Baltimore Officer Sentenced For Running Prostitution Ring

BALTIMORE (AP) -- A former Baltimore police officer has been sentenced to 21 months in prison for allegedly operating a prostitution ring with more than 300 customers.

Thirty-three-year-old Lamin Manneh was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Baltimore. Prosecutors say Manneh advertised his 19-year-old wife and another 19-year-old woman for sex more than 50 times on internet websites, rented hotel rooms for clients and drove the women to appointments.

Prosecutors say Manneh gave the women cellphones and told them to use internet phone services to communicate with prospective clients. Authorities say Manneh waited outside the rooms with his police-issued firearm and offered to interrupt if the client became violent. Prosecutors say Manneh kept his wife's earnings and a portion of the other woman's.