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Press Release

Two Alabama Men Arrested and Indicted on Sex Trafficking Charges

For Immediate Release
Office of Public Affairs

Two Alabama men have been arrested and charged in an indictment unsealed today with crimes related to sex trafficking of a minor, announced Acting Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Blanco of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and Acting U.S. Attorney A. Clark Morris of the Middle District of Alabama.

Michael Lowe, 24, and Joshua Rose, 28, both of Prattville, Alabama, were charged in an indictment returned on April 26, 2017, by a federal grand jury sitting in Montgomery, Alabama, with one count each of sex trafficking of a minor and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of a minor. Lowe was arrested yesterday, and Rose has been in custody since Aug. 5, 2016. According to the indictment, beginning on an unknown date through June 2016, Rose and Lowe conspired to recruit, entice and transport a minor victim, knowing that the victim was a minor and would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act.

The charges contained in an indictment are merely accusations, and a defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and the Prattville, Alabama, and the Montgomery, Alabama, Police Departments are investigating the case. Trial Attorney Leslie Williams Fisher of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and Assistant U.S. Attorney Hollie Reed of the Middle District of Alabama are prosecuting the case.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.

Updated May 3, 2017

Topics
Human Trafficking
Project Safe Childhood
Press Release Number: 17-483