Singh Sentenced to Nine Years for Conspiring to Commit Sex Trafficking

A Sacramento man has been sentenced in federal court in Oakland to nine years in prison for conspiring to commit sex trafficking, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag announced today.

Mahendar Singh, 40, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Phyllis Hamilton on Wednesday.

Singh and his wife, Helen Kearney Singh, 22, both pleaded guilty in January to a charge of conspiring to cause children under 18 to engage in commercial sex acts by means of force, fraud or coercion.

A sentencing date for Helen Singh has not yet been set.

Haag said Mahendar Singh admitted during his plea that he and his wife conspired to operate a prostitution enterprise in Sacramento County and several Bay Area counties between the spring of 2011 and August 2011.

Haag said Singh admitted to recruiting teenage girls to provide sex services in exchange for money and drugs and to knowing that at least one of the teenagers was a juvenile.

The couple used Internet websites to advertise the victims and cell phones to make arrangements with customers, Haag said.

The  at a motel near San Francisco International Airport after police allegedly found a 19-year-old woman and two 16-year-old girls in a room registered to Mahendar Singh.

A police spokesman said at the time that officers went to the motel after receiving a tip that a runaway girl had been seen near the property.

-Bay City News

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