Gang members indicted in online prostitution ring

Yahoo ^ | 4/18/11 | Marty Graham

[NormsRevenge]

SAN DIEGO (Reuters) – Three dozen Crips street gang members and two motel owners have been indicted for running a prostitution ring that targeted underage girls through social networking sites including MySpace, Craigslist, Twitter and Facebook, prosecutors said on Monday.

The U.S. District Court indictment, unsealed on Monday, alleges that several former rival factions of the gang worked together to recruit new prostitutes by targeting underage girls from broken homes.

Writing letters from prison as well as establishing contact using MySpace, Twitter and Facebook, the gang members gained control over the girls and then advertised them using Craigslist and Backpage.com, as well as more traditional methods, according to the indictment.

Adult women were also recruited, abused and traded among pimps, the indictment alleges.

"I regard the kind of prostitution involved in this case, including the trafficking of children via the Internet, social networking sites and local businesses, as a form of modern-day slavery to which every available law enforcement resource will be applied," Laura Duffy, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California, said at a press conference to announce the indictments.

Duffy said investigators had rescued about 30 underage girls from the pimps, who took them on the road to Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Florida, Texas and Michigan and forced them to work.

[blueplum]

girls from broken homes, sure, but let’s also mention the girls kidnapped in Mexico and smuggled into the USA for gang prostitution (not to say any of these particular girls are, but, just sayin’)