Illegal Alien from India Sentenced to 10 Years in Homeland Security Task Force Investigation of Sex Trafficking of Minors

United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that Kavankumar Patel, 27, of Gujarat, India, was sentenced on May 26, 2026, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for two counts of sex trafficking of a minor. Senior United States District Judge Joseph F. Bataillon sentenced Patel to 10 years' imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Patel's release from prison, he will begin a five-year term of supervised release. However, Patel is in the United States illegally and faces deportation after completing his prison sentence.

On January 6, 2025, the Omaha Police Department received a report of a theft. Responding officers identified indicia of sex trafficking. The Homeland Security Task Force and the Omaha Police Department immediately began investigating and recovered two minor females, aged 15 and 16, who had been brought to the AmericInn hotel at 2920 S. 13th Court in Omaha from out of state to be sold for commercial sex.

The two minor females reported that their traffickers had instructed that the minors must engage in sex with hotel staff for a reduced room rate or they would be kicked out of the hotel. Two hotel employees paid the trafficker to have sex with one of the minors and a third hotel employee had sex with the other minor. Patel, an employee at the AmericInn, admitted that he used money from the hotel till to pay the traffickers to have sex with one of the minors at the hotel. Hotel employees then permitted the traffickers and minors to remain at the hotel for multiple days. The traffickers would post online advertisements for commercial sex and arrange commercial sex acts involving the minor victims. The minors reported having little food and feeling like they had no choice but to engage in sex acts as directed.

"The United States Attorney's Office and our law enforcement partners will never tire of working as hard as we need to work to protect the most vulnerable victims in our communities," said United States Attorney Lesley Woods. "The Homeland Security Task Force rescued these children from a living nightmare, and anyone with knowledge or suspicion of human trafficking in our communities should reach out to state or federal law enforcement immediately to report those concerns and to be part of the effort to free all of Nebraska's victims of human trafficking."

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Omaha comprises agents and officers from HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, USPIS, the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division, and assistance of the Omaha Police Department with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Nebraska.