An undercover effort involving police agencies from all along the Gulf Coast that targeted escort service and individuals listed on Craig’s List resulted in the arrest of 17 people.
Undercover operatives contacted services on the list. Police say that all those arrested agreed to sexual acts in exchange for money once they met undercover officers.
Two of those arrested are from the Jackson area and had been on the coast for two weeks. More arrests are anticipated as a result of this operation.
The agencies involved included D’Iberville Police, Biloxi Police, Gulfport Police, Ocean Springs Police, Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Jackson County Narcotics Task Force and Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.
Prostitution has been around for centuries, but as law enforcement steps up efforts to get rid of the age-old sex trade, pimps and prostitutes are finding more sophisticated ways to cash-in.
It’s more than just the internet; they’re now involved in identity theft, robbery and drugs.
Earlier this month, News Channel 12 was invited to follow Hinds County Deputies as they busted a suspected prostitution house in Terry. During the sting, deputies confiscated $16,000 in cash, Valium, steroids and other drugs. The suspected pimp, 54-year-old James Little, is still on the loose. Deputies say he was running a motorcycle repair business as a front.
After decades of undercover stings, Major Nick Clark says prostitutes are turning to more unconventional methods, like the internet.
“They post their pictures, some of them are as explicit as anything I’ve ever seen,“ he said. “Advertising what they do, what they’re willing to do, how much they charge for it.“
Sting targets escort service prostitutes
By Margaret Baker
An undercover investigation targeting prostitutes at South Mississippi businesses providing escort services has resulted in the arrests of nine people, including three men who happened to be in the vicinity of the bust when they were arrested on a misdemeanor drug charge.
Harrison County Sheriff’s Department Lt. Troy Peterson said the undercover sting targeted employees of South Mississippi escort agencies, though he did not want to identify the agencies allegedly involved because of an ongoing investigation. Peterson said the undercover probe was conducted at an undisclosed location.
“We’ve gotten complaints in the past about local prostitution in different areas in Harrison County and decided we were going to target some of the companies,” Peterson said.
Undercover officers arrest 4 at strip clubs Three dancers face solicitation of prostitution charges
An undercover operation at a pair of Jackson strip clubs (Babes and Tiffany’s Cabaret) has led to the arrests of four people, including three dancers accused of offering sexual favors for money.
All three are charged with solicitation of prostitution, Hinds County Sheriff’s Department Chief Deputy Steve Pickett said. The arrests occurred, Pickett said, after the dancers agreed to have sex with undercover deputies in exchange for money.
A manager for the Babes club, however, disputes the accusation , “I was told that the undercover deputies were soliciting sex from all the girls but they all shot them down.”
“What happened was one girl gave one of the guys a fake number just to shut him up, and that’s when she was arrested. No price was ever negotiated.”
He said the club has a strict no-prostitution policy and the dancers know that.
“We run a very clean club,” he said. “We were told that they can’t give out any kind of phone number, even if it’s fake. So we plan to meet with our entertainers and bring them up to speed.”
States demand details from Craigslist on anti-prostitution screening
Attorneys general from seven states are asking online classified site Craigslist for details on how it will keep pornography and prostitution off its newly created adult services section.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal and others are making the request two weeks after Craigslist agreed to eliminate its “erotic services” ads. The Web site came under intense scrutiny after a Boston man was charged with killing a masseuse he met from Craigslist online classifieds.
Craigslist has not prescreened ads in the past, but says postings in its new adult services section are reviewed before being posted.
Blumenthal says attorneys general from Maryland, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Mississippi and New Hampshire signed the request asking Craigslist for more detail on the screening process.
A Craigslist attorney did not immediately return a call.
A look at how the industry is reacting to Craigslist working with law enforcement in its fight against escort services. Read the whole story at InternetNews.com…
Life After Craigslist for Online Sex Trade
By Kenneth Corbin
Craigslist made a splash last month when it announced a set of policy changes aimed at stamping out sex crimes facilitated through the Erotic Services section of its site. But sex workers and legal experts say the measures are likely to have scant impact on the shadowy world of online prostitution.
Following the initial report about the new policies, a reader who identified herself as a “working girl in San Francisco” told InternetNews.com that Craigslist is hardly the only game in town.
“Because of the new procedure on Craigslist, we are turning to other Web sites … to promote our services,” she wrote in an e-mail. “These sites are free and just as effective. I don’t believe that this change in Craigslist will do anything to affect the industry.”
The reader declined to be interviewed further for this report, but people on both sides of the war on prostitution agree that the multiplicity of adult-oriented sites on the Internet has made the policeman’s work considerably more complicated.
“It’s really just a function of today’s digital economy,” said Alex Southwell, an attorney with the law firm Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher and a former federal prosecutor. “The Internet’s ability to make illicit services available is really groundbreaking.”
“It’s a question of convenience,” Southwell told InternetNews.com. “It used to be for prostitution you would have to go to some shady corner of town at night. Now you can do it on the Internet.”
Some interesting analysis on Craigslist’s new found cooperation with law enforcement regarding the erotic services niche. Read the whole story at The Las Vegas Sun…
Hawking erotic services? Craigslist now has your number
By Abigail Goldman
Mahria is a “beautiful blonde” offering “erotic wrestling” for $100.
Dru is charging $80 for an hour of “sensual massage.”
Alicia can be at your door in half an hour.
These advertisements, which come with photos a family newspaper won’t print, are a small sample of what can be found in the “erotic services” section of Craigslist in Las Vegas — an online classified ads Web site that, aside from helping people find roommates or sell old lawn mowers, has become one of the most popular ways for Clark County escorts to peddle their wares to the electronic masses. It’s an Internet buffet of costly companionship, but perhaps not for long.
Just over two weeks ago, Craigslist began charging a fee to advertise on the site’s “erotic services” section. The fee is small — $5 — but the consequences are huge.
The fee must be paid with a credit card, and Craigslist will supply this credit card information to law enforcement officials, should they subpoena it. Erotic services advertisers must also provide a phone number, which an automated system will call before any posting is published online.
In short, Craigslist is working with the police.
Erotic services advertisements in the dozens of American cities Craigslist serves have fallen dramatically since Nov. 6, when the fee took effect, the company’s chief executive, Jim Buckmaster, told the Sun. On Monday in Las Vegas, that meant there were only 362 erotic services ads posted on Craigslist. The Monday before the traceable fees, there were more than 1,100 ads.
Is the party over for working girls on Craigslist? Read the whole story at SFGate.com…
Craigslist to crack down on prostitution ads
Under the watchful eye of law enforcement in 40 states, Craigslist pledged Thursday to crack down on ads for prostitution on its Web sites.
As part of Craigslist’s agreement with attorneys general around the country, anyone who posts an “erotic services” ad will be required to provide a working phone number and pay a fee with a valid credit card. The Web site will provide that information to law enforcement if subpoenaed.
