NJ Sex Offender Trafficked 3 Juveniles, Federal Officials Charge

CAMDEN, NJ — A registered sex offender from Camden faces federal charges of sex trafficking minors including a missing child from Pennsylvania, officials said.

Semaj A. Gilmore, 33, trafficked three victims between September 2020 and April 2021, according to U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger. Officials charged him by superseding indictment with three counts of sex trafficking of a minor and three counts of committing a sex offense as a registered sex offender, Sellinger's office said.

State sex offender records show Gilmore was convicted of sexually assaulting a 13-year-old in 2017, and is registered as a Tier 2 sex offender.

He has been in custody since April 2021 and had a court appearance Dec. 6 in Camden federal court before U.S. Magistrate Judge Matthew J. Skahill, according to Sellinger's office.

In April 2021, investigators learned that someone was advertising a missing Pennsylvania juvenile for sexually explicit activities "on a website that is often used to advertise acts of prostitution," Sellinger said. An undercover agent contacted the phone number on the advertisement and began exchanging messages with the person, later identified as Gilmore, Sellinger said.

The messages "ultimately led to the undercover agent meeting the victim in a motel room in or around Mount Laurel, New Jersey, purportedly to engage in sexual activities in exchange for cash," Sellinger said in a news release Tuesday.

"Gilmore instructed the undercover agent to 'get condoms' and to confirm that he was not 'a cop.' When uniformed officers entered the motel room, Gilmore, who had been waiting in a car in the adjacent parking lot, fled. Officers stopped Gilmore’s car and recovered the phone used to arrange the meeting between the victim and the undercover agent."

Officials said Gilmore trafficked two other victims during a time period where he was required to register as a sex offender due to a prior conviction, Sellinger said.

Each sex trafficking of a minor count is punishable by a mandatory minimum penalty of 10 years in prison, a maximum penalty of life in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. Each count of committing a sex offense as a registered sex offender is punishable by a mandatory penalty of 10 years in prison, which must run consecutively to any other term of imprisonment, and a fine of up to $250,000, according to Sellinger's office.

Gilmore's defense counsel is Troy Archie Esquire of Cinnaminson, officials said.