PORTLAND — Rashad Sabree, of Boston, 37, was sentenced Thursday in federal court to 17 years in prison and ordered to pay restitution after previously pleading guilty to two counts of sex trafficking.

According to court documents, Sabree spent time between an apartment in Biddeford and an apartment in Portland from December 2015 through Jan. 5, 2016, where he coerced two women to engage in prostitution by exploiting their heroin addictions, verbally abusing them, and threatening them with violence.

Sabree controlled the two women by supplying them with just enough heroin to avoid withdrawal, which involves severe pain and physical sickness, and then threatening to cut off their supply and cause them to suffer withdrawal if they refused to engage in prostitution.

Sabree would belittle the two women for their drug use, calling them “junkies,” “stupid,” and “trash,” according to court documents. On one occasion, he threw a bag of heroin at one of the women and told her to shoot it all because “he wanted to watch her die,” according to court documents.

“Sex trafficking is a horrific crime against the human dignity of the victims, and a strong sentence like this one is deserved,” Acting Attorney General Whitaker said in a written statement. “This case is particularly cruel because in addition to the defendant’s use of violence and threats, he exploited the victims’ opioid addictions to compel them to perform commercial sex acts for his profit.”

Sabree drove the two women on I-95 south, with the intention of going to Massachusetts on Jan. 5, 2016, according to court documents.

The two women had sent text messages to family and friends that day stating that they were involved in a human trafficking situation and they were in danger.

Sabree saw the text messages on the drive down I-95 and shortly thereafter another motorist on I-95 saw Sabree strike one of the women, according to court documents. The motorist reported to 911 seeing a male driver “screaming and hollering at this girl next to him” and that the other driver had “just whacked her in the mouth, she’s all blood …”

Sabree was consequently arrested.

“This case demonstrates the important role that the public can play in helping to protect those who are vulnerable,” said U.S. Attorney Halsey Frank in a written statement. “We encourage the public to say something if they see something. Here, thankfully, a good citizen did just that.”

The case was investigated by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Home Security Investigations unit, the FBI, and the Biddeford Police Department, with assistance from the Maine State Police and the Sanford, Kittery, and Portland police departments. It was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Julia Lipez and Special Litigation Counsel William E. Nolan of the Civil Rights Division’s Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit.

— Staff Writer Liz Gotthelf can be contacted at 780-9015 or egotthelf@journaltribune.com.