413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

dealers, but had moved into sex trafficking rather than continuing to operate drug and sex trafficking
simultaneously, as described below,
We have found that a lot of our pimps used to be ex-drug dealers and are now moving
into pimping out girls. It’s more lucrative and harder to get caught, more prone to get
caught dealing drugs. (Miami Law Enforcement Official)
In addition to past histories dealing drugs, pimp networks operating in Miami were described as more
social in nature, rather than networked in a more organized crime fashion, as is found in other forms of
the underground commercial sex economy (e.g., erotic massage parlors or escort services) in Miami.
Social networks among pimps were described as both a mechanism to compete with each other, but also
to stay aware of law enforcement activities. Law enforcement reported pimps’ tendency to hide assets by
renting cars or homes in other individuals’ names:
You have to understand that a lot of these pimps, they all talk to each other, and read
each other’s case files, so they know that if something is in a third party’s name that we
can’t seize it, and if they rent we can’t take it. And it’s just harder for us to track them
down because nothing’s in their name … We’ll go in with search warrants and you’ll find
other pimps’ criminal histories and booking photos in the trash, especially when we hit
them with a juvenile or trafficking. They know we’re out there without a doubt, and
they’re doing everything they can to avoid us. …
We’ve had one pimp that sat in jail, he read his whole case and when we went to debrief
him, he’s like, “Yeah on that day I saw you guys and I didn’t really do that on that day,”
and he was telling us that he saw us, what kind of car we were in, stuff like that. We have
pimps talking to other pimps—it’s not an organized network, it’s a social network. …
We’ve had pimps look up the attorneys to know if they are going to take the plea or not, if
they had a high winning rate … happened on the last one, he was like, “Oh no, this guy
has a 98 percent winning rate, I’m going to go ahead and take the plea.” They actually
look up, when their girls get arrested, they see what their bond is, see what they’re
charged with. They’re very savvy. (Miami Law Enforcement Official)
Law enforcement went on to describe that the social networks among pimps are thought to be born out of
their prior connections as drug dealers and gang members; however, the competition among them with
respect to sex trafficking did not involve the violence common among drug traffickers:
They party together, go to the beach together, go to the club together, and have the girls
outside when they go inside, have the girls come inside … I don’t know if it’s so much a
network as a social network. It’s a social network, but they definitely communicate,
there’s communication between all the pimps. But it’s kind of contrary to the traditional
belief of where a pimp is against another pimp and he’s by himself. It’s more of a wolfpack
mentality now where they all hang together. It’s almost like if they’re all making
money, it’s fine, but as long as we’re making it … They’re competitive, but they’re more
competitive about my ring is bigger than your ring, and my girl brought me this, and I
didn’t have to do anything for this, my clothes, my sneakers, is better than what you’ve
got. That’s how they’re competitive. (Miami Law Enforcement Official)
However, considerable violence toward victims was common with respect to competition among
pimps/traffickers—including the selling or trading of a victim to another pimp/trafficker. As stated by law
enforcement,
Respondent: But the rules are still in place, where they’re [person working for them]
not allowed to look at another pimp, not allowed to talk to another pimp. But yet what
we’ve found in our recent cases is how the pimps are maybe sometimes exchanging girls
with another pimp.
Interviewer: For money
Respondent: For money or another girl. Or if one gets locked up, the other one will take
over. (Miami Law Enforcement Official)
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