The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that a Monroe County man pleaded guilty before U.S. District Court Judge Malachy E. Mannion in Scranton, to participating in a heroin trafficking conspiracy that stretched from Stroudsburg to New York to the state of Maine, and a sex trafficking conspiracy in which young women were forced or coerced into engaging in prostitution in northeastern Pennsylvania.

According to U.S., Attorney Peter Smith, the defendant, Sirvonn Taylor, 33, of Pocono Summit, admitted to conspiring with others to commit drug trafficking and sex trafficking crimes between 2012 and 2014.Taylor was indicted along with six other people by a federal grand jury sitting in Scranton in September 2015, as a result of an investigation by agents of the FBI, investigators from the Pennsylvania State Police, Maine State Police, the Monroe County District Attorney's Office and local police in Monroe County.The indictment alleges that Taylor and his co-defendants formed, joined and participated in a street gang known as the Black P-Stones; that male gang members were "beaten-in" to the gang and female members were "sexed-in" to the gang. The indictment further alleges that Taylor and his co-conspirators obtained heroin in New York and distributed the heroin in Stroudsburg and locations in the state of Maine.According to the indictment, couriers were used to transport heroin from New York to Maine.The indictment alleges that females were "sexed-in" to the gang by being forced to engage in sex with male gang members; recruited and coerced to engage in prostitution; advertised as adult escorts on a website; provided with heroin and other drugs; and placed in various area hotels/motels to work as prostitutes. It is alleged that the sex trafficking defendants used threats, force and intimidation to coerce females to engage in prostitution.Taylor pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute in excess of 1 kilogram of heroin, and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force or coercion. He faces a mandatory minimum 10-year prison sentence for the drug conspiracy charge, and a mandatory minimum 15-year prison sentence for the sex trafficking charge. He faces a potential maximum sentence of life in prison for each charge.Others charged in the indictment are:Jose Velazquez, 25, of Tobyhanna: conspiracy to distribute more than 1 kilogram of heroin and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force and coercion;Selena Bayer-Davis, 21, of St. Matthews, South Carolina: conspiracy to commit sex trafficking by force and coercion;Ricquell Lindo, 21, of Augusta, Maine: conspiracy to distribute more than 1 kilogram of heroin;Stephon Davis, 19, of Augusta, Maine: conspiracy to distribute more than 1 kilogram of heroin;Sean Griffin, 21, of East Stroudsburg: conspiracy to distribute more than 1 kilogram of heroin;Brianni Gomez, 19, of Paterson, New Jersey: conspiracy to distribute more than 1 kilogram of heroin.This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse.Assistant U.S. Attorney Francis P. Sempa is prosecuting the case.