HARRISONBURG, Va. (ROCKTOWN NOW) – A Maryland man who used the drug dependency of at least three women to compel them to engage in commercial sex work, pleaded guilty to federal charges.

US Attorney Chris Kavanaugh announced that 36-year-old William O’Neil Murray III entered a guilty plea yesterday in US District Court in Harrisonburg.

According to court documents, from December 2021 through July 2022, Murray engaged in a multi-state sex trafficking operation by coercing his victims into sex work by using their drug dependency as his primary method of control.

The FBI’s Interstate 81 Human Trafficking Task Force, which is a collaborative effort of law enforcement agencies focused on human trafficking in the northern Shenandoah Valley, is investigating the case.