< Back to front page Text size – +

Two convicted in violent prostitution ring

E-mail|Link|Comments () November 6, 2009 06:21 PM

By Jonathan Saltzman, Globe Staff

Two Boston men were convicted today in federal court of participating in a violent prostitution ring, after a 10-day trial in which several trafficking victims testified that the defendants viciously beat and abused them.

Darryl Tavares, of Revere, and Eddie Jones, of Dorchester, both 26, were found guilty of conspiracy to traffic women in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution and transporting minors in interstate commerce for the purpose of prostitution.

Four other men who allegedly participated in the Boston-based ring pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge before trial and await sentencing.

The ring allegedly put an ad in a Boston weekly newspaper looking to hire and train girls with "a desire to travel and see new places," according to the 2007 indictment. But other times, the men allegedly just abducted teenage girls off the street and threatened to kill them if they did not work as prostitutes.

Authorities said the ring preyed on girls who had often left home because of physical, sexual, or psychological abuse.

The jury in US District Court in Boston heard testimony from several trafficking victims, some of whom were under the age of 18 when they were allegedly forced to work as prostitutes.

One young woman testified that Tavares carved her face with a potato peeler to scar her so everyone would know she belonged to him, according to prosecutors. Another young woman testified that after she ran away from her pimp, Tavares lured her back and then laughed as the pimp beat her and placed a plastic bag over her head and taped it around her neck.

On The Beat

Reporter Jonathan Saltzman is in federal court, where a woman admitted threatening to kill a well-known local financier as part of a Fatal Attraction-like obsession.