Orlando Woman Pleads Guilty to Conspiracy to Engage in Sex Trafficking of Minors

TAMPA—United States Attorney Robert E. O’Neill announces that Pria M. Gunn (20, Orlando) today pleaded guilty to conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors. Gunn faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison.

According to the plea agreement, while working as a prostitute for Weylin O. Rodriguez, Gunn assisted Rodriguez by enforcing Rodriguez’s rules on the other prostitutes, many of whom were minors. Gunn assisted Rodriguez by posting prostitution ads of the victims on the Internet and by renting hotel rooms where prostitution activities occurred. Gunn often acted as the enforcer of the organization, by inflicting physical violence on the victims, to ensure that the girls who did not wish to prostitute themselves did not run away.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacie B. Harris.

It is another case brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about Internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab “Resources.”