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East Hartford man pleads guilty to sex trafficking of 16-year-old girl

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With his trial on federal sex trafficking charges approaching, an East Hartford man opted to plead guilty Monday in U.S. District Court in Bridgeport.

Alexander Pedraza, 28, faces a minimum of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life when he is sentenced, according to the U.S. Attorney’s office.

Pedraza promoted the prostitution of a 16-year-old runaway and solicited customers for her on the website Backpage.com, which has since been taken over and shut down by the government. In March 2017, he rented hotel rooms at the Rodeway Inn in East Windsor and the Flamingo Inn in Windsor, and the girl met with customers that Pedraza lined up online, according to the government.

Pedraza met the girl through the dating application Plenty of Fish and carried on a lengthy conversation with her, during which she revealed she was in the custody of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families. She was living in a group home and ran away after learning she would be placed in foster care, according to the government.

The girl met Pedraza at a shopping mall in Auburn, Mass., and returned to Connecticut with her, and put her up at a hotel. The 16-year-old was left alone for the night, but on her own solicited a prostitution client via the Plenty of Fish app, according to the government.

After Pedraza pressed her into prostitution, she would see as many as 10 customers a day and make as much as $1,000. Pedraza would return to the motel to collection the money and on occasion had sexual contact with the victim, according to the government.

While at Rodeway Inn in East Windsor, the victim called her mother to let her know she was OK. Although the phone number was blocked, the mother called her local police department and law enforcement was able to determine the call came from near the Rodeway Inn. An FBI agent then posed a a customer, set up a meeting with the victim, and the FBI and East Windsor police recovered her.

According to federal court records, police recovered a variety of messages and evidence linked to the adds placed on Backpage.com from phones they seized. In the victim’s phone, they found Pedraza’s two phone numbers listed under “Daddy” and “Papi,” which the government said are names that prostituted women frequently call their pimps.

They also recovered a variety of text messages, including one in which Pedraza urges the 16-year-old to spend a half hour with a customer because it costs more.

“Half hour for 120,” Pedraza texted to the girl.

“Can I just do a qv [quick visit],” the girl responds.

“Bby just do this hh [half hour] for us. Remember we’re forcin [expletive] hun.”

“I knoe but I hate hh I prefur qvs,” she responds.

“But it’s more bread and less guys you got to meet hes coming up now ma game face on :-),” Pedraza responds.

Pedraza told the girl to charge $60 for oral sex, $80 for a “quick visit” of 15 minutes, $120 to $130 for 30 minutes, and $150 to $170 for an hour, according to court records.

The government also determined that between September and December 2016 Pedraza sex trafficked at least two 18-year-olds.

Pedraza has been in custody since his arrest on May 26, 2017 by the FBI and East Windsor police, through the Connecticut Human Trafficking Task Force.

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