Sex Trafficker Sentenced; Skokie Police Helped Rescue Victim

A sex trafficker was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison Wednesday, in a case which Skokie police helped to break in 2007, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Illinois.

The defendant, Erik Shamsud-din, 46, of Oregon, pleaded guilty in May to interstate prostitution. Federal authorities said in late 2006, he trafficked two adult women and a 16-year-old female runaway, forcing them to engage in prostitution in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas. He then brought them to Illinois in 2007 with the intent of further prostituting them, according to court records. 

On Jan. 27, 2007, Skokie police responded to a fight between the minor and an adult victim.  The minor was rescued and Shamsud-din was arrested, which later resulted in the federal charges in Chicago, according to a DOJ statement.

Shamsud-din “was a predator who targeted vulnerable women, including a minor, sent them out to have sex with strangers, and took all the money they made for himself,” the government argued in seeking the 20-year sentence.

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The then-16-year-old minor, who is now 23, testified against Shamsud-din in court.

U.S. District Judge Amy J. St. Eve sentenced Shamsud-din to 180 months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release.  He must serve at least 85 percent of his federal sentence before he is eligible for release. There is no parole in the federal prison system. 

Shamsud-din previously served a 112-month sentence after a 1991 conviction for rape and prostituting two teenage girls.       

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The investigation was conducted by the Chicago Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation after Shamsud-din was arrested in 2007 by the Skokie Police Department.  

The sentence was announced by Gary S. Shapiro, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, and Cory B. Nelson, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Office of the FBI.The government was represented by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Margaret Schneider and Heather McShain.