A Massachusetts man was stopped on I-395 in Connecticut and charged with second-degree kidnapping after a woman in his car sent an emergency text that she had been abducted, police said.
Kwamaine Jerome Wells, 24, of Brockton, Mass., also was charged with illegal possession of narcotics and disorderly conduct, police said Saturday.
The woman told police she was being driven against her will to Rhode Island to be sold for sex, state police said Saturday.
While traveling with Wells on I-395 in Putnam on Friday night, the victim sent an emergency text that said she had been abducted from New York and was riding north on the highway in a black Kia SUV.
The text was sent to a human trafficking hotline, which alerted Connecticut State Police. Responding immediately, state police from Connecticut and Massachusetts headed toward the highway, and an officer spotted the car, with Connecticut plates, near Exit 100 in Thompson, police said.
After the car pulled over to the right shoulder, the woman jumped out and started running to the cruiser, police said. Other troopers arrived, and Wells was taken into custody.
Wells, who is being held on $100,000 bond, has prior arrests for trafficking of a person for sexual servitude and carrying a firearm, police said. He is scheduled to appear in state Superior Court in Danielson on Monday.