Source: United States Department of Justice News
A Pennsylvania man was sentenced today to 25 years in prison for trafficking four minors in Philadelphia.
According to court documents, from at least February 2016 to 2017, Andre Felts, 35, of Philadelphia, led a prostitution ring and trafficked at least four minors ranging in age from 15 to 17 years old. Felts kept a significant portion of the money paid to the minor victims and he and others, at his direction, posted advertisements on the internet for commercial sex with the minors, provided transportation to and from sexual encounters, and identified locations for commercial sex acts to occur. His co-defendants, Ryan Keel and Kevin Francis, allowed Felts to use their homes for commercial sex encounters with the minors in exchange for a portion of the proceeds. On one occasion, Felts assaulted a minor victim.
Felts was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release.
On May 31, Keel was sentenced to 11 years and three months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. On July 27, 2022, Kevin Francis was sentenced to 10 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release. All three defendants were ordered to jointly pay $235,000 in restitution to the victims as part of their sentences.
Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division made the announcement.
The FBI investigated the case.
Trial Attorneys Gwendelynn Bills and Jessica Urban of the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS) and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Alexandra Lastowski and Priya De Souza for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania prosecuted the case.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and CEOS, 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.justice.gov/psc.