WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A man and a woman were charged with human trafficking following a prostitution bust by the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Lt. Jerry Brewer with the sheriff’s office, Vice and Narcotics detectives set up a meeting online with a possible prostitute and agreed to meet at a hotel off Military Cutoff Road Wednesday night.
Brewer said when detectives arrived at the hotel for the rendezvous, they realized the prostitute was an underage teen and a victim of human trafficking.
Marvarlus Cortel Snead, 31, and Ashanti Welton McLean, 26, were both taken into custody and charged with promoting prostitution of a minor and human trafficking of a child victim. Snead also faces outstanding warrants out of Johnston County for numerous drug-related offenses.
Snead was booked into the New Hanover County Jail under a $460,000 bond. McLean was given a $250,000 bond.
Brewer said the sheriff’s office alerted the Federal Bureau of Investigation about the underage victim.
