A Virginia man was sentenced today to 186 months in prison
and 10 years of supervised release for multiple crimes related to the
prostitution and exploitation of a 15-year-old minor. Assistant Attorney General Brian A.
Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney G.
Zachary Terwilliger of the Eastern District of Virginia, and Assistant Director
in Charge Nancy McNamara of the FBI’s Washington Field Office made the
announcement after the sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Anthony
J. Trenga of the Eastern District of Virginia.
Abdul Karim Bangura Jr. aka “AJ”, 22, of Triangle, Virginia
pleaded guilty in August 2017 to all counts of an indictment charging him with
sex trafficking of a minor, conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of a minor,
interstate transportation of a minor for the purposes of prostitution, and
production of child pornography.
According to admissions made in connection with his plea,
Bangura and his co-defendant Christian Hood conspired to recruit a 15-year-old
girl to work as a prostitute and to advertise her prostitution services on
Backpage.com. Bangura also transported
the minor to hotels in Virginia, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. for
prostitution dates, and he took a portion of the money she made from commercial
sex customers. Bangura also used a phone
to record a video of himself having sex with the minor. In August 2017, Hood was convicted at trial
of sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of this same
minor.
This matter was investigated by the FBI Washington Field
Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force with assistance
from the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department and the Prince William
County Police Department. Assistant U.S.
Attorney Maureen C. Cain of the Eastern District of Virginia and Trial Attorney
Kyle P. Reynolds of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity
Section are prosecuting the case.
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