A federal judge sentenced a northwest Arkansas man to more than 12 years in prison Monday for sex trafficking a teen who was prostituted at motels, authorities said.
Kenyan Roane received 151 months in federal prison followed by 10 years of supervised release on one count of sex trafficking of children, according to a news release from the office of the U.S. attorney for the Western District of Arkansas.
The investigation into the 31-year-old Fort Smith resident began in November 2017 after a parent reported concerns that her daughter was a victim. In an interview at the Benton County Child Advocacy Center, the girl told authorities she had been forced to perform sexual acts in the Fayetteville, Fort Smith and Jonesboro areas, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette previously reported.
Investigators identified the victim's pimp as Roane, whom she had met on Facebook, according to the release from U.S. Attorney Duane Kees' office.
Authorities said an undercover law enforcement officer posing as a 16-year-old girl contacted Roane on his Facebook account, and the man said he was a pimp who "promotes females."
Roane was arrested in Texarkana in January and indicted by a federal grand jury. He pleaded guilty in April.
The FBI and the Rogers and Texarkana police departments investigated the case.
