The leader of a human trafficking and forgery ring was sentenced to 304 years in prison by a Douglas County District Court judge, the 18th Judicial District Attorney’s Office said.

Chauncey Price, 30, was found guilty of 13 counts, including trafficking a minor for sexual servitude, human trafficking for sexual servitude, pandering of a child and forgery.

He was sentenced by Judge Theresa Slade on Oct. 8.

“This is not a normal sentence, but this was not a normal crime,” Slade said during the sentencing. “You are not a defendant who deserves a minimum sentence. … There is absolutely nothing this court can do to make these women whole.”

Three of Price’s victims testified against him during the trial. The victims said Price forced them to have sex with strangers for money that Price would then take.

Price and his associates placed online ads selling sex acts with women and underage girls. He would provide the rented hotel rooms for the encounters, prosecutors said.

“He threatened to kill my sister if I didn’t work for him — that is when he turned me out. He kept pushing me to sleep with more and more men, up to eight a day,” one of the victims wrote in a statement read in court. “I couldn’t even use the bathroom without someone watching me. Once I didn’t eat for three days.

“I came forward to save others from him. He exploited young girls, controlled them and manipulated them. He will continue to do that if he ever gets out.”

Five co-defendants were also charged and sentenced in the case. Two of those cases included drug charges.

The ring also produced counterfeit currency and used the trafficking victims to pass the fake money at businesses across the state. Two co-defendants received sentences for forgery.

Agencies in the case included the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Lone Tree, Johnstown and Lakewood police departments, the FBI and the U.S. Secret Service.

Price’s sentence, one of the longest ever given for human trafficking, was enhanced because he is considered a habitual offender, having previously been convicted of four separate felonies.

“What possible rehabilitation can there be for someone who repeatedly and wantonly engages in this inhuman conduct?” said District Attorney George Brauchler. “There is none. This is why we build prisons.”

The longest sentence in a human trafficking case was 400 years, handed down by an Arapahoe County District Court judge in 2017.

Price was found guilty of trafficking a minor for sexual servitude, human trafficking for sexual servitude, criminal attempt to commit pimping of a child, criminal attempt to commit patronizing of a prostituted child, pandering of a child, violation of the Colorado Organized Crime Control Act, two counts of pimping, three counts of forgery and two possession charges.

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