Man faces sex trafficking charges in Tennessee, USA

FBI agents have arrested a man from Etowah, Tennessee as part of its investigation called “Innocence Lost”. Richard Lamar Gordon, and independent lorry driver, is accused of picking up two girls aged 14 and 15 years in Toledo, Ohio and selling them into prostitution in Dexter, Michigan. He is also accused of paying $100 to have sex with on of the children. The FBI claims that he conspired with another man and two other women to organise this child sex trafficking ring. This case highlights that child sex trafficking is not just something which happens across national borders but also happens within countries, even wealthy countries like the US. It also shows that while major organised crime gangs are often involved in human trafficking, it can also be run by smaller scale rings of only a few people, people living in ordinary communities such as Etowah, Tennessee. Gordon is now facing two counts of Sexual Trafficking of children and two counts of interstate transport of minors for prostitution, aiding and abetting.