Fourteen Indicted In Child Sex Trafficking Ring
Four ringleaders and ten others are charged in a Colorado child trafficking ring.
Colorado Attorney General John Suthers announced Monday that his office has secured an indictment for 14 individuals suspected of running, abetting and patronizing a human-trafficking ring that trafficked children for sex at locations ranging from Denver to Grand Junction.
According to the 70-count indictment, 22-year-old Patrick Lloyd McGowan, 20-year-old Chad Armand Gow, 20-year-old Roy Manuel Ibarra-Gonzales and 21-year-old Bryan Steven Burns oversaw a human trafficking ring that involved the prostitution of children as well as the sale of methamphetamine and cocaine. McGowan, Gow, Ibarra-Gonzales and Burns are suspected of arranging “out calls” for their child victims through the Internet and coercing their victims through the use of drugs and threats of violence. The suspects are suspected of transporting children to locations in Denver, Boulder, Glenwood Springs, Grand Junction and Lakewood for sex.
If convicted of trafficking in children, a class-two felony and the lead count of the indictment, McGowan, Gow, Ibarra-Gonzales and Burns each could face up to 24 years in prison and up to $1 million in fines.
“Human trafficking and child prostitution are tragic crimes, from the devastating effects they have on their victims to the mere fact that the use and sale of persons persists in our world today,” Suthers said. “This indictment underlines law enforcement’s commitment to vigorously investigate and prosecute any and all cases of human trafficking we encounter.”
In addition to the ringleaders of the suspected human trafficking enterprise, the Office of the Attorney General also indicted 10 other individuals who either abetted or patronized the operation.
The case will be prosecuted by Senior Assistant Attorney General Janet Drake, a member of the Colorado Human Trafficking Task Force. This is the second human trafficking case Drake and the Office of the Attorney General has prosecuted. The first, indicted in October 2010, resulted in an eight-year prison term for its lead defendant in August 2011.
The Office of the Attorney General obtained the indictment with the assistance of the Lakewood Police Department and Wheat Ridge Police Department. Prosecutors from the Office of the Attorney General will present its case against the defendants in Jefferson County District Court with the assistance of the Jefferson County District Attorney’s Office.
