercion, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1594(c). Defrand also pled guilty to a substantive count of sex trafficking of a minor, in violation of Title 18, United States Code, Section 1591(a).
Sentencing for all three men has been scheduled for November 19, 2010 before U.S. District Judge William J. Zloch. Each of the defendants faces a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.
According to court documents and statements made in court, Saintil, Defrand, and Wilson were members of an organization that called itself “Please Talk Paper.” From September 2009 through March 16, 2010, the organization was used to prostitute adult and minor females out of national and international hotel chains in Broward County. The organization would advertise its prostitution services on the Internet. The defendants used the organization to do Internet advertising, facilitate transportation, and avoid law enforcement detection. In this way, the defendants shared resources, including hotel rooms, computers, condoms, and the prostitutes working for the organization.
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. Led by United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
Mr. Ferrer commended the investigative efforts of the Broward Sheriff’s Office and the FBI’s Minor Vice Task Force. This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Strider Dickson.
Related posts:
- Two Broward Men Sentenced for Sex Trafficking of Minor
- Two Plead Guilty in Broward Mortgage Fraud Scheme
- Sunrise man indicted on child pornography charges
- Miramar man pleads guilty in ponzi scheme
- Davie Couple Convicted in Multi-Million Dollar Drug Money Laundering and Mortgage Fraud Conspiracy
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Posted by Andrea Freygang on Aug 27 2010. Filed under Broward County, Crime, Fort Lauderdale, Local news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
