Maryland Man’s Role In Filipino Trafficking Ring

A Maryland man, 47-year-old Philip Andrew Turner of Linthicum Heights, pled guilty in federal court to coercion and enticement charges tied to his role as a paying customer of a child-sex trafficking ring operating in the Philippines.

Prosecutors say Turner used Skype between late 2017 and early 2018 to connect with a known Filipino trafficker, selecting children from images and directing them during live-streamed sexual abuse sessions in exchange for money.

Records show that from 2017 through 2025 Turner made 437 online payments totaling more than $29,000 to traffickers in the Philippines, highlighting a sustained, profit-driven exploitation network facilitated by digital financial systems.

During an October 28, 2025 search of his Anne Arundel County home, investigators found his laptop open to Skype and later determined he had recently downloaded more than 600 child sexual abuse images using the Tor network.

Turner faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years and a maximum of life in federal prison for coercion and enticement, with the exact sentence to be set by a federal judge under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

The case is part of a broader federal effort targeting online child-sex trafficking networks that link U.S.-based offenders with traffickers exploiting children overseas, including in the Philippines.