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Press Release

Illegal Alien Living In Taylor County Sentenced To 84 Months In Prison For His Role In A Sex Trafficking Ring Involving Juveniles In A Four County Area

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Western District of Kentucky

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – An Illegal Alien living in Taylor County, Kentucky was sentenced to serve 84 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release, by Chief Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., in United States District Court this week, for conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of two minors in Taylor, Green, Adair and Barren Counties, Kentucky announced David J. Hale, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky.

Adulfo De Aquino-Cancino, age 28, pleaded guilty on December 18, 2012, to conspiracy to benefit financially from a prostitution venture that recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, and obtained by any means two minors who had not attained the age of 18 years. De Aquino-Cancino pleaded guilty to a term of imprisonment of 84 months and a five year to life term of supervised release before Chief District Judge Joseph H. McKinley, Jr. As part of the plea agreement, the United States agreed to dismiss counts 2, 3, and 4 of the grand jury indictment.

According to the plea agreement, between August 2011 to January 2012, De Aquino-Cancino engaged in a conspiracy where the he knowingly benefitted, financially or by receiving anything of value, from participating in a venture that recruited, enticed, harbored, transported, provided, and obtained by any means a person, that the defendant knew, or recklessly disregarded the fact, that the person had not attained the age of 18 years and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act. The conduct of the venture was in or affecting interstate commerce because De Aquino-Cancino communicated with the minors via cellular telephone and text messages that traveled in interstate commerce. De Aquino-Cancino was indicted by a grand jury meeting in Bowling Green, Kentucky on May 16, 2012.

According to an Affidavit filed by a Special Agent with the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations, in support of a Criminal Complaint, between August 2011, and January 2012, De Aquino-Cancino recruited females, arranged for commercial sexual encounters, transported, and benefited financially from commercial sex transactions involving two minor females, neither having reached the age of 18, and several adult females in Green, Taylor, Adair, and Barren Counties in the Western District of Kentucky.

On January 19, 2012, De Aquino-Cancino was interviewed by a Kentucky State Police Detective. The law enforcement officers advised De Aquino-Cancino of his constitutional rights as set out in Miranda. He stated that he knew several girls in the Campbellsville, Kentucky area that were prostitutes and that De Aquino-Cancino, the defendant, would go to Campbellsville, pick the prostitutes up, and take them to different locations where they performed commercial sex acts with the defendant’s friends. The prostitutes would in turn pay De Aquino-Cancino for driving them to the locations. De Aquino-Cancino identified the two juveniles and affirmed that he knew what he was doing with these young girls was illegal. Following this interview, De Aquino-Cancino was arrested by Kentucky State Police.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua D. Judd and was investigated by the Kentucky State Police and the United States Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations.

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 individuals who sexually exploit children, and to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc. For more information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the tab "resources."

Updated December 15, 2014