A member of a violent Hispanic gang in Manassas was sentenced to 14 years in prison for prostituting a 14-year-old runaway girl.
Ramiro Espinoza Jamaica, also known as "Criminal," took advantage of the homeless teen's vulnerability, prosecutors said. He pleaded guilty to sex trafficking in April.
The 21-year-old Jamaica convinced the girl to stay with him, then exploited her vulnerability as a runaway who had no place to stay and no legitimate means of supporting herself, prosecutors said.
After luring her into his apartment, he sexually abused her, physically assaulted her, and then made money by prostituting her to a stranger, federal authorities said.
"The trafficking and prostitution of a child is one of the most horrific and despicable crimes that we investigate," said James McJunkin, assistant director in charge of the FBI's Washington Field Office.
Jamaica, a Mexican-born U.S. citizen, is a self-admitted member of the Manassas Park Locos clique of the SUR-13 gang, a violent group that has members throughout Central and North America.
According to court documents, the 14-year-old told FBI agents last fall that she ran away and lived with Jamaica in early 2011.
For three months, Jamaica abused and prostituted the girl, authorities said. The girl told investigators that Jamaica would hit her with a closed fist and once choked her to the point of unconsciousness.
In one instance, two men arrived at Jamaica's apartment and Jamaica told the girl that she was going to have sex with them and would keep half the money she earned, according to the complaint.
He plied the girl with Hennessy liquor mixed with Pepsi to get the girl drunk so she would have sex.
Afterward, the girl told Jamaica that she never wanted to do that again, charging documents say. Jamaica told her, "My other homegirls do it, why can't you," according to the court documents.
Another person who knows Jamaica told the FBI that Jamaica lived with, had sex with and pimped out runaway girls.
Jamaica allegedly told the witness that he did not care about the girl's ages, and all he had to do is get them drunk or high and they will do whatever he wanted.
The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia recently has charged 11 MS-13 or Crips gang members with juvenile sex trafficking. Jamaica is the first SUR-13 gang member to be convicted of child sex trafficking in that district.