Markeace Arque Canty, Sex Trafficking of a Child, Minnesota 2013

Sex Trafficking Ring Busted in Duluth

A federal indictment unsealed in Minneapolis charges Markeace Arque Canty, a 32-year-old Duluth man, with the sex trafficking of a child. According to the indictment, Canty recruited, transported, and coerced the female victim, who was under the age of 18 at the time, to engage in commercial sex acts from July 2012 through January 2013.

The indictment alleges that Canty purchased ‘escort’ advertisements on the website backpage.com and transported the female victim to locations in Duluth, Minneapolis, and elsewhere to meet advertisement responders at motels, where the victim engaged in sexual acts in exchange for money. Specifically, on September 12, 2012, law enforcement in Indiana responded to one of the advertisements and arrested the female victim after she reportedly agreed to perform sex acts in exchange for money.

The indictment also alleges that Canty attempted to arrange for the female victim’s release from jail after she was arrested on state prostitution charges. Additionally, Canty is charged with receiving visual depictions via a computer of a minor engaged in sexually explicit conduct on January 15, 2013.

If convicted, Canty faces a potential maximum penalty of life in prison on each of the sex trafficking counts and ten years on the charge of receipt of child pornography. Any sentences would be determined by a federal district court judge.

The case is the result of an investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Duluth Police Department, with cooperation from U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office, the Fargo and Grand Forks, North Dakota, police departments, the Grand Forks County Sheriff’s Office in North Dakota, the Eau Claire, Wisconsin, police department, and the Porter County Sheriff’s Office in Indiana.

According to Yuri Fedotov, the head of the United Nations’ Office on Drugs and Crime, an estimated 2.4 million people worldwide are victims of human trafficking at any one time, with 80 percent of them being exploited as sex slaves. The U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 14,500 to 17,500 people are trafficked within the U.S. alone each year.

An indictment is a determination by a grand jury that there is probable cause to believe that offenses have been committed by a defendant. A defendant, of course, is presumed innocent until he or she pleads guilty or is proven guilty at trial.