Sex Ring Leader Pleads Guilty
LOUISIANA – April 8, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – The leader of a sex trafficking ring pleaded guilty today to charges stemming from his interstate prostitution enterprise.
Jeremie J. Tate, 33, of Zachary, Louisiana, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Shelly D. Dick to conspiracy to unlawfully use interstate facilities in aid of racketeering, two counts of use of interstate facilities in aid of racketeering and enticing another to travel interstate for prostitution.
After evading arrest for several days, Tate was apprehended in Houston, Texas, on April 25, 2014, by the U.S. Marshals Service Fugitive Task Force and the FBI’s New Orleans Division.
Tate has remained in federal custody since his arrest.
According to the plea agreement filed in the case, for more than two years Tate operated a prostitution business based in Baton Rouge involving multiple prostitutes, including a minor. Tate and others, used telephones and the Internet to arrange online advertising, schedule prostitution sessions and recruit other prostitutes.
Tate admitted he took most of the proceeds from the prostitution business and distributed controlled substances to his prostitutes and others to manipulate and intimidate them.
In his plea agreement, Tate admitted that he enticed a prostitute to travel from Baton Rouge to Las Vegas in December 2012 to engage in prostitution for him.
Three other individuals have already pleaded guilty and are awaiting sentencing for their roles in this sex trafficking ring.
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.
Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood 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.
