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2 men to be sentenced for child sex trafficking

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By ELAINE SILVESTRINI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 29, 2010

TAMPA - They asked for the Super Bowl Special.

As Tampa was gearing up for the football championship in 2009, undercover agents combed Craigslist for "erotic services" ads, looking for juvenile sex trafficking victims.

They spotted an ad that looked like an under-aged girl offering her services, and a Tampa Police detective placed a call.

The detective was quoted a price of $300 for two girls, and told to go to the Marriott Hotel at West Shore and Cypress.

At the hotel, the detective was met by an 18-year-old woman and a girl who claimed to be 17, but was actually 14. He gave them $300. After the woman took the money, law enforcement agents made their move.

Authorities say the 18-year-old has been a prostitute since the age of 16.

The two were arrested, along with Pasquale Holt, 25, who had driven them to the hotel. Agents found pornographic photos of the girl on Holt's cell phone.

Holt pleaded guilty last month to sex trafficking of a child, a charge that carries between 10 years and life in federal prison. Codefendant Manuel A. Walcott, 31, Holt's partner, was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of two counts of child sex trafficking and one count of selling or buying a child.

Both men are scheduled to be sentenced in October – Holt on Oct. 29 and Walcott on Oct. 8.

Reporter Elaine Silvestrini can be reached at (813) 259-7837.

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