Randolph man, 29, sentenced to 10-12 years in prison for human trafficking, profiting off prostitution

A 29-year-old Randolph man was sentenced to 10 to 12 years in state prison last week following his conviction in Middlesex Superior Court on charges of human trafficking and profiting from prostitution after he was caught in a 2018 sting at a Newton hotel, officials said Thursday.

Dirisu C. Alasa Jr. was sentenced May 17 to seven years in state prison for trafficking persons for sexual servitude and three to five years, to be served after the first sentence, for deriving support from prostitution, according to a statement from the Middlesex district attorney’s office.

Prosecutors said Alasa had run a business that involved repeatedly subjecting a female victim to commercial sex work, presenting her for sale in internet ads, forcing her to engage in degrading sexual acts, and requiring her to work at all hours of the day and night.

“This case was about power, control, money, and exploitation,” Middlesex District Attorney Marian Ryan said in the statement. “To the defendant, the victim was essentially just a commodity — a sexual product to be sold over and over again … with no regard for her safety.”

Alasa’s defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday evening.

Newton police and FBI agents carried out a human trafficking sting on Dec. 11, 2018, at a hotel in the city, booking rooms and using internet ads to schedule meetings with women advertising sexual services for money, according to the statement.

Authorities made an appointment with Alasa’s victim through a personal ad website, and Alasa dropped her off at the hotel, where she confirmed to an undercover officer that she would perform sex acts for $150 an hour, prosecutors said.

Officers later found Alasa sitting outside in the parking lot in his car, where the glove compartment contained the victim’s identification, cellphone, and $461, as well as “numerous items indicative of the car being used for sex trafficking,” the statement said.

Authorities searched cellphone data and phone records, internet service provider records, and e-mail accounts, and found that Alasa was using two cellphones to communicate with customers answering the online personal ad for his victim, and that he took at least half of the money she earned from each sexual encounter, according to prosecutors.

Alasa had been prostituting the victim since about October 2018 while forcing her to stay in his basement in Randolph, according to the district attorney’s office. He would drive the victim to sexual appointments or have a man who worked for him do the driving, the statement said. Alasa did not allow the victim to make her own schedule or leave without his permission, and he threatened her when she did not cooperate with his demands, prosecutors said.