Capital Heights, Maryland resident Aaron Crawford, 37, has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison followed by 20 years of supervised release for the crime of sex trafficking two minors.
Crawford will also have to pay $10,350 to his victims, who were both 15 years old when he exploited them. Furthermore, Judge Theodore Chang has ordered Crawford to register as a sex offender in the places he resides, works, and acts as a student upon release, as per the requirements of the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act.
“Not only will our office continue to actively prosecute human traffickers to the fullest extent of the law, but we also remain unified with the Department’s comprehensive strategy to combat this heinous and inhumane crime,” said Erek Barron, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland.
"Law enforcement partners worked tirelessly to ensure this defendant will never intimidate, coerce or victimize a child again,” said Special Agent in Charge of the FBI Baltimore Field Office, Thomas J. Sobocinski. “Crawford’s sentence of 20 years will hopefully bring some closure and allow the victims and their families to move forward from these heinous crimes.”
Crawford would instruct the victims to send sexually explicit images to him for use as online advertisements, which constituted child pornography. He'd then arrange for them to work as prostitutes. When one of his victims wanted to stop working, he raped her and threatened to kill her.
In 2022 the Department of Justice released a new National Strategy to Combat Human Trafficking which takes several steps in stopping the crime such as developing and implementing new victim screening protocols.
The case was brought to court as part of Project Safe Childhood, which is an initiative started in 2006 to combat child exploitation.
