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 yesterday, 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.