Two of the three men arrested in an undercover prostitution sting operation in Swansea last year are on probation.

 

The operation involved an officer posing as a sex worker under the age of 16.

 

David Afriyie, of Pawtucket, faced one felony charge of enticing a child under 16 and a misdemeanor charge of paying for sexual conduct. On Oct. 6, both were continued without a finding — meaning Afriyie is neither guilty nor innocent.

 

Instead, Afriyie must serve a year of probation with no unsupervised contact with persons under age 18. A third charge of attempting to commit a crime was dismissed by prosecutors.

 

The second defendant, Joseph Wood, of Hanson, faced the same charges as Afriyie. They were continued without a finding on Aug. 4, 2025.

 

Wood was sentenced to 18 months of probation and a sex offender evaluation. His charge of attempting to commit a crime was also dismissed by prosecutors.

 

The third man, Manuel Costa, of Westport, still faces the same three charges and has a pretrial hearing scheduled for Dec. 3.

 

On Oct. 13, a judge granted his lawyer’s requests for evidence from the Massachusetts State Police’s human trafficking unit, body camera recordings and closed circuit camera recordings.

 

Costa’s defense lawyer is Kevin Reddington, the prominent attorney of Lindsay Clancy, the Duxbury mother accused of killing her children whose case has ended in a mistrial.

 

Wood and Costa had originally faced felony charges of sexual conduct with a child under 18, but both were amended to the misdemeanor of paying for sexual conduct.

 

See more at heraldnews.com.