Dorchester Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking Charges

BOSTON –A Dorchester man pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Boston to transporting two 14 year-old girls from Massachusetts to Rhode Island for the purpose of prostituting them.

Derek Miranda, a/k/a Dub, 21, pleaded guilty to transporting the two girls from Massachusetts to Providence, R.I. on or about Jan. 15, 2015 with the intent for them to engage in prostitution.  The following day, Miranda was arrested.  He was indicted in July 2015.  U.S. District Court Chief Judge Patti B. Saris scheduled sentencing for March 9, 2016.

On Jan. 14, 2015, Miranda met two 14 year-old girls who had run away from their homes in Lowell and brought them to a hotel in Brockton where he provided them with different clothes and told them that he “had guys coming over.”  One of the girls texted a friend for help who then notified the police and a search was initiated.  The girls left the hotel and temporarily stayed with a friend in Brockton.  However, as runaways with no place to go, they contacted Miranda who arranged to have them picked up by an Uber driver.  Miranda then had them driven to a house in Providence where he intended to have the girls provide sex for a fee.  One of the girls texted a friend to notify local law enforcement authorities who then rescued them and arrested Miranda.

United States Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz and Matthew Etre, Special Agent in Charge of the Homeland Security Investigations in Boston, made the announcement today.   The case was investigated with the assistance of the Massachusetts State Police assigned to Attorney General Maura Healey’s Office, the Providence, Lowell and Brockton Police Departments, and the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney S. Theodore Merritt of Ortiz’s Civil Rights Enforcement Team and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Deborah Bercovitch, Chief of AG Healey’s Human Trafficking Division.