East Whiteland Township is a township of approximately 15,000 residents in southeastern Pennsylvania, located in Chester County, PA. It is situated just north of the state’s largest city, Philadelphia, PA. Prostitution and sex trafficking activity have been well-documented in the township and greater county areas. This activity and its ancillary crimes has resulted in complaints to local law enforcement from residents and businesses. Police have conducted investigations into the local commercial sex market as a result of resident complaints. For example, in March 2008, the wife of then-director of Chester County’s Department of Emergency Services was among five women arrested during a prostitution sting in Philadelphia, PA. The Philadelphia police’s undercover operation that ended with the arrest of the CCDES’s wife and five other alleged prostituted women began when a male sex buyer complained to police in February 2008, that he had been robbed at knifepoint by a man just before meeting with a prostituted woman inside a city hotel. According to police reports, the robber reportedly stole $120 from the buyer.

In effort to combat commercial sex activity in the township and greater county areas, police have focused on reducing the demand for commercial sex by actively targeting sex buyers and sex traffickers in the community. For example, in July 2020, law enforcement rescued a 14-year-old girl from a local sex trafficking ring, now dismantled. However, during a virtual press conference, the Chester County District Attorney said, “There is the potential for more victims out there.” According to reports, Chester County Detectives, the East Whiteland Township Police Department, and the Homeland Security Investigations rescued the minor victim from the parking lot of a Wawa in Malvern, PA on in late May 2020. The investigation was initiated after the 14-year-old sent a message via Facebook to her mother stating, “I don’t want to be here anymore.” Investigators said the victim had been held for several weeks against her will and was sex trafficked throughout various locations in the area. The victim told police that she “was forced to have sex four to five times a day at three different East Whiteland Township locations and that if she didn’t that she and her mother would be killed.” The minor stated that a 17-year-old female from Camden, N.J., “had originally recruited her at a party in Washington, D.C.” The DA’s office said after communicating through Snapchat, the 17-year-old asked the 14-year-old victim if she wanted to make money and then picked her up in Maryland with one of the co-defendants. The 14-year-old was then driven to an apartment in Malvern where she, “was forced to perform oral sex on one of the co-defendants as a means of ‘breaking’ and ‘testing’ her for the work she would be required to perform.” The victim also told police that the 17-year-old female and one of the co-defendants, “took pictures of her that were used to advertise that men could pay to have sex with her, and they took her to Walmart to buy ‘sexy clothes.'” The DA’s office said another co-defendant acted as a “doorman,” collecting money from sex buyers. She was also given a fake identity to use if anyone asked her name. While interviewing witnesses regarding the sexual exploitation and abuse of Victim 1, law enforcement discovered a second victim — an 18-year-old, known as Victim 2, who was held against her will by the co-defendants in February and March of 2020. She had met a female through Snapchat who introduced her to one co-defendant on the premise he had a job for her working in a bar. The victim was picked up in Virginia and brought to East Whiteland Township where she, “was forced to have sex for money with many individuals.” Authorities said she was also sexually assaulted by one of the co-defendants and threatened with bodily harm if she attempted to leave. The 18-year-old was forced to ingest drugs on various occasions. Police identified a trio of men suspected of being leaders of  the sex trafficking operation, in addition other members. Members of the sex trafficking organization face an array of felony charges including trafficking in minors, involuntary servitude, criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, promoting prostitution, and related corrupt organization offenses. According to reports, the Malvern-based sex trafficking organization operated from February 2020 to May 2020, engaged in a criminal conspiracy and criminal course of conduct by recruiting, enticing, soliciting, transporting, obtaining and maintaining individuals who they benefited from financially while they were subjected to sexual servitude and other sexual assaults and criminal activity. In August, 2022, two men who were part of the teen sex trafficking ring were convicted on charges of trafficking minors, involuntary servitude, rape, kidnapping, and other related offenses, according to the Chester County District Attorney’s Office.

In addition to arresting sex traffickers, five additional male sex buyers were taken into custody in East Whiteland for paying to sexually abuse the 14-year-old minor child and/or the 18-year-old victim in East Whiteland, authorities said. The identities, ages, and charges of the arrested sex traffickers and the five male sex buyers were included in reports by local media outlets.