Silver Spring Man Sentenced To 12 Years For Sex Trafficking Of Minors
BALTIMORE, Md. (WJZ) — A Silver Spring man was sentenced on Tuesday to 12 years in prison, followed by five years of supervised release for two counts of sex trafficking a minor.
Roland Chick Akum, 25, must also register as a sex offender where he lives, works, and goes to school after his release from prison.
Between June and August of 2017, Akum, also known as "Rayne", transported two girls, 15 and 16 respectively, to a motel in College Park, Maryland to engage in commercial sex acts.
Akum used Backpage, a website that marketed commercial sex, to advertise the girls, keeping a portion of the proceeds from the sex acts for himself.
The 15-year-old girl left Akum and the hotel on July 7, 2017 to contact the authorities.
Akum would continue to traffic the 17-year-old girl for a little over a month, until his arrest in a part of an undercover operation targeting Backpage. He was released on bond the following day.
In September, 2017, he purchased a one-way ticket from Dulles International Airport to Cameroon.
Akum, a citizen of Cameroon, was arrested before he could make that flight.
The case was investigated by the Maryland Human Trafficking Task Force, which was formed in 2007 to discover and rescue victims of human trafficking, and prosecute offenders.
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