413047-Underground-Commercial-Sex-Economy

On the Latino brothel front we found that they are more extorting them and using them
like, “Give us $50 every Tuesday or every Saturday for protection.” But they are not really
providing protection. The protection is MS-13 is not going to rob you. … I have spoken
with some of the northern Virginia task force officers, and they were saying that MS-13 is
recruiting young girls into their own gang and using them as sexual servants for gang
members, not necessarily prostitution. (DC Law Enforcement Official)
Latino brothel owners trade women more frequently than street and Internet-based pimps. One
investigator explained:
The brothels do more of the trading as opposed to the prostitution. The brothel owners
will come to forums amongst themselves and they will trade the girls out among the
three, four or however many … I guess they would still be considered pimps, amongst
themselves. So they do more of the trading instead of the street level or Internet pimps.
(DC Law Enforcement Official)
As stated above, women are traded and constantly moved from brothel to brothel throughout DC,
Maryland, and Virginia in an attempt to evade law enforcement and to attract customers.
Denver, Colorado
Fourteen individuals were interviewed about the local underground commercial sex economy in Denver,
CO. Representatives from the following agencies were interviewed: Denver Police Department, Lakewood
Police Department, the FBI, the Attorney General’s Office, the Office of the United States Attorney, and
the US Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).
Interviews with both federal and local investigators and prosecutors revealed a diverse UCSE comprised
of Asian massage parlors, street and online prostitution, Latino brothels, and upscale escort services (see
table 4.4). Several respondents mentioned that gangs are beginning to play a more dominant role in the
UCSE, particularly African American gangs. Otherwise, most cases involved loosely organized pimps, with
the exception of a couple large cases involving escort services, including Asian-run services. Both
prostitution and sex trafficking of adults and children occurs in Denver; however, these trafficking and
prostitution networks are not very organized and structured. When asked to describe Denver’s
underground commercial sex economy, one law enforcement official acknowledged that although the
police department has investigated pimping, they are only recently beginning to understand the scope of
sex trafficking. He believed there are a lot more cases of sex trafficking and prostitution than local and
federal law enforcement partners in Denver have been able to investigate:
I would say that we are only scratching the surface of what is out there. We have seen a
drastic increase pretty much every year since we have at least keyed into it. Denver has
done pimping cases since forever; it is in the statute. But really understanding it and the
human trafficking aspect of it, probably really came around about in 2006. We had a
detective that was very knowledgeable on it and keyed in on it. (Denver Law Enforcement
Official)
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