Illegal Alien Living in Kentucky Sentenced in Sex Trafficking Ring

8:12 am
Thu December 20, 2012
By Lisa Autry
WKU Public Radio

An illegal alien living in Kentucky has pleaded guilty in a sex trafficking case that spanned several counties. Adulfo De Aquaino-Cancino was indicted by a grand jury over the summer.

According to an affidavit, between August 2011 and January of this year, he recruited females, arranged for commercial sexual encounters, transported, and financially benefited from the sex trafficking ring.

In an interview with Kentucky State Police, the 28-year-old illegal immigrant from Taylor County admitted he picked up underage girls in Campbellsville and took them to different locations where they would have sex with his friends. The acts occurred in Taylor, Green, Adair, and Barren counties.

Cancino was sentenced this week in federal court to seven years in prison.

Illegal Alien Living in Kentucky Sentenced in Sex Trafficking Ring | WKU Public Radio

Child sex trafficker sentenced

Campbellsville man meted an 84-month sentence, might be deported after serving sentence

By JUSTIN STORY The Daily New

A Campbellsville man may be deported after completing his prison sentence in a child prostitution case that involved illicit sex in Barren and three other counties.

Adulfo De Aquino-Cancino, 28, was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court in Bowling Green to 84 months – seven years – in prison.

De Aquino-Cancino pleaded guilty in December to conspiracy to commercial sex transactions with minors.

Court records show that De Aquino-Cancino took part in a sex trafficking operation in which he recruited two juvenile girls to engage in commercial sex acts between August 2011 and January 2012.

De Aquino-Cancino drove the girls to meet clients in numerous locations and received money for transporting the girls.

According to a criminal complaint, De Aquino-Cancino was part of a conspiracy in which he trafficked the two juveniles and a number of adult women for sex in Barren, Green, Adair and Taylor counties.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joshua Judd said Thursday that the juveniles were 15 and 16 years old at the time of the offenses.

"The girls came from troubled homes, as you could imagine, and they were hopefully the only type of people susceptible to this type of manipulation," Judd said in court.

A plea agreement was reached in part to avoid subjecting the juvenile victims to emotional trauma by testifying as witnesses.

"They're embarrassed about it. They don't want anything to do with it. They just want it to go away," Judd said.

Judd said that the federal investigation resulted in one of the juveniles divulging that she was paid $40 for a sexual liaison, of which De Aquino-Cancino took $10.

The plea agreement dismissed two counts of aiding and abetting commercial sex transactions with minors and one count of inducement of a minor to prostitution.

Appearing with his attorney, federal public defender Scott Wendelsdorf, and a court interpreter, De Aquino-Cancino declined to make a statement before being sentenced by Chief Judge Joseph McKinley of the U.S. District Court of Western Kentucky.

De Aquino-Cancino is an undocumented immigrant and is subject to deportation once he completes his prison sentence.

He was arrested in January 2012 by the Kentucky State Police from the Columbia post following a monthlong investigation.

During a police interview, De Aquino-Cancino admitted that he engaged in the prostitution operation and knew that it was illegal, according to court records. Other witnesses interviewed by police said that De Aquino-Cancino knew that the juvenile victims had not yet reached 18 years of age, according to court records.

Federally funded task forces opened 2,515 investigations into human trafficking in the U.S. between January 2008 and June 2010, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

Of those investigations, 82 percent were classified as sex trafficking, with more than 1,000 incidents involving allegations of child prostitution.

Investigations in that time period that confirmed human trafficking resulted in 144 arrests, according to the justice department.
Child sex trafficker sentenced - Bowling Green Daily News: Local News