HOUSTON – A 23-year-old man who recruited young teenage girls and forced them to engage in sex acts with clients for money in cars and hotels around the “Bissonnet track” has been sentenced to over 30 years in prison.
Javon Yaw Opoku, also known as “Glizzy,” pleaded guilty on June 7, 2023. U.S. District Judge George C. Hanks Jr sentenced Opoku to 365 months in federal prison.
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In handing down the prison term, the court noted the duty to the people Opoku harmed and that he had forfeited the right to be around other members of society for a very long time. Restitution will be determined at a later date.
Opoku will serve 10 years on supervised release following completion of his prison term. During that time, he will have to comply with numerous requirements designed to restrict his access to children and the internet. Opoku will also be ordered to register as a sex offender.
“Opoku spent years exploiting and victimizing little girls and other vulnerable members of our community,” said U.S. Attorney Alamdar Hamdani. “Opoku will now spend the next 30+ years away from our community, unable to continue his exploitation and victimization of our daughters and neighbors.”
Opoku’s crimes occurred between April 2019 and February 2020. Opoku and co-conspirators recruited young teenage girls and forced them to engage in sex acts with clients for money in cars and hotels around the Bissonnet “blade,” also known as the Bissonnet “track.”
The blade is an area near 59 Southwest Freeway and Bissonnet Street in Houston where traffickers commonly place their victims to engage in commercial sex.
“Opoku and co-conspirators passed around or reassigned victims amongst one another, taught each other ‘the pimp game,’ forced the young girls to walk the blade while Opoku and others kept the proceeds. The young girls were required to pay an exit fee or get ‘beat out’ to switch between pimps. Some traffickers required daily quotas each night from their victims. If the victims failed to meet their daily quotas, they were severely punished through beatings and humiliation,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
Co-conspirator Jerreck Michael Hilliard aka “Jmoney” was sentenced April 12 to 292 months in federal prison.
Opoku will remain in custody pending transfer to a U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility to be determined in the near future.
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