Two plead guilty in sex ring that recruited local high school girls Two associates of a Fairfax County-based Crips gang pleaded guilty Thursday to charges of running a prostitution ring that recruited and trafficked local high school girls, authorities said. Michael Tavon Jeffries, 21, of Woodbridge and Christopher Sylvia, 23, of Springfield, admitted their role in the operation in federal court in Alexandria. They could be sentenced from 10 years to life in prison. Authorities said members of the Underground Gangster Crips approached girls on street corners, the Metro, Facebook and even in school, and told them they were pretty and could earn money by sleeping with men. At least 10 underage girls from Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia were lured into prostitution and were forced to continue working through threats and violence, including rape, court records say. Jeffries, a member of the gang, and Sylvia, an associate, pleaded guilty to sex trafficking a minor. Jeffries admitted working as a bodyguard for the ring, collecting proceeds from prostitution, advertising the girls on backpage.com and paying for hotel rooms, where the liaisons occurred, court records show. Sylvia admitted to transporting girls to jobs. Both are scheduled to be sentenced in July. Attorneys for the men declined to comment. The accused leader of the ring, Justin Strom, 26, of Lorton, and two other gang members Donyel Dove, 27, of Alexandria, and Henock Ghile, 23, of Springfield, have also been charged in the case. Authorities said the ring, which operated for as long as five years, was unusual because it targeted girls living at home, not runaways, and gang members heavily used social media, such as Facebook, to recruit the teens. Gang members created a fake Facebook profile for a woman named "Rain Smith" and sent more than 800 messages to girls they found attractive in attempts to recruit them, court records show. In one instance, a girl was recruited in school by a classmate, who was already working as a prostitute, court records show. Authorities declined to discuss which local schools were involved. Girls were often required to have "try outs" with gang members, before they were offered out for prostitution, according to court papers. The prostitution occurred in Strom's home and, on occasions, the girls worked door-to-door at Northern Virginia apartment complexes, court records say. On one such trip, two girls had sex with 10 to 15 men, charging them $30 for ten minutes, court records say. If girls tried to quit, Strom allegedly got violent. In one case, he is accused of raping a 17-year-old girl at knifepoint and then forcing her to have sex with 14 men in a hotel room, court records show. Authorities said Strom collected $1,000 that night.