Fresno, California - Javier Solis, 29, of Fresno, was sentenced today by United States District Judge Anthony W. Ishii to 11 years and nine months in prison for sex trafficking of a minor, United States Attorney Benjamin B. Wagner announced. On August 17, 2015, co‑defendant Michael Anthony Andrade, 34, was sentenced to 12 years and seven months in prison.
According to court documents, Andrade and Solis forced two girls, ages 15 and 17, perform sex acts for money first in Fresno and then in San Luis Obispo. In addition, the 15‑year-old girl was taken to a tattoo parlor in Fresno where the defendants’ nicknames were tattooed on her, one name on each shoulder.
Court documents further reflect the 17-year-old, a runaway, spoke with Fresno Police officers on October 24, 2013, after her mother brought her home from San Luis Obispo. While being interviewed, she told officers about the 15-year-old who was still in San Luis Obispo under the control of the defendants as well as the motel where she was staying. In response, the San Luis Obispo Police Department was contacted, and officers were able to successfully remove her from that location.
“The public should be outraged that men like Solis and Andrade market and ‘rent’ teens to others for profit and to the detriment of their young victims,” said Supervisory Special Agent Robert Guyton from the Fresno resident agency of the FBI’s Sacramento field office. “We are thankful for our collaborative relationship with the Fresno Police Department and other law enforcement partners. Working together, we can recover victims and ensure their exploiters face justice.”
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow, who prosecuted the case before it was filed in federal court, commented: “Collaboration, such as occurred here between federal, state, and local agencies, is the key to stopping human trafficking networks. We are pleased with the guilty pleas and the message that this tough sentence sends to anyone involved in sex trafficking of minors. We will continue to be vigilant to seek out and take down the perpetrators of human trafficking by using the collaboration of our anti-human trafficking task force.”
This case was the product of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Fresno Police Department, the San Luis Obispo Police Department and the San Luis Obispo District Attorney’s Office. Assistant United States Attorneys Michael Frye and Mia Giacomazzi prosecuted the case. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by the United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to locate, apprehend, and prosecute those who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. Click on the “resources” tab for information about Internet safety education.
