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 yesterday.
The US District Court indictment, unsealed yesterday, 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, US Attorney for the Southern District of California, said at a press conference to announce the indictments.
