It all began with a teenager who was being housed in a juvenile facility on a weapons charge. She came forward and said she had been held against her will and sexually assaulted. Prosecutors say it was a well-guarded secret in the Timberleaf Apartment Homes located at Garrison in Lakewood. The prostitution ring was operating out of the apartment complex where six people have been accused of luring to year old girls in to a life of prostitution by using meth as bait.
They are facing charges related to the commercial sexual exploitation of children. Onodera, 42, is the alleged ringleader of the child prostitution ring. He has been charged with trafficking of a child, pimping of a child, sex assault of a child, solicitation of a child for prostitution and keeping a place of child prostitution in addition to other crimes, two of them classified as violent crime.
Authorities are still looking for a seventh member of the alleged child trafficking ring. A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Mark Wayne Turturice. There were three female victims identified in this operation, one was 13 and two were years-old. The girls did not know each other but had similarities. They had each run away from home, were truant from school and each had been lured into the prostitution net by drugs. Some of the victims claim Onodera held them against their will and forced them to have sex with him and others.
The ring is said to be operated around West Colfax Avenue where girls that might be runaways and in trouble with the law could be recruited. They are in a safe place right now. Our goal is to turn them from victims into survivors," said Weir. One of the girls being held against her will told investigators that although she wanted to leave she felt she couldn't because she was the property of members of the ring.
Onodera, Lewis, and Ashton will be back in court on February 19 to be advised of the charges filed against them. Snuggs will be in court on February Featured Local Savings. More from CBS News. Denver man pleads guilty to murdering young mother in Former church worker agrees to plea deal following rape accusations.
