A California man who allegedly advertised an Ohio teenager for commercial sex acts online across the area before authorities rescued the victim from a Cambridge hotel is slated to appear in Boston federal court.
Authorities on Monday arrested Ibrahim Abdul-Alim Bin Hajj Yahya Abdul-Malik, 37, of San Jose, in California before the suspect appeared in the Northern District of California on a charge of sex trafficking.
According to U.S. Attorney for Massachusetts Leah Foley, Malik will appear in federal court in Boston at a later date.
The 17-year-old victim had been reported missing from her Ohio home last August before law enforcement learned last December that the minor had been advertised for commercial sex acts online in the Boston area, according to charging documents.
Investigators identified advertisements that contained photographs of the victim and a phone number used to “arrange commercial sex encounters.” Subsequently, law enforcement responded to the ad in an “undercover capacity” on Dec. 11, and the phone number arranged a “commercial sex date at a hotel in Cambridge.”
“There, law enforcement recovered the minor victim and seized her iPhone as evidence,” according to a release Foley’s office issued on Wednesday.
Malik allegedly began trafficking the victim in other states around the middle of last November as he posted “commercial sex advertisements … on various websites,” reportedly raising the victim’s age to “falsely indicate that she was 20 years old.”
“During a search of the minor victim’s phone, law enforcement allegedly located messages from Malik about the minor victim engaging in commercial sex acts with sex buyer,” prosecutors said.
“On multiple occasions, it is alleged that Malik directed the minor victim to have sex buyer payments sent to a Zelle account he controlled,” Foley’s office continued. “After the sex buyer sent the payment, it is alleged that Malik would confirm receipt of the money and keep all of the profits.”
Investigators further found that Malik, who could face a minimum of 10 years to life in prison, allegedly fled the Boston area for San Jose in the early morning hours of the day after the undercover operation last December.
The case comes as lawmakers and hospitality industry leaders in Massachusetts press for human trafficking recognition training at all Bay State hotels.
An event held at the State House on Wednesday highlighted companion legislation that would mandate such training for all hotel employees in Massachusetts.
State Sen. Mark Montigny, a New Bedford Democrat who is a lead sponsor of the effort, said he believes the Massachusetts migrant crisis and the state’s use of hotels as shelter sites have made the human trafficking problem a “lot worse.”
“Anybody who wants to tell me that there isn’t a whole lot of trafficking going on at these shelter sites is naive,” Montigny said. “I intend to make sure that if we are going to continue (funding) we are going to require the proper training, the proper oversight.”
