JEFFERSON, Texas — An East Texas man pleaded guilty of sex trafficking at least three people over a six-month period in five states.
Corey Johnson, 40, of Jefferson, was convicted of one count of federal sex trafficking violations in the Eastern District of Texas, the U.S. Department of Justice said. He entered the guilty plea Wednesday in federal court.
Court information showed Johnson trafficked at three people from March to September 2020 in Texas, Louisiana, Tennessee, New York and California. Johnson took the victims and arranged transportation for the victims between hotels and motels to make them perform commercial sex acts.
According to the news release, Johnson recruited victims using social media and threatened to harm them if they did not have sex with his customers. Johnson found customers by buying advertisements on internet websites.
He faces up to life in federal prison for sentencing.
The Texas DPS Criminal Investigations Division investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nathaniel C. Kummerfeld and Robert Austin Wells prosecuted it with help from trial attorney Julie Pfluger of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.