JACKSONVILLE, FL—United States Attorney A. Lee Bentley, III announces the return of an indictment charging Hermenegildo Nevarez Campa (33, Orlando) with two counts of sex trafficking children. If convicted on all counts, he faces 15 years, up to life, in federal prison.

According to the indictment, Campa obtained a 15-year-old and a 12-year-old girl for commercial sex acts. According to court records, both girls were encountered by Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office detectives during an undercover vice operation. Upon realizing the children’s ages, investigators with the North Florida Human Trafficking Task Force interviewed the children and learned that they had run away from home, were currently homeless, and were being sexually exploited by customers who paid money to have sex with them. The older child provided detailed information about a customer whom the children knew as “Chico,” later identified as Campa.

On March 11, 2015, a warrant was issued for Campa’s arrest and he was apprehended by investigators with the FBI and the Orange County Sheriff’s Office in Orlando, on April 9, 2014. Campa made his initial appearance, in Orlando, and is scheduled to appear in Jacksonville on April 17, 2015, for a detention hearing.

An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed one or more violations of federal criminal law, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty.

This case was investigated by the Northeast Florida Human Trafficking Task Force, a task force made up of investigators from the FBI and the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Mac D. Heavener, III.

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 United States Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), 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.projectsafechildhood.gov.