Nights along a stretch of Dyer Street used to buzz with the clicking of heels and hum of idle engines. Now, they are mostly silent. Technology has transformed the illicit commercial sex trade and the way human traffickers conduct business. The sale of human bodies has migrated from streets and brothels to such websites as Craigslist and backpage. Traffickers have followed the sex industry's digital shift by advertising and recruiting online. The Internet has become the most used platform for "buying and selling women and children for sex in the United States," according to a study by the Polaris Project, a global anti-human trafficking initiative.
A quick Google search yields dozens of daily ads for El Paso escorts offering "casual encounters," "specials" and "ultimate satisfaction. But Gus Correa, supervisor of the Homeland Security Investigation's Anti-Trafficking Coordination Team in El Paso, said the Internet has also become a useful tool for law enforcement efforts to combat the illegal sex market. According to a recent Urban Institute study of the national underground sex trade, 49 percent of pimps said they used online ads to attract customers.
The pimps interviewed for the study said johns who were once wary of the street sex market feel more comfortable being able to anonymously connect with sex workers. And that means higher profits. Correa said escort pages can mask sex trafficking. The flirtatious descriptions and images used in these ads can make it look like a "victimless crime" of consenting adults. The year-old recovering sex-trafficking victim said her trafficker posted ads for her in various cities around the Southwest.
She was rescued in after Albuquerque police responded to one of her Craigslist ads. Victims in one of the area's most recent sex-trafficking cases share similar stories. The gang allegedly used backpage.
James Belknap of the El Paso County Sheriff's Office said that online ads make trafficking rings easier to identify and investigate. Grant said traffickers are aware of this, and move victims from city to city in order to minimize their risk of being caught. Like local victims, Grant was moved often during the six months she was trafficked. Another recovering victim said she, too, was trafficked through ads and hotel rooms across the country. They help transport girls.
