A New Jersey man has been accused of running a prostitution operation out of a Linthicum, Md., hotel room.
Anne Arundel County officers obtained a search and seizure warrant for the hotel room after the mother of a 19-year-old New Jersey woman sent her text messages saying she was being held there against her will, police said. Officers found two partially smoked marijuana blunts and arrested the New Jersey woman, Johnisha Ne-Cole Harris, and three others in the room: 26-year-old Edward Perkins, of New Jersey, and 18-year-old Nkosazana Zari Adebamgbe and 20-year-old Brittni Crabill, both of Philadelphia. Each was charged with possession of marijuana.
Officers also found cell phones, a computer, condoms and various items of women's clothing, police said. Based on those items and interviews with those arrested, police determined that Perkins was running a prostitution operation out of the room and had taken the women there for that purpose.
Harris participated willingly, police said, but contacted her mother when Perkins wouldn't return her to New Jersey.
Perkins was charged with nine counts of human trafficking, three counts of profiting from prostitution and three counts of prostitution by any means.
