A North Park gang member will spend more than a decade behind bars for his leadership role in a racketeering enterprise supervising, managing and maintaining adult women for prostitution, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.
Aaron Dwayne Pittman, known as "Q-Tip" or "Lil' Q-Tip", a member of the Black Mob/Skanless Enterprise, two North Park-based criminal street gangs, was sentenced to 11 years in prison Monday on a RICO conspiracy charge.
Attorneys say Pittman acted as a pimp, taking the lead in supervising, managing and maintaining adult women for prostitution in San Diego, Phoenix, Orlando, Honolulu and other U.S. cities.
Additionally, he would buy flights, post online ads and promote prostitution of women working for him, which he referred to as "Team Tip," according to his plea agreement.
He would conspire with other gang members to engage in sex trafficking, robbery and assault across the U.S., attorneys said.
He worked in his leadership role from the late 1990s to December 2013, according to his plea agreement.
When sentencing Pittman, U.S. District Court Judge John A. Houston said Pittman had "little regard for the women who (he) controlled."
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“Sex trafficking is a crime that has long-lasting and devastating effects on the women and girls who are controlled by pimps like Mr. Pittman,” said U.S. Attorney Laura Duffy in a statement. “The 11-year sentence imposed for one of the leaders of the Black Mob criminal street gang demonstrates the seriousness of this crime and will hopefully deter other criminal street gangs from engaging in such activity.”
In addition to his time in prison, Judge Houston ordered Pittman to forfeit several cars, computers, other electronic devices and pimp-related paraphernalia.
Once he is released, he will be placed on three years of supervised release.
