413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

Although African American men comprise the majority of street and Internet-based pimps in Dallas,
officials reported that there has been a fairly recent increase in young Hispanic girls trafficked by adult
Hispanic female family members. Behind these cases, the adult female trafficker is almost always addicted
to methamphetamine and is trafficking their daughter for drug money.
Brothels
Brothels are present in Dallas, although according to law enforcement, they are not as prevalent as in
some other cities in Texas (such as Houston). Brothels are typically run by Latinos and comprised
primarily of Latinas. Latino brothels in Dallas are typically located in residences, rather than in the
cantina bars found in other Texas cities. Brothels predominantly target Latino men and hand out business
cards that say “construction” or “restaurant” with a phone number. According to law enforcement, these
business cards are easy to spot they look very basic and provide little information. When men call the
phone number, they are sent to a location, which is typically a house located in a poor neighborhood. Over
time, law enforcement has noticed a slight shift in operations where brothels no longer operate out of a
house, but visit clients in apartment complexes. Prices are about $20 to $25 for 15 minutes. Half the
proceeds go to the “house” or person(s) running the brothel and the sex worker keeps the other half. In
terms of the level of demand, one law enforcement official stated, “We have had one who told us that she,
in her own words, wasn’t trafficked, and was doing all of that on her own … on a very good day she would
be seeing four guys an hour.”
Most of the women inside the brothels are from Central America. With respect to whether they are
trafficked or voluntarily involved in prostitution, one official remarked,
It’s been investigated as trafficking, and we just haven’t gotten to that part yet. I know
there is still one that is going on that they are looking into and every time that it seems
like trafficking something pops up where it is not. It’s just hard to get it, because a lot of
the times these women do move pretty frequently, because if they have the same basic
clientele, the same people coming, they’re going to drop off once they notice the same
ladies still there. (Dallas Law Enforcement Official)
It was reported that some Dallas brothels are highly organized and networked across the country, and
others are less highly organized. Until now, law enforcement has not been able to link these brothels back
to people organizing and recruiting in other countries. However, because there were a couple cases under
investigation at the time of the interview, law enforcement officials were unable to elaborate on the
specific nature of these more organized cases.
There has been some overlap discovered between Latino brothels and drug trafficking and drug use. Law
enforcement noted that they have discovered Latino brothel cases linked to the sales of cocaine,
methamphetamine, and ecstasy.
Erotic Massage Parlors
The relatively loose organization of Latino brothels differs drastically from the highly organized structure
of massage parlors operating as fronts for prostitution and sex trafficking in Dallas. Similar to other cities
in the study, these massage parlors are typically operated by Asians, specifically Chinese and Koreans.
However, unlike other cities in the study, Dallas is unique in that some massage parlors are operated by
non-Asian pimps or operated by Asians who rent rooms out to non-Asian pimps. As illustrated in figure
4.3, there are a number of erotic massage parlors in the Dallas metropolitan area, but over the last two
years they have moved farther north from the Downtown Dallas area toward Plano.
Sex trafficking has been uncovered in some of the massage parlors in Dallas. While erotic massage parlors
are typically operated by Chinese and Koreans, the women recruited to work in the massage parlors are
typically from Thailand and the Philippines. According to law enforcement, these women are recruited
fraudulently for a job (not involving prostitution) in the United States. They pay a recruiter for the job—
essentially bonding the women in debt—and then upon arrival in the United States, they are coerced into
trading sex at massage parlors.
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