TOWSON, Md. — Baltimore County announced the arrest of a man whom they linked to a sex trafficking case involving multiple juveniles.
Ricardo Sawyer, 38, was arrested and has been charged with multiple counts of rape, multiple counts of second-degree assault and other charges, online records show.
Police said they became aware of several juvenile victims of sex trafficking over the summer, and an investigation revealed incidents took place in Baltimore City and Baltimore County, according to charging documents.
According to charging documents, Sawyer, who has the handle “Bmorerico” on Instagram, provided U.S. currency, gifts, and other forms of payment in exchange for sexual acts with a victim who went to police.
Adam Rosenberg, the executive director of LifeBridge Health Center for Hope, said there are signs that can warn guardians about whether their child is being groomed for sexual abuse or exploitation of a child for sex trafficking.
“If children start to have unexplained tattoos, have a boyfriend or girlfriend noticeably older than them, are making unexplained frequent out-of-town trips, unexplained absences from schools. They suddenly have very expensive things that they can’t explain where they got it from,” said Rosenberg. “Particularly expensive gifts, money, fancy clothes, jewelry. Things that your average, everyday 14, 15, 16-year-old wouldn’t be able to afford on their own.”
Through investigation, police said that Sawyer used both in-person and online methods to meet people, including handing out pamphlets and business cards, according to a news release. Police would not say what type of advertising was displayed on the pamphlets and business cards.
When Sawyer and the alleged victim first met, charging documents state the victim was 14 years old while Sawyer was between the ages of 33 and 38.
While multiple victims have been identified, investigators believe there may be more victims who haven’t come forward.
Amanda Rodriguez is the CEO of Turnaround Inc., which is also a comprehensive human trafficking organization, for Baltimore City and Baltimore County.
“Turnaround is the regional navigator; we get all the referrals for Baltimore County and for Howard County, and we had 50 referrals last year for child sex trafficking,” said Rodriguez. “The number, unfortunately, locally, is probably significantly higher than a lot of people think that it is.”
Rodriguez said recruitment for suspects in sex trafficking cases typically happens where lots of young people congregate, and in today’s world, that’s social media.
“I think that the ages are getting younger, certainly, because of that. And as adults, when our kids are on social media, there’s a lot less engagement. We can’t physically see them, we can’t see who they’re talking to. We can’t protect them from the predators that are on the internet,” said Rodriguez. “I think that there is, unfortunately, more trafficking, especially child trafficking, as a result.”
Both Rodriguez and Rosenberg advise parents and guardians to have open dialogue with their children.
“I think the number one thing is you have to be actively monitoring anything that your child is doing online. They should not have access to devices that you don’t have access to. The easiest way for a child to get caught up in this is also not to understand what grooming and trafficking look like,” said Rodriguez. “You can have age-appropriate conversations with your kids about what this is, about how this can impact them. I think the biggest disservice that we do to children that are facing these things today, that we did not face in our generation, is not inform them as to the dangers of what’s going on. We used to always tell them Stranger Danger. This is the same thing. It’s just a different type of stranger danger.”
“What this case shows us is that sex trafficking of children is more common than we realize and is occurring right in our backyard here, and that children are extremely vulnerable,” said Rosenberg. “They have undeveloped minds, and overdeveloped bodies sometimes, and adults want to take advantage of that.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact the department’s Crimes Against Children Unit by calling 410-887-7720.
Police said the investigation also involved the FBI Baltimore Field Office’s Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking Task Force.
