‘Buyers’ of 13-year-old girl who was sex trafficked online arrested in Texas, feds say

Two men have been arrested after they allegedly used an illegal website to purchase sex from a 13-year-old girl who was being trafficked.

Kention Obryan Johnson, 35, and Sergio Trinidad Carvajal, 30, were arrested in Dallas last week and a federal grand jury indicted them on charges of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sex trafficking of children, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Northern District of Texas.

Their arrests stem from an investigation into Curtis Vance Mathis, who was arrested last year and also charged with sex trafficking, the Star-Telegram reported in 2019.

Mathis was allegedly trafficking a 13-year-old girl who was reported missing for two months, the Star-Telegram reported. She was reported missing after she did not arrive at her middle school.

The girl was advertised on CityXGuide.com, an illegal website that was shut down earlier this year, the U.S. Attorney’s Office announced.

An undercover officer rescued the child “dressed only in an oversized hoodie” from a north Texas hotel room that had been booked in Mathis’ name, the attorney’s office said. The girl told police she had feared for her safety because the traffickers told her they would kill her if she didn’t cooperate, according to a previous Star-Telegram story.

Federal officials identified Johnson and Carvajal from surveillance footage showing men entering and exiting the hotel room. A search of the girl’s text messages revealed Johnson and Carvajal discussed sexual services with her, according to the attorney’s office.

DNA from Johnson and Carvajal was also found on discarded condoms in the hotel room, officials say.

“Traffickers sell children for sex because their clients will pay for it. It’s that simple,” U.S. Attorney Nealy Cox said in a release. “By attacking both the supply and the demand, we think we will be able to truly make a difference in fighting this dehumanizing, horrific crime.”

Johnson and Cavajel, who face life in prison if convicted, were arrested in Dallas after an investigation by Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas Field Office and the Fort Worth Police Department.

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