In El Paso, a federal judge has sentenced three men for their roles in a sex trafficking scheme, announced U.S. Attorney John F. Bash and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent in Charge Jack P. Staton.

Yesterday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Kathleen Cardone sentenced 22–year-old Khalil S. Maxwell (aka “Korrupt,” “Khalil Zero Tolerance”) to 25 years in federal prison followed by ten years of supervised release. On May 16, 2019, Judge Cardone sentenced 28–year-old Daniel Chavez to ten years in federal prison followed by ten years of supervised release.  On May 15, 2019, Judge Cardone sentenced 21–year-old Raymundo Nettles to nine years in federal prison followed by ten years of supervised release.  Judge Cardone also ordered each defendant to pay a $5,000 special assessment under the Justice for Victims of Trafficking Act.

Khalil S. Maxwell led a sex trafficking ring in El Paso, Texas from March 11, 2015 through October 31, 2016. Maxwell used physical violence to intimidate and cause underage girls, ranging in age from 13 to 17, to engage in commercial sex acts for money. Maxwell enlisted co-defendants Daniel M. Chavez and Raymundo Nettles to rent hotel rooms and to drive the underage girls to hotels and other locations where the sex acts occurred. 

On February 1, 2019, Maxwell pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children by force, fraud, or coercion and one substantive count of sex trafficking of children.  In January 2019, Chavez and Nettles pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge.

“Today the miscreants who inflicted violence on children to coerce them into selling sex were given long prison terms.  While I am proud of our prosecutors and law-enforcement agents for delivering justice in this case, we need to do more as a society to prevent this kind of abuse in the first place,” stated U.S. Attorney Bash.

“These sentences assure that this heinous sexual predator and his accomplices will not prey on any more girls for a long, long time,” said HSI El Paso Special Agent in Charge Staton. “It also serves as a sobering warning to those engaged in the sex trafficking of minors: HSI will continue to work relentlessly with its law enforcement partners to identify these dangerous offenders and bring them to justice.”

HSI agents in El Paso conducted this investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Patricia Acosta and Mallory Rasmussen prosecuted this case on behalf of the Government. 

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.  Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, 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.