By Shirley Hawkins
Contributing Writer
LOS ANGELES — Southern California has become a top destination for human trafficking, making it one of the most lucrative illegal enterprises in the state.
“Prostitution makes more money than drugs,” agreed Sgt. Jeffrey Walker, special victims bureau of the Los Angeles Regional Human Trafficking Task force. “You use the drugs once, but a pimp can use a girl over and over again.”
Hundreds of minors are trafficked daily in Inglewood, Compton, East Los Angeles, South Los Angeles, Hollywood, the San Fernando Valley and Orange County, according to law enforcement officials.
The Los Angeles Police Department Human Trafficking Task Force and 82 other law enforcement agencies conducted Operation Reclaim and Rebuild, a statewide operation Jan. 22-28, where authorities rescued 131 victims of sexual exploitation and arrested 195 people who face a variety of exploitation charges.
According to statistics, gone are the days when pimps and criminals scouted malls and coffee shops for victims.
“Criminals now disguise their identities and log into chat rooms like Instagram, Facebook and other sites where they chat with potential victims who are [usually] teen girls,” Walker said. “Any girl with low self-esteem can become a victim.
“The pimp chats with girls with no father in the home, who have learning disabilities, whose parents are going through a divorce, or who are addicted to substance abuse,” Walker added. “If the girl’s mom was mean to her that day and the girl logs online to express her anger and frustration, the pimp will contact her and pretend to be sympathetic.
“I wish this didn’t happen, but teens frequently post their most deeply held feelings online for everyone to see — and the pimp preys on that. Once they establish an online relationship, the pimp will arrange to meet the teen for a date and works to become her dad/boyfriend.”
Walker said that the pimp then begins the “grooming” process.
“Many are what we call silver-tongued romeo pimps,” Walker said. “He’ll sweet talk the girl and tell her he loves her. He’ll arrange to get the girl’s nails and hair done and tell her how beautiful she looks.”
Once the pimp has established a relationship, they use coercion or force to lure their victims into commercial sexual exploitation, with some victims being as young as 12.
The victims’ photos are posted on various websites to lure customers, or “johns.” The pimp then takes total control over the victim’s life.
“The pimp will control her phone calls and listen closely when she talks to her family,” Walker said. “Eventually, the pimp will cut her off from her family for good.”
“If she threatens to leave, many times the pimp declares he will threaten to kill her family.
“If she wants to [leave], he will demand that she pay him between $1,000 and $3,000,” Walker said. “He tells her she has to work the debt off by earning the money. … But that’s a lie. The pimp never lets go of the girl.”
Walker said that he works with a team of detectives who search for sex trafficking victims to rescue.
“Our job is to meet with these girls and attempt to get criminal convictions against the pimps,” he said.
Unfortunately, he said, many of the girls suffer from what is known as “Stockholm syndrome” where they become sympathetic to their captor.
“Their emotional connection [to the pimp] is so strong, it usually takes some time to deprogram them,” Walker said.
“There’s a sense of trauma bonding going on between the victim and the pimp. He’ll tell them, ‘It’s you and me against the world.’”
Even if the pimp is arrested and appears in court, the victim is often reluctant to press charges.
“If he beats her, she apologizes,” Walker said. “Oftentimes, she feels she made him angry so she deserves the beating.
“Most of the time these girls have been sexually molested,” he added. “When she gets beaten and raped, she feels that is what she deserved. In her mind, when men are hurting you, that is love because that is what they endured as a child.”
Walker recalls one memorable victim several years ago.
“There was a 15-year-old girl who was being trafficked out of a hotel in East Pasadena and her pimp got arrested for a weapons violation,” he said. “Instead of making money to post his bail, the girl went and visited a boyfriend.
“When the pimp got out of jail, he was extremely angry. He and a friend took turns burning the girl with cigarettes and then beating her for six hours until their arms got tired.
“When we arrived, she ran out of the room naked and screaming,” he added.
“Fortunately, we rescued the victim and she was safely returned to her family.”
The LAPD Exploitation and Investigative Section is responsible for the investigation and enforcement of state and federal crimes involving the sexual exploitation of human beings in Los Angeles. Its primary function is the identification and rescue of juvenile victims lured into the sex trade.
Anyone with information on crimes related to human trafficking can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477. Tipsters may also contact Crime Stoppers by logging on to www.lacrimestoppers.org. Tipsters may remain anonymous.