Tea Man Now Faces More Serious Charges

SIOUX FALLS, SD - The Tea man facing federal sex trafficking charges for soliciting underage prostitutes now faces more serious charges.

Federal prosecutors now say 28-year-old Brandon Thompson, also known as 'Kadafi,' recently tried to hire someone to kill two of the witnesses in the case.

What was just filed in the past week is called a superseding indictment, which means the charges now replace those Thompson originally faced.

And now the man known as 'Kadafi' faces 21 different federal charges that could send him to prison for life.

Thompson's accused of trafficking underage girls as prostitutes on the website backpage.com.

Court documents say he would set up meetings on the website and then drive the underage girls to the Sioux Falls Motel 6. The girls would have sex with customers for $300, and were supposed to give Thompson half of the money.

But since he's been behind bars for those crimes, federal authorities say he's tried to commit even more crimes. The Tea man is now charged with trying to hire someone to murder at least two of the witnesses that were scheduled to testify against him.

Thompson's also facing new child pornography charges for having e-mails and text messages with those images on his BlackBerry .

Federal investigators also say Thompson has at least four other aliases, committed identity theft, and tried to use the social security numbers of at least two different people to hide his own identity.

And with Thompson now facing 21 counts of federal charges, there's no hiding from investigators any more.

Thompson was supposed to be in court at the end of the month, but because of all the new charges his attorneys have asked that all the hearings now be delayed.