A young gang member will be middle-aged by the time he gets out of prison for luring young runaways into his juvenile prostitution ring.
Alonso Bruno Cornejo Ormeno, a/k/a “Casper,” 22, of Fairfax, Va., was sentenced Friday to 292 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for sex trafficking runaway females as part of his juvenile prostitution business. Cornejo Ormeno has been linked with the Salvadoran gang MS-13.
Cornejo Ormeno’s ring serviced clients throughout northern Virginia, as well as the District and Maryland, authorities said.
“Gang members prey on vulnerable young runaway girls and drag them into the horrific world of juvenile prostitution,” said Neil H. MacBride, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “Sex trafficking is an unconscionable crime that reduces young women to indentured sex slaves and may subject them to a lifetime of traumatic memories.”
According to court documents, Cornejo Ormeno, a Peruvian-born U.S. citizen, is a close associate of a gang with roots in Central America. He targeted teenage runaways and recruited them to work in his juvenile prostitution business. The girls, whose ages ranged from 15 to 17, were in need of shelter and a way to support themselves, and Cornejo Ormeno preyed upon these vulnerabilities and promised them money and narcotics by prostituting themselves to earn what they needed to stay on the run.
“Trafficking in humans, especially for underage prostitution, is a despicable offense,” said James W. McJunkin, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field office. “Preying on our children will not be tolerated and these cases represent a concerted effort by the FBI and law enforcement to stop juvenile prostitution and human trafficking in Northern Virginia.”
Cornejo Ormeno managed all aspects of his prostitution ring, authorities said. He recruited vulnerable young girls to serve as prostitutes, obtained clients, scheduled the prostitution appointments, transported the juvenile females to the appointments, and collected the money afterward. Cornejo Ormeno prostituted each of the juveniles on numerous occasions, and provided them to members of his gang for sex without charge.
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This is one of five gang-related juvenile sex trafficking cases brought within the past year in our area, all of which involve vulnerable young runaways lured or forced into prostitution.
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