By Zaeem Shaikh
https://www.dallasnews.com/
A 42-year-old DeSoto man has been sentenced to life in federal prison for trafficking adults and teenage girls for sex.
U.S. District Judge Reed O’Connor announced the sentence Friday for Anjum Zafar Mian, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Texas said. The sentence comes three months after a jury found him guilty of 15 counts involving sex trafficking of adults and minors as well as sexual exploitation of children.
Federal authorities said Mian forced at least two teenage girls to engage in commercial sex, telling them he would harm their family if they didn’t comply. Prosecutors said he brought a 17-year-old from Oklahoma and made her engage in commercial sex, not allowing her to go home.
Mian also attempted to traffic a woman from Oklahoma, authorities said, but she called the police after he assaulted her. In a trial, victims testified that Mian, who also went by “AJ” and “Dre,” used explicit photos of them to advertise sex online, authorities said.
He used messaging apps to keep in touch with customers and gave the teens drugs and alcohol. Authorities said he would then take them to customers and demand they turn all proceeds over to him. Two victims testified in a trial that Mian raped them while they were unconscious.
Charge Lester Hayes Jr., special agent in charge for Homeland Security Investigations’ Dallas office, said in a written statement that with a life sentence, “HSI is yet again successful in removing a dangerous predator from the community.”
This story, originally published in The Dallas Morning News, is reprinted as part of a collaborative partnership between The Dallas Morning News and Texas Metro News. The partnership seeks to boost coverage of Dallas’ communities of color, particularly in southern Dallas.
