2 Maryland men arrested for human trafficking after teen girls found in Laurel hotel room
LAUREL, Md. - Police have arrested two men accused of prostituting three teenage girls out of a hotel in Laurel.
The suspects, 25-year-old Sean Dean and 28-year-old Gerald Dawayne Marshall, both of Baltimore, were taken into custody on Tuesday on multiple charges of human trafficking and prostitution under 16.
Police say on Jan. 11, which also happened to be National Human Trafficking Awareness Day, they received a call from a hotel employee in Laurel about drug activity happening in one of the rooms. When officers arrived, they could smell marijuana coming from the room.
Inside, police found three young teenage girls - ages 15, 16 and 17 - and learned they were involved in a prostitution ring. The girls were later turned over to Child Protective Services.
"A lot of the hotels are starting to become aware of human trafficking, being an incident that is occurring within their establishments," said Laurel Police Chief Richard McLaughlin. "They are making notes and they are obviously comparing notes and they notifying each other and I think there is an informal network."
It is unclear how long the girls were involved in the trafficking ring, but police believe it was for a lengthy period of time. It is also unclear how the victims were brought into it from the beginning.
Dean is being held without bond while Marshall is being held on a $150,000 bond.