CANTON, Ohio — On Friday, U.S. Attorney Bridget M. Brennan announced that Larrien Brown-Austin, 37, of Canton, Ohio, pleaded guilty to participating in a sex trafficking conspiracy.
Court documents say that Brown-Austin took part in a scheme from June to August of 2018 that forced multiple women to perform commercial sex acts for profit.
The first incident occurred in June 2018 when Brown-Austin met Victim #1 and Victim #2 and forced both victims to live at his residence and perform sex acts for money and give him the profits.
Brown-Austin supplied the victims with drugs in an attempt to create a dependency that required him to continue providing drugs, court records show. The Canton man also used threats and violence to continue the drug dependency of his victims, as well as to have them perform additional sex acts. Authorities also say that Brown-Austin installed tracking devices on the victims' mobile phones in order to keep tabs on their whereabouts at all times.
Two others, 30-year-old Shannon Marzano and 76-year-old Larry Brown-Austin, are co-defendants in this case and have both pleaded guilty to their roles in the conspiracy.
Larrien Brown-Austin is currently scheduled to be sentenced on May 11, 2022.
This is a developing story. Check back with 3News for updates.
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