BOSTON – A South Carolina man has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit sex trafficking in a case that prosecutors describe as one of the most brutal operations uncovered in Massachusetts, involving physical beatings, sleep deprivation, starvation, and threats to separate a victim from her child.

Alexander Smalls, 27, of Beaufort, South Carolina, admitted in federal court today to conspiring with co-defendant Christy Parker, 28, and others to coerce at least one adult victim into repeated commercial sex acts in and around Fall River between January and August 2023.

According to court documents, Smalls and Parker forced the victim into sex trafficking by physically beating her, threatening and verbally abusing her, imposing manufactured debts, and giving and withholding alcohol in a manner that caused the victim to experience seizures. They also threatened to have authorities take the victim’s minor child away from her.

When Smalls was incarcerated on unrelated charges in March 2023, he continued coordinating with Parker and participating in the conspiracy from jail until Parker’s arrest in August 2023.

“This defendant used deplorable means to compel the victim to perform commercial sex acts for the financial benefit of himself and his codefendants,” said Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division. “His conduct was cruel and predatory in multiple ways, which included physical beatings and threatening to separate her from her child.”

Parker Also Pleads Guilty in Separate Proceedings

In a related case, Parker pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking, two counts of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion, and one count of sex trafficking a minor.

According to court documents and evidence presented in court, Parker, also known as “Lula,” used similar tactics to coerce at least one adult victim and two minor victims into commercial sex acts in and around Fall River between January and August 2023.

Parker later worked with a minor to recruit two additional minor victims with false promises of easy money. She and her co-defendants harbored the minors in a house and a Fall River hotel, providing them for commercial sex over two months in July and August 2023. Parker physically beat and threatened the minors, prohibited them from sleeping so they could engage in more commercial sex, starved them, and confiscated all of their earnings.

The scheme ended in August 2023, when one of the minor victims called her social worker and asked for help. The social worker contacted law enforcement, and Parker was arrested at the Fall River hotel where she was harboring the victims.

“Smalls and his associates brutally trafficked women, using every cruel and inhumane tool they could to coerce them into commercial sex for their financial benefit,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeffrey Grimming of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Homeland Security Investigations New England. “With cases like this, we choose to focus not solely on the cruelty of the perpetrators, but also on the resilience of the survivors.”

Co-Defendants Previously Convicted

Five of Smalls’s co-defendants were previously convicted, and four have been sentenced:

Tyreik Reid, 22, and Cory Primo, 44, were convicted of one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and sentenced to 70 months in prison.
Avvani Jeffers, 24, was convicted of two counts of forced labor and sentenced to 18 months in prison.
Tre’sean Reid, 23, was convicted of one count of forced labor and sentenced to time served.

Christy Parker is awaiting sentencing

Smalls is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 9. He faces a mandatory minimum penalty of 15 years and a maximum of life in prison. Parker faces a mandatory minimum of 15 years and is scheduled to be sentenced on July 15. Restitution is mandatory for offenses involving sex trafficking.