By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com
Pimps appear to be getting more brazen.
KSAT ABC 12 reports that pimps are luring children and young adults into sex work by working in groups and public events.
“They travel the same way that maybe a band would travel: from city to city. They identify a market which would be very lucrative and they travel together to that city. We do know that they target sporting events, large music events — any attraction that would bring a large congregation of men to a certain area,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Michelle Lee. “They set prices and they work on marketing together. They share intelligence about law enforcement efforts to detect and disrupt they’re activities and they’re becoming very sophisticated.”
The work can be lucrative. The FBI estimates that a pimp will make an average of $67,000 per child.
The brazen efforts by pimps have led to the FBI’s launch of Operation: Cross-country, which empowers authorities to pursue sex traffickers more aggressively.
“Most of the victims are young girls; however, we are seeing a trend for young boys,” Lee said. “We’ve seen victims as young as 9 years old, but we also see a lot who are in their mid-teens and their upper-teens as well.”
