413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

potential paper trail. Money was reportedly spent as fast as it was earned. Some of the money earned was
spent on hair, makeup, clothes, and manicures and pedicures for the women and girls as a mechanism to
keep control:
Well their only expense is nails, hair, makeup, little bit of food, and a motel room. Other
than that they’re spending it on gambling, booze, they’re constantly recruiting—they
spend a lot of time in the strip clubs, we’ve had several cases where the girls would say we
don’t even know where he’s at, we think he’s at the strip club all night long. If you have a
lot of money to flash, these guys can spend three or four grand a night in a strip club.
Clothes, shoes. …
They’re living in hotels, if they’re constantly travelling, living in hotels, they’ve got no
roots. Now they’ll tell the girls that that’s what they’re working for, that they’ll buy a nice
place, they can all live together, but it’s just its part of the manipulation and that coercion
to keep them there. The girls are constantly looking at that dream because he’s going to
tell them, “We’re doing this to make our life better. (Denver Law Enforcement Official)
Despite how fast money is spent, Denver officials have been able to seize some assets. In one large escort
services case, officials seized approximately $1.8 million. However, in comparison to other forms of the
UCSE, law enforcement has had more success seizing assets from massage parlors.
Erotic Massage Parlors and Brothels
Denver officials have also uncovered sex trafficking and prostitution in massage parlors and brothels. As
illustrated in figure 4.5, there has been some movement of erotic massage parlors in the Denver
metropolitan area; however, there has been a minimal increase in the number overall, with the exception
of a stark decrease in the Westminster Arvada area. Similar to other cities, massage parlors tend to be
operated by Korean or Chinese individuals and brothels run by Latinos. The individuals sex trafficked or
voluntarily working in prostitution in these establishments also tend to be Asian and Latina, respectively.
Denver officials have not uncovered minors exploited at massage parlors. Typically, women working at
massage parlors state that they are willingly involved and have not given any indication to law
enforcement that they are trafficked. The fee structure for massage parlors in Denver is:
The massage parlors on our end, especially most of them are either Korean or Chinese.
You still have the owner who’s making a lot of money, but you have the girls making a lot
of money too. The basic setup that we’ve seen here for the most part is the house keeps
the door fee, the massage fee, and 40 for a half [an hour], 60 for an hour is the common
rate, and the girls keep all their tip, so called tip money, prostitution money. If they’re
running 20 customers through the door a day at 60 bucks a customer, it’s still pretty good
money for the house. (Denver Law Enforcement Official)
Although officials acknowledged that massage parlors were more organized in other cities, they did not
find them to be very organized in Denver. They found that many of the women working in massage
parlors come from other cities, such as Seattle, Houston, and Dallas. However, they found that women
move between massage parlors on their own accord, typically switching locations every three to four
weeks:
But from the years I’ve been doing this, the girls 50 move on their own. All the places want
fresh girls every three to four weeks it keeps the customer base going, and the girls they’ll
work three to four weeks, they’ll make a bunch of money, they’ll take a week off and then
they’ll get on the phone and call their friend who is in Houston who’s getting ready to
move somewhere else … so the girls all network with each other, the working girls, and
they also network with what’s called the Korean taxis, the guys who pick them up at the
airports. The girls are responsible for all their travel fare, they pay for all that … it’s an
organized network but we’re not seeing this organized crime with somebody at the top,
50 The research staff clarified that the term “girls” did not refer to minors, but to adults.
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