Woodbridge is a census-designated place in Prince William County, Virginia, located about 20 miles south of Washington, D.C.  Its population is roughly 43,000.  Prostitution and sex trafficking are well-documented problems throughout Prince William County, and within the city of Woodbridge.  For example, in October, 2017, police arrested a woman for malicious wounding and cited two men for “soliciting a prostitute” after an altercation at a Woodbridge hotel room.  Prince William County Police officers responded to a call about a disturbance at a hotel Horner Rd in Woodbridge to investigate an assault. Police say an investigation a 25-year-old man and a 21-year-old man invited a prostituted woman in to a room at the hotel.  Once inside, she displayed a knife and a struggle ensured, and one of the men sustained a minor laceration to his hand.  The three eventually separated and the police were contacted. The two men were cited for solicitation of prostitution after the incident.  The woman was arrested and charged with malicious wounding and prostitution, and was held without bond at the Prince William-Manassas Adult Detention Center.

In August, 2018, a federal jury convicted a Woodbridge man for sex trafficking two girls, ages 14 and 16. In court documents the man was described as a frequent commercial sex customer of a prostitution ring led by another man who trafficked the two girls over the course of two years in the DMV area. The man was identified by the victims as a regular commercial sex customer who paid to sexually abuse one or both of the girls on at least 23 occasions, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia. After a search warrant was executed at the suspect’s home, law enforcement officers found hidden cameras that secretly recorded at least one of the girls and other females in various stages of undress while at his residence for prostitution. Law enforcement also found numerous photographs of one of the girls posing nude in his bathtub and throughout his house, including in his kitchen, on a bear rug, and on exercise equipment.  Prosecutors said the offender admitted to paying to sexually assault one of the girls. He claimed he did not know her real age. He was convicted by a federal jury in September 2017, and was sentenced to 30 years in prison in January 2018. Another man and a woman who assisted in sex trafficking the minors each pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 140 months and 120 months in prison, respectively. This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood coordinates federal, state and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims.