A 36-year-old man has been charged with seven counts of sex trafficking for operating a statewide prostitution enterprise, according to a grand jury indictment filed last week in Anchorage Superior Court.
Courtney Woods has been charged with three counts of second-degree sex trafficking and four counts of the same crime in the third degree. All of the charges are felonies.
The charges say Woods ran a "place of prostitution" as well as operated a broader enterprise not tied to a specific location, but few additional details were available Monday.
"There's nothing additional that's been made public about the investigation," said assistant attorney general Adam Alexander.
Alexander did say that Woods' charges aren't tied to any other recent sex trafficking cases brought forward by the state, like those of Xavier Benson, who is also charged with assaulting women who worked for him, or Mark Daniel Alexander, who was charged in late June. Mark Alexander has no relation to the prosecutor.
"This case is not directly associated with those cases in the sense that there's no accusation that Mr. Woods was operating this criminal enterprise in conjunction with any other individuals," said Alexander.
An arrest warrant was issued for Woods that set his bail at $50,000 and requires a third-party custodian if he pays.
Alexander commended the Alaska Bureau of Investigation for its work on the case and other sex trafficking cases. He said sex trafficking crimes traditionally have been difficult to investigate because the people who run them target and exploit vulnerable people, "at least partly in an effort to avoid criminal prosecution."
"Unfortunately, sex trafficking and the sex trade in Alaska is a significant problem," he said, "and it's something ABI and the state are taking very seriously."