Portland Sex Trafficker Sentenced to 200 Months in Federal Prison

PORTLAND, OR—Anthony Dennell Armstrong, 25, of Portland, Oregon, was sentenced to 200 months in prison today by United States District Judge Michael W. Mosman for transporting a 14-year-old girl from Oregon to Arizona for the purpose of prostitution. On August 15, 2013, Armstrong pleaded guilty to one count of transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution. Upon release from custody, Armstrong will serve a 10-year period of supervised release. During his supervised release, he must abide by a number of conditions, including registration as a sex offender.

“Sex trafficking of children is the same thing as sending a child into a hotel room to be raped, night after night,” said U.S. Attorney Amanda Marshall. “We will continue to prosecute aggressively anyone who recruits our children into this dark world.”

In imposing the 200-month sentence, Judge Mosman noted that there is nothing to distinguish the crime of sex trafficking of children from the crime of rape. He stated that sex trafficking of children is among the most serious of offenses and added that the trafficking in this case was especially serious in light of the young age of the victim, the repeated acts of personal violence, the interstate travel, and the duration of the offense.

The government alleged that Armstrong recruited the victim into prostitution when she was just 14 years old and continued to traffic her until she was 18 years old. He transported the victim from Oregon to Phoenix, Arizona, for the purpose of prostitution, as well as to Las Vegas and southern California. The government alleged that Armstrong subjected the victim to regular beatings, including when she broke his rules, did not make enough money, or refused to work as a prostitute.

This case stemmed from a coordinated investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Child Exploitation Task Force. The FBI’s Child Exploitation Task Force marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children through sex trafficking, as well as to identify and rescue victims. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Stacie Beckerman.