According to a report by Stars & Stripes, the men were arrested Saturday during a two-day sting operation by police in Killeen, Texas, after going to a location where they believed they would be meeting girls aged 15 and 16 for sex.
The suspects contacted the police officers through various social media platforms before meeting up at the location where they were arrested, thinking they were talking to the girls. However, upon arriving at the location, they were instead arrested and charged. Two guns were also confiscated.
According to detectives involved in the undercover operation, the soldiers had agreed to provide the officers, whom they believed to be underage girls, with money, drugs and alcohol.
Two of the service members, Anthony Xavier Antwon, 25, and Timmy Jones Jr., 30, received felony charges of prostutition under the age of 18, while Pierre Jean, 32, received a Class A misdemeanor charge for prostitution, according to a release by the Killeen Police Department.
According to Stars & Stripes, Antwon is a motor transport operator with the US Army’s 4th Squadron, 3rd Cavalry Regiment. Jones is a combat engineer with the Army’s 87th Engineer Battalion, 36th Engineer Brigade. Jean, a combat medic, is assigned to the Army Medical Center of Excellence at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, located about 140 miles south of Killeen.
In addition to the three military members, police arrested six other people as part of the child prostutition sting, which was conducted in coordination with the Texas Department of Public Safety Human Trafficking Program “to locate and arrest subjects who were willing to make overt efforts to pay minors to engage in sexual acts,” the Killeen Police Department said.
The other suspects, all from Texas, are Javier Perez, 40, of Austin; Brian Harley Flynn, 21, of Temple; Brandon Anthony Lee, 25, of Killeen; Dustin Edward Johnson, 42, of Lott; Shaun Paul Moore, 39, of Kempner; and Rakeem Jamal Nelson, 28, of Killeen. Seven of the nine men were handed felony prostitution charges, while two were charged with misdemeanors.
