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Semaj A. Gilmore, 32, of Camden, has been in custody since April 2021.
That's when authorities learned that "a missing juvenile from Pennsylvania was being advertised for sexually illicit activities on a website that is often used to advertise acts of prostitution," U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger said.
An undercover agent contacted a phone number associated with the ad and ended up "exchanging a series of messages that ultimately led to the undercover agent meeting the victim in a motel room" in South Jersey, Sellinger said.
"Gilmore instructed the undercover agent to 'get condoms' and to confirm that he was 'not “a cop'," the U.S. attorney said.
Gilmore, who'd been waiting in a car in an adjacent parking lot, drove off when uniformed officers showed up, Sellinger said.
They stopped his car and recovered the phone used to arrange the meeting, he said.
Investigators learned that Gilmore had also trafficked two other victims for the same purpose, Sellingers said.
Gilmore is charged with multiple counts of sex trafficking minors and committing a sex offense as a Megan's Law offender in a superseding indictment recently returned in U.S. District Court in Camden, Sellinger said.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Skahill, in turn, ordered on Tuesday, Dec. 6, that Gilmore remain in federal custody without bail.
Sellinger credited special agents of FBI’s South Jersey Resident Agency with the investigation leading to the charges. He also thanked members of the Mount Laurel Police Department and the Burlington County Prosecutor’s Office for their assistance.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Bender of his Camden office is handling the case.
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