A Tennessee federal jury has split its verdict in Nashville against nine men accused of operating a sex trafficking ring run mostly by Somali refugee gang members

Three men were convicted and six men were acquitted. The defendants are among a total of 30 who were indicted in the case that spans from Minnesota to Ohio and Tennessee. A Somali witness identified only as Jane Doe No. 2 testified that she was used as a prostitute by gang members starting at the age of 12. She cried in court as she described being taken to several apartments in around suburban Minneapolis to have sex with other Somali men for money, sometimes as little as $40. She later described a trip to Nashville where she was found by police. Defense attorneys contended that the witness willingly had sex with multiple defendants and lied about it so her conservative Somali family could save face. Idris Ibrahim Fahra, Andrew Kayachith and Yassin Abdirahman Yusuf were found guilty of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of children by force, fraud or coercion. The three men were also charged with sex trafficking and attempted sex trafficking, but only Fahra was convicted on one additional count of sex trafficking. Seven of the nine defendants are of Somali descent. Another was born in Ethiopia. Kayachith was born in the United States and is of Laotian descent. The original indictment that was unsealed in 2010 claims the ring involved three Minneapolis-based gangs — the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws — and that all three gangs are connected. The men and women charged were either gang members or associates of the gangs, the indictment said. The indictment said that the gangs operated in Minneapolis, St. Paul, Columbus, Ohio; and Nashville.