Women Beaten, Drugged in Suburban Sex Trafficking Ring

By SCOTT VIAU (Patch Staff)

CHICAGO, IL - Two aspiring rappers have been charged in connection with a suburban sex trafficking ring, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Samuel Nichols, 30, and Charles Fears, 22, both of Chicago, were each charged with one count of engaging in sex trafficking by force, fraud and coercion.

The men allegedly worked together to recruit women, including minors, for their operation. According to a release from the federal prosecutor’s office, they would solicit customers through advertisements on Backpage.com, which featured “photographs of the females wearing lingerie and posing in sexual positions.”

The women were given cell phones and told to answer calls from the website customers, who would then meet up with them in motels in suburbs including Joliet, Naperville, Downers Grove, Schaumburg, Lansing, Harvey and Alsip.

Money received from the sex acts would then be given to Nichols and Fears, according to the release.

The men would allegedly carry firearms and “often hit, slap and choke the females who worked for them, including one incident in which Nichols beat a female so badly she had to be hospitalized. The pair also supplied the females with drugs and alcohol to help them participate in committing the sex acts,” according to the release.

Fears was arrested Friday morning and Nichols was arrested in Tennessee and ordered to be returned to Chicago.

Nichols and Fears are members of Chicago-area rap group Hit Squad, which is not to be confused with a 1990s East Coast-based group of the same name.

If convicted, the men face a mandatory minimum of 15 years in prison and a maximum sentence of life.