In Afghanistan, he was a military policeman — but now, he's a convicted pimp

Xaver Boston, an Army Reservist, is charged with crimes carrying a sentence of 15 years to life, mandatory restitution and a $250,000 fine.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (Tribune News Service) — Military policeman in Afghanistan. Pimp in Charlotte.

Those two sides of Xaver Boston crashed head-on this week in an uptown federal courtroom. There, the 29-year-old former Army Reservist was convicted of running a five-year, sex-trafficking ring that preyed on young, drug-addicted women.

Three of those women testified against Boston during his three-day trial. After seven hours of deliberations, Boston’s jury found him guilty of six counts of sex trafficking and one count of using an interstate facility to promote a prostitution enterprise, prosecutors say.

Boston, nicknamed “Romeo,” faces 15 years to life and a $250,000 fine for each trafficking conviction, and will be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Robert Conrad at a later date. Boston remained in custody Friday at the Mecklenburg County Jail.

After the verdict, U.S. Attorney Andrew Murray described Boston as a predator “who ran a criminal enterprise that violated the most basic standards of human decency. ”

Boston, according to Murray, “preyed on and abused vulnerable young women ... and used violence and drugs to exert his control.”

According to court documents, Boston recruited women, including one teenager, who were struggling with addiction. He promised them heroin, hydrocodone and other drugs both to feed their habits and to control them.

When the women refused to follow his commands or not hand over what they had earned from having sex, Boston withheld their drugs and thrust them into the agonies of withdrawal, documents say.. He also choked, punched and slapped them. Once, according to prosecutors, Boston pistol-whipped one of his women and broke her nose.

Boston began operations in 2012 and shut down the ring only once — in 2016 when he was deployed to Afghanistan to join the security detail of a U.S. major general stationed in Kabul, documents say.

Shortly after returning home in March 2017, Army Reserve Cpl. Xaver Boston slipped into his daughters’ elementary school in Winston-Salem for a surprise visit.

“I was just telling them how much I loved them, how much I missed them,” Boston told the Winston-Salem Journal after a school-wide ceremony.

Soon afterward, according to court documents, Romeo Boston returned to Charlotte and reopened his sex ring.

If he pulled the trigger or was shot at, maybe. If he was up close and personal when the trigger was pulled or shot at, probably yes. If he witnessed first hand what the deceased look like (friend or foe) while being scared shitless for his own life - definitely yes.

Does this excuse him for his actions now? No. Not only no, but hell no. Literally millions of vets from all our wars are traumatized in some way by war, yet they do not go out and commit crimes when they come home.

Even mentioning this guy is a vet is a disgrace to other vets. It implies vets will likely do the things this creep did. It’s an insult.

Odder things have happened. During the Italian Campaign one general had a quiet young fellow of obvious Italian decent as his driver and bodyguard. This man was a US citizen born in NYC but he got caught in Italy in 1941. He was a Mafia hitter who had been sent to Sicily to cool off as Dewey's boys were after him. He was hidden by his Sicilian connections from the Mussolini Italians and presented himself to the US Army as soon as the Sicilian Campaign was over. He had a draft card and was inducted ‘outside the territorial limits of the United States’. He was a very good combat infantryman and his battalion and company officers tried to get him the BSv and the Silver Star. He refused both. He did not want any publicity. This fellow was very popular with his comrades as he was a fine soldier who never boasted or bragged and seemed to have magical powers to summon up wine, good food, and good looking women when ever his unit was out of the battleline. When the division commander found out about the anonymous super soldier he sent for him and the young man recognized a deal he couldn't refuse and spent the rest of the war guarding the general. The general arranged for him to be decorated with the Bronze Star and Silver Star privately and classified the documentation. The general was very fond of his bodyguard especially since he introduced him to the stunning young woman who would become his mistress and eventually after his first wife's demise his wife.At the end of the war ‘Tony’ was quietly demobilized at Pine Tree Camp (Ft Drum) and returned to the Big Apple. No one ever heard from him again. Some thought he was one of Charles Lucky's intelligent gofers who shuttled back and forth from Italy to the US after Charles was deported.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.