Chesapeake Man Sentenced for Sex Trafficking Minors

NORFOLK, Va. – A Chesapeake man was sentenced yesterday to 25 years in prison for sex trafficking two minors.

According to court documents, in September 2022, Denzel Akeem Loftin, 32, began chatting with an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 17-year-old girl living in Pennsylvania. Loftin said he was a pimp and proposed that the girl come to Virginia to work for him. The next month, he posted advertisements for her on online sex trafficking sites. Then, in October 2022, the FBI learned of a 14-year-old missing child from Colorado who had been located in sex trafficking advertisements in the Hampton Roads area. Law enforcement set up a “date” for commercial sex with the 14-year-old and another juvenile. Loftin was observed with the girl and two other female individuals immediately before the “date.” One of the other individuals was identified as a missing 17-year-old from Missouri. A review of seized electronic devices revealed that Loftin not only sex-trafficked the minor, but himself engaged in a sex act with the 17-year-old.  The 14-year-old also reported witnessing Loftin inflict physical violence on the 17-year-old, including hitting her in the mouth for “talking back.”

Emerita Moore, 24, of Norfolk, assisted Loftin by acting as his “bottom”, or the female who supervises the girls being trafficked. When Loftin recruited the children online, Moore spoke to them in advance to make them comfortable in coming to work for Loftin and assisted in arranging their travel to EDVA. Moore was arrested after arriving for the commercial sex appointment set up by law enforcement, in the company of the 14-year-old and 17-year-old minors. Moore was sentenced to 5 years in prison on November 7.

Jessica D. Aber, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Brian Dugan, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Norfolk Field Office; and Mark G. Solesky, Chief of Chesapeake Police, made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth W. Hanes.

The Chesapeake Police Department provided significant assistance in this investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney E. Rebecca Gantt prosecuted the case.

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 U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (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.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. Related court documents and information are located on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case Nos. 2:23-cr-44 and 2:23-cr-47.