6 face charges in sex ring

They put an ad in a Boston weekly newspaper looking to hire and train girls with "a desire to travel and see new places." But other times, they allegedly just abducted teenage girls off the street and threatened to kill them if they didn't work as prostitutes.

In a sweeping federal indictment unsealed yesterday, six men are accused of running a violent Boston-based prostitution ring that forced girls as young as 15 into service and transported them across the country and as far away as Bermuda to work as prostitutes.

They are also accused of networking with convicted sex traffickers from other states to swap or hand off girls after they grew tired of them.

The 22-page indictment describes a so-called "toss up" in New York City, where pimps traded the young prostitutes among themselves.

Darryl "Young Stallion" Tavares, 23, of Revere; Shaun "Syncere" Leoney, 25, and Rueben "Ruby Black" Porcher, 28, both of Dorchester; Eddie "Young Indian" Jones, 24, of Roxbury; Aaron "Breeze" Brooks, 22, of Quincy; and Trueheart "Dwayne" Peeples, 29, of Portland, Maine, are all charged with conspiracy to transport adults and minors across state lines for prostitution from 2001 to 2005, as well as other prostitution-related offenses.

Tavares, Leoney, and Porcher are also charged with sex trafficking of children who were 15, 16, and 17 years old when they were forced to become prostitutes.

Members of the ring are accused of transporting the girls within Massa chusetts and to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire, Florida to engage in prostitution.

Porcher is accused of arranging for a 15-year-old girl to get false identification and then taking her to Bermuda in summer 2002 to work as a prostitute.

US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan's office said the case was investigated by the FBI, Boston, Revere, and Quincy police and the Massachusetts State Police as part of the Innocence Lost Initiative, a national project aimed at prosecuting the commercial sexual exploitation of children.

"A large percentage of these children leave home because of physical, sexual, and psychological abuse at the hands of their parents or caretakers," said FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz, referring to the teenage girls who were allegedly preyed on by pimps. "And prostitution is a continuation of the victim's sexual exploitation, not the beginning."

The case was unsealed after Jones, Porcher, and Brooks were arrested in the Boston area and Peeples was arrested in Maine. Leoney and Tavares were already in state custody on earlier charges.

During a brief hearing in federal court in Boston, US Magistrate Judge Judith G. Dein ordered Jones, Porcher, and Brooks held without bail until a hearing Monday on whether they should remain jailed until the case is resolved. She appointed lawyers to represent each of them after they said they couldn't afford one.

Wearing a green Zoo York zippered sweatshirt with the word, "Unbreakable," on the back, Jones blew a kiss to a group of women, who sat in the spectator section.

"It's not true," said one of the women after hearing the charges against Jones. She described herself as a friend of his, but declined to give her name. "He doesn't even know the two other guys," said the woman, asserting that Jones had never set eyes on Leoney or Tavares before they were all taken into custody yesterday.

Boston lawyer Elliot M. Weinstein, who represents Jones, said, "This is a serious allegation, but I am confident that Mr. Jones is not involved in the conspiracy that's charged."

The indictment alleges that members of the ring used intimidation and brutality to force the girls into prostitution.

A 17-year-old girl who wanted to get out of the business in February 2004 went back to work for Tavares after he covered her head with a garbage bag and secured it with duct tape, according to the indictment.

Another 17-year-old girl was raped with a hair brush by Tavares in April 2005 because he suspected she had turned over some of the money she made from prostitution to Jones, the indictment says.

The following month, the same victim was allegedly kicked in the face by Jones, while he was wearing Timberland boots, for using a cellphone that he gave her to call a man who wasn't a customer. The indictment says that after disfiguring the girl's mouth and kicking out her teeth with the attack, Jones "gave" the girl back to Tavares because he didn't want her working for him anymore.

During Memorial Day weekend 2005, Leoney and Brooks allegedly took a 17-year-old girl to Orlando for a organized prostitution events sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned and operated by two convicted sex traffickers from New York, according to the indictment.

As Jones was led out of the courtroom yesterday in handcuffs to be transported to the Plymouth County jail, he turned to the women, smiled, and said, "I'm good."