Two teenagers arrested in Seattle sex trafficking case on Aurora Ave

Seattle Police on Thursday arrested two teenagers, 19 and 17, after they found an 18-year-old woman allegedly being held against her will in the Mount Baker neighborhood.

The victim's father called police at 9 p.m. and said his daughter was being held captive in the 2500 block of 19th Avenue South, according to police. When police arrived they found her, detained the two suspects, and recovered fentanyl pills and a gun.

The two suspects face promoting prostitution and unlawful possession of a firearm charges. Additionally, the 17-year-old was charged with kidnapping.

According to charging documents:

The victim told police that she came to Seattle after another victim in her home state of Texas told her that “she could make a lot of money” if she danced in clubs around the time of the MLB All-Star baseball games. Once she arrived, her father told police her communication diminished.

In Seattle, the victim was trafficked and “passed between several pimps,” including one who went by the nickname of Lexo. While working for Lexo, the victim became friends with another woman, labeled as CT in court records, who introduced her to the two suspects on July 6.

On her first day working for the 17-year-old suspect, the victim said he asked to see how much money she made. When she showed him her $175 profit, he took it and left the room. From then on, the victim “felt that Tucker’s cut meant that he took it all.” When she had a date, she would text him a trophy emoji.

On Aurora Avenue one night, while standing outside the Seattle Inn, Lexo pulled up and punched the victim in the face — giving her a busted lip and bloody nose, she said. She called the two suspects, and they emerged from the parking lot with guns in their hands, she said, searching for Lexo. Lexo had already fled. The victim said the two suspects refused to get her medical care.

Every day the two suspects would transport the victim and CT up to Aurora Avenue for work.

The victim expressed fear of being hurt by Lexo again, if he saw her on Aurora Avenue.

“That’s not how it works, you don’t just not because you are scared,” the victim recalled one of the suspects saying. Instead, she was no longer required to wear high heels.

After meeting up with a male friend to talk, the 17-year-old suspect allegedly hit her on the side of the head with her cell phone and pulled out a gun. “Next time I’m going to use this.”

The two suspects would allegedly rent hotel rooms, and the victim was told to post ads online for commercial sex acts, the johns sometimes coming to the hotel or the victim sometimes going to the john’s place.

The police were called after a disturbance between CT and the 19-year-old suspect. The victim was told not to say a word and guns were hidden.

CT told police that the two men were pimps, the victim said, but the police did not investigate. The victim kept silent, fearing that she would not be believed and would end up in more trouble. Later, CT was arrested, although charging records don’t explain why.

After that, the victim said she was “told that she had to work nonstop,” because at the end of the month, they were going to move to Vegas.

The victim “stated that she really wanted to leave because she was by herself and that she had to stay with them 24/7,” charging documents read.

That’s when the victim called her dad and explained that she wasn’t allowed to keep her money or her identification, and asked him to come get her.