Sex Trafficking, Child Exploitation Case Connected to Herndon

Edwin Barcus Jr., 27, of Georgia, pleaded guilty to running a commercial sex business that included juvenile girls, a number of them from Herndon.

Other juveniles involved in the case are from Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.  

Barcus faces a mandatory minimum of 20 years for pleading guilty to engaging in child exploitation, and a maximum of life in prison. He will be sentenced on June 7.

According to an FBI press release Barcus has been leading and organizing a criminal sex organization that has prostituted at least 23 women. At least four of those women were 16, and at least three were 17 when he began prostituting them.

Barcus targeted juveniles who had run away from home or lived in a broken home. At times he or another member of the organization pretended to be romantically interested in them. He told authorities he also purchased clothing and shoes for them to lure them into the organization.

If victims found it difficult to have sex with strangers repeatedly Barcus and others in the organization would provide them with alcohol and drugs to make them more susceptible. Barcus battered at least three of the women working for him and he had some of them get a tattoo of his nickname, “Boo.”

In November 2012, Barcus was prostituting at least one Herndon juvenile while another member of his organization was working with females in Atlanta. The venture was resulting in substantial profits in Herndon and Barcus had his conspirator bring two 17-year-old girls from Atlanta to Herndon.

One of the girls objected, but was told she had to go to Virginia “under the rules of the game.” The girls were making about $500 or more each day servicing clients in Herndon, all of which was being turned over to Barcus or the organization.

“Edwin Barcus made his living exploiting vulnerable young girls and luring them into prostitution,” said Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia in a press release. “Barcus saw these girls as his property — even making them get tattoos with his nickname.”

“Thanks to the FBI, Fairfax County Police Department, and the members of our Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force, his operation is shut down and can no longer victimize these girls,” MacBride said.

“Recruiting, exploiting, and transporting juveniles for the purpose of underage prostitution is a cruel form of modern-day slavery,” said Valerie Parlave, Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Washington Field Office.

“Prostitution is not a victimless crime,” Parlave said. “The FBI is committed to apprehending individuals who sexually exploit juveniles, and we will continue to work to identify these predators and their victims.”

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office and the Fairfax County Police Department with help from the Northern Virginia Human Trafficking Task Force.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Michael J. Frank and Virginia Assistant Attorney General and Special Assistant United States Attorney Marc J. Birnbaum

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