Officials sentenced 32-year-old Al Samuel Lawson to 14 years in prison for sex trafficking a 15-year-old girl.
According to court documents, FBI's Child Exploitation Task Force was conducting a search of minors engaging in prostitution.
During their operation, they came in contact with two women prostitutes who told them about the 15-year-old girl involved in prostitution. The women also directed the Task Force to an advertisement on Backpage.com that showed a woman who was working closely with the young girl.
When members of the Task Force located the 15-year-old, they were informed that she was prostituting under the name "Asia" for a month at the direction of Lawson. They were also able to identify several other minors who were prostituting under Lawson, one who informed officials that she also started when she was 15-years-old.
The Task Force determined that the prostitution engaged by both young women happened at the home of Lawson's co-defendant in Essex, Maryland.
Lawson will also serve 5 years of supervised release after his prison sentence.
