Judge Gives Allentown Man Long Prison Term For Sex Trafficking

PHILADELPHIA - Corderro Cody, 28, of Allentown, PA, was sentenced today to 30 years in prison for running a sex trafficking operation, announced United States Attorney Zane David Memeger.  Cody pleaded guilty on October 30, 2015, to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force, fraud or coercion, 12 counts of sex trafficking, one count of conspiracy to transport individuals across state lines for the purpose of prostitution, and one count of sex trafficking of a minor.  In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Edward G. Smith ordered 20 years of supervised release, and a $1,500 special assessment.

Since at least 2009 through May of 2014, Cody recruited women to work as prostitutes, referred to his prostitution business as the “program,” and advertised the women on Backpage.com.  The women were sometimes driven to other states and forced to perform sexual acts.  Cody recovered and kept most, if not all, of the money generated by the sexual acts, and used physical force in the form of rape and violent assaults, as well as extreme emotional manipulation, when the women did not adhere to the “program,” and to maintain the women performing commercial sexual acts.  Cody forced one woman to work for him as a prostitute when she was just 17 years old.

“The sentence imposed today will ensure that this defendant is unable to subject other girls and women to the tortures that these victims endured,” said Memeger.

“Cody operated a vicious sex trafficking scheme, using brutal physical attacks and emotional abuse to compel his victims to continue selling their bodies for his profit,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Vanita Gupta, head of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.  “The Civil Rights Division remains fiercely committed to holding traffickers accountable for their reprehensible conduct, and to safeguarding the rights and dignity of survivors of this heinous crime.”

“Investigations like this highlight the collaborative efforts of the many law enforcements agencies involved in the aggressive fight against human trafficking,” said Homeland Security Investigations Acting Philadelphia Special Agent-in-Charge Jack P. Staton. “This sentence should serve as a warning to all individuals and criminal groups involved in the trafficking of minors and women that we are determined to investigate and prosecute to the fullest extent of the law all that are involved in this heinous crime.”

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations and the Allentown Police Department.  It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Sherri A. Stephan, and Trial Attorney Anita Channapati of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice.