This page describes exploitation and abuse. Need to report something? How to report →
Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
Eric Antwan Bell (37,Tampa) was indicted September 29, 2011 by a grand jury. The indictment charges Bell with four counts of conspiracy to entice a minor to engage in a commercial sex act, four counts of enticing a minor to engage in a commercial sex act, three counts of production of child pornography, and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. According to the indictment, Bell, along with a co-conspirator, enticed four minor victims to engage in prostitution. Bell and his co-conspirator lived off of the prostitution proceeds. Bell produced child pornography of the four minors and possessed multiple firearms after being convicted of a felony offense. One of his victims, a 15 year old, told Bell, who identified himself as “Santana”, she was 15. Bell raped her as soon as he got her to his home in the Highland Pines neighborhood near U.S. 41 and Interstate 4, court documents say. He also made her undress, took pictures of her and uploaded them onto Internet sites, advertising her as an escort, according to a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Tampa in January. For the next three weeks, "Santana" raped her daily, videotaped her sexual encounters with adult men and threatened to kill her if she told anyone, the girl told detectives. According to the complaint, she charged about $150 per "date," performed 15 to 20 "tricks" a day and estimated that she handed over $40,000 to $50,000 to the man during the time she lived with him. The girl who told investigators that Bell often wore a gun in his waistband. She said Bell sold oxycodone and marijuana from the home. Authorities did not provide details about how the girl eventually got away from Bell. Investigators serving a search warrant at Bell's home found firearms, ammunition, body armor, and cameras and computers containing pornographic images of the victims, the complaint said.
Response and intervention
The charges against Bell include production of child pornography, sex trafficking of a minor and being a felon in possession of a firearm. The charges against Prom include sex trafficking of a minor and being a felon in possession of a firearm. If convicted on all counts, Bell faces a maximum penalty of life in federal prison. The indictment also notifies Bell that the United States intends to forfeit numerous items of electronic media, and firearms seized from Bell's residence. An indictment is merely a formal charge that a defendant has committed a violation of the federal criminal laws, and every defendant is presumed innocent unless, and until, proven guilty. This case was investigated by the Clearwater Area Human Trafficking Task Force, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. It will be prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Stacie B. Harris. The investigation started when the 15-year-old girl told a Pinellas County Sheriff's Office investigator that a Tampa man had forced her to prostitute herself and to give him the money she made from "johns." The girl, a runaway, said a woman she had met at a Tampa bus stop in November 2009 had called a man named "Santana" to come and pick the girl up. "Santana" had said he'd give her a place to stay, no strings attached. After the girl escaped and reported the abuse, the Clearwater/Tampa Bay Area Task Force on Human Trafficking immediately got involved and quickly identified a suspect: 37-year-old Eric Antwan Bell, a felon with an 18-page arrest history in Florida that dates back to 1992. Bell was featured on June 11 on Fox's "America's Most Wanted" and was also featured on a digital billboard throughout the Tampa Bay area. Federal agents arrested Eric Antwan Bell in Parsippany, NJ on September 1, 2011 He had been living in Jersey City. Task force investigators — who couldn't be reached for comment Wednesday — learned early in the investigation that Bell wasn't working alone and that the girl wasn't his only victim, according to the complaint. A Tampa woman named Neang Prom, who goes by the nickname "Pocahontas," is believed to be his top prostitute. She is accused of posting online advertisements for at least three teenage girls and collecting the money they made as prostitutes. She was arrested in January 2011. No aftercare was reported. Prosecution is ongoing.