Iowa Feds: Sex trafficking ring used Backpage.com ads Indictment says 27-year-old New Jersey man acted as pimp

By Ryan J. Foley Associated Press IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- A nationwide sex trafficking ring run by a violent pimp and his associates used Backpage.com to solicit customers for prostitutes as young as age 17, advertising the women as "smokin' hot babes," according to a federal indictment recently unsealed in Iowa. A 50-page indictment alleges a New Jersey man used coercion and violence to force women between 17 and 21 to act as his sex workers between November 2009 and June 2011, when investigators broke up the ring during a sting operation at a hotel in Omaha. The man, Johnelle L. Bell, 27, was arrested in New Jersey earlier this month and has been transported to Iowa to face a 12-count indictment, which includes charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and interstate transportation for prostitution. He has pleaded not guilty. Brittany Lawson, 21, who prosecutors say helped Bell manage the ring, was arrested last month in Hot Springs, Ark., and is expected to be arraigned in Iowa next week. The indictment says their operation was headquartered in Little Rock, Ark., but workers traveled frequently, stopping in a dozen states in one two-month span last year. They posted solicitations on Backpage.com and other sites advertising the women as escorts, including their photographs, services offered and numbers for customers to call, the indictment says. "Exotic Playmate Last Night in Town!!!!" one of many such ads on Backpage.com read, telling customers the location of the Des Moines hotel where the woman was waiting, according to the indictment. Lawson used Backpage.com to research other prostitutes for Bell who could be recruited to join the conspiracy, the indictment says. The indictment comes as the website, owned by Village Voice Media, is under fire from critics who say it profits from sex trafficking. Critics are lobbying the company to remove ads for escorts and adult services but the company has resisted, noting it cooperates with law enforcement. Attorneys general across the country are investigating Backpage.com's practices. Police in Detroit are investigating the slayings of four women whose bodies were found in car trunks after three of them placed online escort ads through the site. A spokeswoman for Village Voice Media had no immediate comment on the Iowa indictment. Lawson has been released on a $5,000 bond, and is scheduled to make an initial appearance in Council Bluffs, Iowa next week. Her attorney did not immediately return a phone message. The two are charged in Iowa because Des Moines was a site where the ring did business on at least four occasions, sometimes holing up in an Econo Lodge near Interstate 35, the indictment says. Published: Fri, May 25, 2012