Houston Man Pleads Guilty to Sex Trafficking of a Child

ALEXANDRIA, Va. – Michael Anthony Randall, aka “Divine tha Victorious Mack,” 32, previously from Charlottesville, Virginia, and Galveston, Texas, but mostly recently from Houston, Texas, pleaded guilty today to sex trafficking of a child.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Clark E. Settles, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations Washington, D.C.,; and Colonel Edwin C. Roessler, Jr., Chief of the Fairfax County Police Department, made the announcement after the plea was accepted by U.S. District Judge Liam O’Grady.

Randall faces a maximum penalty of life in prison.  The maximum statutory sentence is prescribed by Congress and is provided here for informational purposes, as the sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the court based on the advisory Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

In a statement of facts filed with the plea agreement, Randall admitted that he was a member of a sex trafficking venture that was sometimes known as, “Horse Block Pimpin’.”  The sex trafficking venture operated from at least 2009 to at least 2013. Randall conceded that he used force and coercion to maintain control over victims who were prostituted and to keep them from leaving. He and other members of this venture used force, threats of force, and coercion to prostitute more than 55 women and girls, some of whom were minors.

Randall prostituted victims in several different states, including Virginia, North Carolina, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, and Texas. Randall held a supervisory role in the sex trafficking venture, which included recruiting, harboring, and prostituting women and girls, and arranging for the transportation of girls and women who were prostituted. Among other things, he used false promises of a better life, force and coercion to recruit women and keep them prostituting.  The victims were required to give nearly all of the prostitution proceeds to Randall and other co-conspirators of Horse Block Pimpin’.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Fairfax County Police Department, with the assistance of the Stafford County Sheriff’s Office, the Henrico County Police Department, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office, and the Lynchburg Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael J. Frank and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Kathryn A. Kimball are prosecuting the case.

A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.  Related court documents and information may be found on the website of the District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia or on PACER by searching for Case No. 1:15-cr-39.