413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Atlanta, Georgia
Eighteen individuals were interviewed about the local underground commercial sex economy in Atlanta,
Georgia. Representatives from the following agencies were interviewed: Homeland Security Investigations
(HSI), Georgia Bureau of Investigations, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Atlanta Police
Department, Sandy Springs Police Department, Cobb County Police Department, Smyrna County Police
Department, the US Attorney’s office, US Postal Inspector Service (USPIS), and the DeKalb County
District Attorney’s office.
The underground commercial sex economy in the Atlanta area is mainly comprised of three sex trafficking
venues: street and online prostitution, Latino brothels, and massage parlors (see table 4.8). They tend to
be geographically concentrated in the Atlanta metropolitan area along ethnic and national lines. Given the
size and location of Atlanta, there is a significant amount of pimp-controlled prostitution on the street and
online through websites such as Craigslist and Backpage. There are several different circuits—local,
Southeast, and country-wide—that the pimps travel within and will often travel to cities for large events.
While most massage parlors are Korean run, law enforcement indicated that some parlors were operated
by other nationalities, including Thai and Indonesian. They are highly organized and structured and
networked with other massage parlors throughout the country. The Atlanta area also has a high degree of
Latino brothel activity, with brothels generally operating out of rented apartments or cantina dance clubs
and advertised through word of mouth. Similar to massage parlors, a lot of brothels network with one
another and are highly organized and structured.
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