text: July 4 (UPI) -- A court in California sentenced a woman arrested for human trafficking at the age of 16 to 13 years in prison for organizing a prostitution ring of 14- and 15-year-old girls, court records indicate. 
   
   Police arrested Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario, whose 18th birthday was on July 1, in May 2016. She was tried as an adult on charges of human trafficking of a minor, sending threatening emails to a family member of one of the victims and making terrorist threats in Kings County Superior Court. She was sentenced Monday. 
   
   Prosecutors argued that Bedrijo trafficked four girls between the ages of 14 and 15 for a few weeks by posting their pictures on websites that carry prostitution ads and then driving them to meet clients at motels in central California's Tulare County area. 
   
   Although Bedrijo was a minor at the time of her crimes and a year or two older than the victims, Hanford police Detective Richard Pontecorvo accused her of manipulating young girls' minds. 
   
   "These people are great at locating kids with low self-esteem and trying to be their friend, and then it obviously changes once they started working for her," he said, according to the Fresno Bee. 
   
   "We were able to get these girls back home and get them the help they needed," he added. "But these pimps are ruining these kids' lives at an early age." ||||| An 18-year-old Hanford woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for her role in the pimping and human trafficking of younger girls. 
   
   Hanford police detectives arrested Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario in May 2016. Though a juvenile, she was tried as an adult for human trafficking, sending threatening emails to a family member of at least one of the girls and making terrorist threats. 
   
   She was sentenced on Monday in Kings County Superior Court, two days after her 18th birthday. 
   
   Almario’s scheme, which last a few weeks, involved posting pictures of the younger girls on different websites for prostitution, then taking the girls to motels off Highway 99 in Tulare County, said Hanford police Detective Richard Pontecorvo. 
   
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   Almario was the prime suspect, he said. The ring involved four girls between the ages of 14-and-15-years-old, Pontecorvo said. 
   
   These pimps are ruining these kids’ lives at an early age. Richard Pontecorvo, Hanford police detective 
   
   “These girls would run away for weekends or work a couple of nights,” he said. 
   
   Almario found the girls through friends or acquaintances and social media. 
   
   “These people are great at locating kids with low self-esteem and trying to be their friend, and then it obviously changes once they started working for her,” said Pontecorvo. 
   
   The human trafficking and prostitution ring went on for several weeks last spring, he said. 
   
   During that time, one of the mothers of one of the victims was looking for her daughter, and Almario sent her threatening text messages, Pontecorvo said. 
   
   “We were able to get these girls back home and get them the help they needed,” he said. “But these pimps are ruining these kids’ lives at an early age.” 
   
   The case was surprising for Hanford, Pontecorvo said, considering that Almario was both a juvenile and the prime pimping suspect. 
   
   “It was a huge eye-opener for us,” he said. “But we caught her case very early, so we were able to pull those girls out of that.” ||||| HANFORD, Calif. -- An 18-year-old central California woman was sentenced to 13 years in prison for pimping and trafficking younger girls. 
   
   Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario was arrested in the city of Hanford in May 2016, the Sacramento Bee newspaper reported. Though a juvenile, she was tried as an adult for human trafficking, sending threatening emails to a family member of at least one of the girls and making terrorist threats. 
   
   She was sentenced Monday, two days after her 18th birthday. 
   
   Hanford police Detective Richard Pontecorvo said Almario was the prime suspect in a pimping ring that involved girls who were 14 and 15. 
   
   Almario would post pictures of the girls on different websites for prostitution and then take them to motels to have sex, Pontecorvo said. 
   
   She often found the girls through friends and acquaintances or social media, he said. 
   
   "These people are great at locating kids with low self-esteem and trying to be their friend, and then it obviously changes once they started working for her," Pontecorvo said. 
   
   During that time, a mother of one of the victims was looking for her daughter, and Almario sent her threatening text messages, Pontecorvo said. 
   
   The case was surprising for the city, considering that Almario was both a juvenile and the prime pimping suspect, Pontecorvo said. 
   
   "It was a huge eye-opener for us," he told the newspaper.
target: – She met four teen girls through social media and acquaintances and quickly tried to befriend them. But it wasn't their friendship Jelinajane Bedrijo Almario was after, say police in Hanford, Calif. Over the next few weeks in 2016, Almario, then just 16, pimped the girls, aged 14 and 15, by posting their photos on prostitution websites and driving them to meet clients at motels in Tulare County, Detective Richard Pontecorvo tells the Fresno Bee. Thankfully, "we caught her case very early," he adds. Almario was arrested in May 2016 and charged as an adult with human trafficking and making terrorist threats. On Monday, two days after her 18th birthday, she was sentenced to 13 years in prison. "It was a huge eye-opener for us," Pontecorvo says of the case, heard in Kings County Superior Court. "We were able to get these girls back home and get them the help they needed … but these pimps are ruining these kids' lives at an early age." Pimps like Almario, he adds, per UPI, "are great at locating kids with low self-esteem and trying to be their friend, and then it obviously changes." For example, Almario once sent threatening emails to the mother of one of her victims who was simply looking for her daughter, reports the AP. Pontecorvo explains the girls Almario targeted "would run away for weekends or work a couple of nights." (A teen says she was forced to have sex with 1,000 men at this hotel.)