FLORIDA (Boca Post) (Copyright © 2026) — A federal judge has sentenced a Daytona-area man to more than 27 years in prison in a sex trafficking case built around violence, threats, and control over two women recruited separately in 2021 and 2022, according to court records summarized by the U.S. Department of Justice.
Delon Richard Smith, 47, of Daytona, was sentenced in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida to 327 months in prison after pleading guilty in October 2025 to two charges of sex trafficking by force, fraud, or coercion and one count of conspiracy to commit the same crime. The court also ordered Smith to pay the two victims $4,800 in restitution.
Federal officials described the case as an example of trafficking that relies on coercion and physical harm to keep victims working for someone else’s profit.
“This sentence reflects the abhorrent acts of violence the defendant used to exploit the victims for his own personal profit,” Assistant Attorney General A. Tysen Duva of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said. Duva said commercial sex trafficking “depends on the systematic dehumanization of its victims,” and said prosecutors will continue pursuing cases where traffickers “use people like disposable products for an illegal business.”
U.S. Attorney Gregory W. Kehoe, whose office represents the federal government in the Middle District of Florida, said the conduct described in the case was “egregious and reprehensible,” and credited the investigation and the victims’ cooperation for bringing the case to sentencing.
“Due to the hard work and diligence of our local and federal law enforcement partners, and courage of the victims, this criminal was brought to justice,” Kehoe said.
The FBI Jacksonville Field Office, which led the investigation with help from the Daytona Police Department, framed the case as a violent crime with community impact.
“Sex trafficking is a violent crime, not a business,” said Special Agent in Charge Jason Carley of the FBI Jacksonville Field Office. Carley said Smith used force and coercion to control and exploit vulnerable women for money, and said trafficking “is not victimless,” describing lasting trauma for victims and broader harm to community safety.
According to court documents described by federal prosecutors, Smith recruited the two victims separately in 2021 and 2022. The Justice Department said he offered narcotics and the promise of making money. Prosecutors said Smith posted online commercial sex advertisements that included one of the victim’s photographs, then transported the victims to various locations to meet commercial sex buyers in the Daytona Beach area.
Prosecutors said Smith kept all of the money or payments tied to the commercial sex acts. The Justice Department said he routinely forced the victims to continue engaging in commercial sex for his profit by inflicting severe physical harm and using threats to keep control.
The conduct described in the case included repeated assaults. Prosecutors said Smith regularly punched and choked the victims, and talked about gang membership in the Bloods as part of a pattern of threats and coercion.
In one incident described by prosecutors, Smith punished a victim for not bringing in enough money by discharging a firearm and holding the hot barrel of the weapon to the victim’s face.
In another incident described in court records, prosecutors said that when one of the victims left a hotel room without Smith’s explicit permission, he hit the victim in the head with the butt of a gun and dragged her into his car by her hair.
The Justice Department said the case was prosecuted by Trial Attorney Leah Branch of the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section, along with Assistant U.S. Attorneys Megan Testerman and Kaley Austin-Aronson for the Middle District of Florida.
Federal officials also included reporting information for the public. Anyone with information about human trafficking is urged to contact the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 1-888-373-7888, which operates 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
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