Dallas man sentenced to 25 years for running ‘brutal’ sex trafficking organization

A Dallas man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after he was pleaded guilty to spending nearly two decades running a sex trafficking ring the Department of Justice described as “brutal,” according to a news release.

Anthony Johnson, 45, pleaded guilty May 10, 2022, the day his trial was supposed to start, to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion, and sex trafficking, according to the Justice Department. He was sentenced Wednesday to 25 years in prison and a lifetime of supervised release.

In his plea, Johnson said he forced numerous women to engage in commercial sex acts and then give him the money, setting “quotas” and forcing the women to work for hours on end, according to the Justice Department. If women didn’t bring him enough money, “disrespected” him or did not follow his rules, he would “brutally beat them with an extension cord.” Johnson would also force the women to steal from people paying them for sex by going through their pockets for cash or jewelry and burglarizing their cars.

One victim was abused by him for several years, having her taught how to solicit money for sex on Harry Hines Boulevard in Dallas the night he “recruited” her, according to the Justice Department. She was forced to have sex with her first customer a few days later and throughout her time under Johnson’s control was forced to travel cross-country to engage in commercial sex and routinely beaten when she tried to get away.

The mother of another victim called 911 and told them she got a call from her daughter, saying she wanted to come home but “they won’t let me,” according to the release. She told her mother they had everything she owned and that Johnson had other women following her, held her at gunpoint and beat her.

In a pretrial filing, prosecutors said they were prepared to show evidence that Johnson got ahold of a contraband cell phone while in jail awaiting trial and continued to run his sex trafficking operation, the Justice Department said. Text messages on the phone showed that Johnson kept telling the women where to work, which hotels to use, how to steal from customers and when they could stop for the night. He told them to send videos of themselves having sex with their customers.

In his plea, Johnson admitted he ran his trafficking operation from jail from 2014 to 2019 after he was convicted of aggravated assault with a deady weapon.

A co-defendant described as Johnson’s second in command, Demetrice Deckard, pleaded guilty in April 2022 to conspiracy to engage in trafficking through force, fraud, and coercion and is set to be sentenced in April this year. Ashley Neice, another co-defendant, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding. She also admitted to conspiring with Johnson to pressure a victim in the criminal case not to cooperate with law enforcement.

If you believe you or someone you know is a victim of human trafficking, call local law enforcement or the 24/7 confidential National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888.