Sex Trafficking Ring Targeting Mid-South Teens Is Busted

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Mid-South law enforcement says a sex trafficking ring used personal ads on Backpage.com to run its illegal multi-state business from Texas all the way to Memphis, Tennessee.

A Memphis grand jury indicted Kala Bray and Vincent Jones on charges of prostituting a 15-year old and a 16-year-old. Both girls were allegedly given drugs before they had sex with clients in Memphis and Texas, who were responding to the website ads.

U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton told News Channel 3 back in July that the sex slave or human trafficking problem is growing.

But the girls in this case were eventually tracked down by police in Texas and returned to the Mid-South. However, several days later one of the teens was reunited with the suspects.

The teen was rescued again when Memphis police arrested Bray back in August and their internet sex trafficking ring was put out of business by police.

Stanton said, "I believe the message is getting out and it should get out that the Department of Justice and the U.S. Attorney's Office will be very vigilant and certainly aggressive in prosecuting these cases."

Bray and Jones face 15 years to life in prison if convicted.

State attorneys general from across the United States are pushing to have Backpage.com remove its adult services advertisement section.