DENVER | A Denver man has been sentenced to 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to pimping and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The Denver District Attorney’s Office says 27-year-old Orlando Johns used Backpage.com to advertise two girls, ages 15 and 16, and two women for sex.

Prosecutors say Johns arranged motels and kept most of the payments that men paid to have sex with the girls and women, who were forced to work every day.

They say Johns used drugs to keep the girls and women dependent on him and was physically violent if they resisted.

He pleaded guilty to the charges in May.

Johns was indicted in 2018. Initial charges also included human trafficking, pandering and procurement of a child for prostitution.

The Associated Press is an independent, not-for-profit news cooperative of 1,300 newspapers, including The Sentinel, headquartered in New York City. News teams in over 100 countries tell the world’s...