Chesapeake man sentenced to 25 years in prison for sex trafficking missing minors
A Chesapeake man was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Tuesday after pleading guilty to sex trafficking two minors, both of whom had been reported missing.
Using the dating site Tagged, Instagram and multiple cell phone numbers, Denzel Akeem Loftin, 33, enticed women and girls into commercial sex with him acting as their pimp. He was arrested in November 2022 in Norfolk’s Young Terrace housing project following a sting operation conducted by federal and local law enforcement in which an undercover FBI agent posed as a 17-year-old girl to set up a meeting with him.
Despite knowing that the girl the agent was posing as was 17, Loftin posted an ad promoting commercial sex with her, court documents show.
In the course of the investigation, which began in September 2022, investigators learned Loftin had bought a plane ticket for a 14-year-old girl who had run away from her home in Colorado and had since been homeless, according to court documents. The girl’s picture had been seen in sex trafficking ads in Hampton Roads.
Another undercover officer posed as a person seeking to pay for sex acts with the 14-year-old. The girl arrived at the predetermined location, a Motel 6, with another minor who happened to be a missing 17-year-old from Missouri, along with 24-year-old Emerita Moore, of Norfolk, who had assisted Loftin, according to court documents.
Moore was arrested and sentenced to five years in prison in November.
Prior to leaving for the meeting, the trio were observed with Loftin at a hotel in Virginia Beach. Despite Moore being arrested and two of the girls he was trafficking being in police custody, Loftin reached back out to the original undercover agent and they set up a meeting at Young’s Terrace.
Plainclothes officers nabbed Loftin when he arrived. As they approached, Loftin tried to smash his phone on the ground, according to court documents. Later, when he was custody, police recorded a phone call between Loftin and the 17-year-old in which he asked her, “how did you let them get your phones?”
Evidence obtained from phones showed that Loftin had engaged in sex acts with the 17-year-old.
As part of his sentence, Loftin is required to be enrolled in a mental health program, a substance abuse program, and an educational or vocational skill program, as well as complete 500 hours of a Residential Drug Abuse Program. He will be on supervised release for seven years at the end of his stint in prison.
Gavin Stone, 757-712-4806, gavin.stone@virginiamedia.com
