MIAMI – An Atlanta sex trafficker has been sentenced to 25 years in prison for forcing a young woman and a girl into selling themselves for sex.
Anthony Bernard Carter was convicted in July by a federal jury in Miami of sex trafficking by force, fraud, and coercion; transporting a person to engage in sexual activity; sex trafficking of a minor; and transporting a minor to engage in sexual activity.
Evidence showed during trial that Carter trafficked the Adult Victim and Minor Victim for commercial sex in Atlanta before driving them in January 2020 to Miami, which was hosting Super Bowl LIV, to continue engaging in commercial sex. While in Miami, Carter advertised the victims for commercial sex in online advertisements and both engaged in commercial sex at his direction.
Carter came to the attention of law enforcement after taking the Minor Victim to a hotel to meet with a client who was actually an undercover officer from the Miami Beach Police Department. When law enforcement attempted to apprehend Carter upon his return to the hotel, he fled from law enforcement, nearly striking multiple pedestrians with the vehicle he was driving before abandoning it. Law enforcement subsequently arrested Carter in Atlanta.
Juan Antonio Gonzalez, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida; acting Special Agent in Charge Robert M. DeWitt, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Miami Field Office; and Miami Beach Police Department Chief Richard Clements announced the sentence.
FBI, Miami Field Office, and Miami Beach Police Department investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Lacee Elizabeth Monk and Jessica Kahn Obenauf prosecuted it.
This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice and led by the U.S. Attorney’s Offices and the Criminal Divisions Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section (CEOS), it marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend, and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit www.projectsafechildhood.gov.
To report suspected human trafficking or to obtain resources for victims, please call 1-888-373-7888; text “BeFree” (233733), or live chat at HumanTraffickingHotline.org. The toll-free phone, SMS text lines, and online chat function are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. Help is available in English, Spanish, Creole, or in more than 200 additional languages. The National Hotline is not managed by law enforcement, immigration or an investigative agency. Correspondence with the National Hotline is confidential and you may request assistance or report a tip anonymously.
Visit www.humantraffickinghotline.org to learn more about the National Resource Hotline. Visit www.justice.gov/humantrafficking to learn more about the U.S. Department of Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking.
Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Southern District of Florida at www.flsd.uscourts.gov or at http://pacer.flsd.uscourts.gov under case no. 21-cr-20052.