By Brett Milam
Editor

Two Cincinnati men pleaded guilty on Dec. 11 to sex trafficking a 14-year-old girl through Clermont County.

Police aren’t exactly sure when the conspiracy to sex traffic began, but on May 2, Eric Zyn Ho, 25, and Bryan Matthew Otero, 27, did “knowingly conspire and agree together and with each other and with other persons” to traffic, at the time, a 14-year-old, and also, forced her to engage in a sexual act.

Reportedly, the girl was taken from Kansas City, resulting in a multi-agency investigation from the FBI, FBI Cincinnati and Indianapolis, Kansas City and Union Township police.

Both were arrested on May 4th and indicted later that month.

Count two, conspiracy to produce child pornography, pertains to the latter part, wherein Ho and Otero produced a visual depiction of it.

On Dec. 11, Ho also pleaded guilty to the second count; Otero, however, did not.

A presentence investigation is ongoing to determine the length of the sentencing.

However, according to Benjamin Glassman, the U.S. Attorney for Southern Ohio, conspiracy to sex traffic children is a crime “punishable by up to life in prison.” Conspiracy to produce child pornography adds a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison up to as many as 30 years.

Due to the nature of the crime, much of the information remains under seal by the U.S. Southern District Court of Ohio, Western Division.