Man Who Ran Sex Trafficking Ring In Bucks Co. Sentenced To 23 Years

BUCKS COUNTY, PA —The Philadelphia man who ran a sex trafficking ring in the Philadelphia region has been sentenced to a 23-year prison sentence, federal authorities said.

Kevin L. Smith, 29, of Philadelphia, was sentenced Wednesday by U.S. District Court Judge Karen Spencer Marston to 23 years’ imprisonment and 10 years of supervised release for sex trafficking multiple victims, one of them a minor, U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero said.

The Bensalem Township Police Department and Tinicum Township Police Department were involved in the investigation.

Authorities said that Smith pleaded guilty in December 2023 to one count of sex trafficking of a minor, and three counts of sex trafficking by force, threats of force, coercion, and attempt.

The charges stemmed from Smith’s operation of a sex trafficking ring in Philadelphia and the surrounding region, including Bucks and Delaware counties, authorities said.

In September 2019, Smith knowingly harbored, maintained, and advertised a minor, knowing the minor would be caused to engage in a commercial sex act.

He also operated a sex trafficking enterprise at various times over two years from July 2015 to July 2017, during which he used physical threats to force two young women to have sex for money.

“Smith’s sexual exploitation of his victims was horrific,” Romero said. “May those victims take some comfort, and find some measure of justice, in the lengthy prison sentence he’ll now be serving. Our office, alongside the FBI and our other partners, is working every day to put away these predatory sex traffickers who for some reason feel entitled to treat vulnerable young people as their personal property.”

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse, launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice.

Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and Criminal Division’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals 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.