BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – An Illegal Alien living in Taylor County, Kentucky appeared in United States District Court this morning in Bowling Green, Kentucky charged in a multiple count indictment with the sex trafficking of children 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, is charged with; conspiracy to recruit, entice, harbor and transport two juveniles to engage in commercial sex acts; aiding and abetting in the sexual trafficking of juveniles; attempting to persuade, induce, entice, and coerce a juvenile to engage in prostitution. 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, the defendant 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, Cancino was interviewed by a Kentucky State Police Detective. The law enforcement officers advised Cancino of his constitutional rights as set out in Miranda. The defendant allegedly stated that he knew several girls in the Campbellsville, Kentucky area that were prostitutes and that 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 Cancino for driving them to the locations. Cancino allegedly identified the two juveniles and affirmed that he knew what he was doing with these young girls was illegal. Following this interview, Cancino was arrested by Kentucky State Police.

If convicted at trial, De Aquino-Cancino faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years imprisonment and a maximum of no more than life in prison, a $500,000 fine, and a period of supervised release up to life.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Joshua D. Judd and is being 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."

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The indictment of a person by a Grand Jury is an accusation
only and that person is presumed innocent until and unless
proven guilty.

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