A Maryland judge sentenced an illegal immigrant to more than seven years in prison for coercing a 14-year-old girl into prostitution and forcing her to engage in sex with more than 25 men a day, according to federal prosecutors in Maryland.
Javier Miguel Ramirez, 35, a Mexican national living in Hyattsville, was sentenced Monday to 87 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release for sex trafficking of a minor girl. He had pleaded guilty in March.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein said the case was one of the most shameful human trafficking cases he’s seen.
“Javier Miguel Ramirez committed a depraved and morally reprehensible crime by using a 14-year-old foreign girl as a prostitute and sex slave,” Rosenstein said in a statement.
Ramirez knew the girl, a Mexican national, was only 14 when he forced her into prostitution from August 2005 through June 2006, according to court documents.
Ramirez instructed the girl to lie and tell clients that she was 20, court documents state. Ramirez took requests for sex by phone and transported the girl to residences in Maryland and Virginia, charging $25 to $30 for 15 minutes of sex. Most of the money went to Ramirez, documents said.
The girl was instructed to meet with 25 clients or more per day, prosecutors said.
She was dependent on Ramirez for housing, food, clothing and other incidentals. Ramirez also initiated a sexual relationship with the girl, prosecutors said.
When she refused to have sex with Ramirez or his clients, he pulled her hair and was rough with her. When the girl indicated that she wanted to stop working as a prostitute and return to Mexico, Ramirez threatened that if she went back to Mexico, “it would be in a box,” according to court documents.
