An American has been charged with bringing a 15-year-old girl to Bermuda to work as a prostitute.

The man appeared in federal court in Boston with five co-defendants on Thursday, accused of running a sex-trafficking ring and forcing young girls into prostitution. It is alleged the men transported the teenagers to New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maine, New Hampshire and Florida to work as prostitutes.

One of the alleged gang, Rueben Porcher, 28, of Boston, is accused to arranging for a 15-year-old to get false identification and then taking her to Bermuda to work as a prostitute in the summer of 2002.

The other defendants are: Darryl Tavares, 23; Aaron Brooks, 22; Shaun Leoney, 25; Eddie Jones, 24, all of Boston; and Trueheart Peeples, 29, of Portland, Maine.

The 22-page indictment also accuses the men of networking with sex traffickers from other states to swap girls when they grew tired of them.

It describes a so-called “toss up” in New York City, where pimps allegedly traded the young prostitutes among themselves.

Leoney and Brooks are also accused of taking a 17-year-old to an organised prostitution event in Orlando.

According to the indictment, the event in 2005 was sponsored by Hoodlum Entertainment, a company owned by two convicted sex-traffickers from New York.

All six defendants are charged with conspiracy to transport adults and minors across state lines for prostitution between 2001 and 2005.

Porcher, Tavares and Leoney are charged with sex-trafficking children aged 15, 16, and 17.

US Attorney Michael J. Sullivan’s office said the case was investigated by the FBI and several Police forces as part of the Innocence Lost Initiative, a US project aimed at bringing perpetrators of the commercial sexual exploitation of children to justice.