Feds charge pair accused of bringing teen girls to Albuquerque for sex trafficking

A man and a woman accused of bringing two teenage girls from California to Albuquerque to be sold for sex were indicted Monday.

Roderick Norseweather, 25, and Tajahnae Johnson, 21, are charged with two counts of sex trafficking of minors and two counts of transporting minors for illegal sexual activity.

Norseweather and Johnson will remain in custody pending trial. No date has been set, according to the U.S. Department of Justice of New Mexico. If convicted, they could each face 15 years to life in prison.

On Jan. 3, the Albuquerque Police Department found a 14-year-old girl, who was reported missing in California, “soliciting sex” at Central and Rhode Island, according to a criminal complaint filed at Metropolitan Court.

The girl told officers she began “doing sex work” in September, first in San Bernardino then Los Angeles, police said. She told police Norseweather picked her up as a customer then told her “she worked for him now,” the complaint states.

The girl told police Norseweather introduced her to Johnson, who went by “Chocolate,” and a 15-year-old girl who was also being trafficked, police said. The 15-year-old girl told police she began working for him in California and was told to come to Albuquerque to “do sex work and earn money,” according to the complaint.

The 14-year-old told police Norseweather took her, the other girl and Johnson on a train to Albuquerque, police said.

The girls told police Norseweather and Johnson were in a relationship and Johnson was helping Norseweather “pimp out other women,” the complaint states.

Norseweather told police he was at a motel to meet “Chocolate” and had “no idea” who the girls were, while Johnson told police she had no idea he was “pimping other women,” police said. Johnson did tell police she purchased the train tickets, according to the complaint.

The FBI Albuquerque Field Office and APD investigated the case.