Sex Trafficking – It’s Not Just a Campaign
This is a true and tragic story of a teenager who died in a hotel. The names and locations have been changed to protect the victim and her family.
13 years old, living on the streets, you can probably predict her future - at least the next five years of it. She will likely get hooked on heroin or crack, support her new habit with prostitution, add to her habit with some thefts and credit card forgeries. If she makes it past 18, she will become a seasoned veteran of the streets and her pimp (drug supplier) will use her to groom new girls into his stable as he lines his pockets with their souls.
As it happens, Crystal died just after her 16th birthday. She started out as a teenager with some social and learning disabilities, dropped school and entered a new life, hardly looking back. The first year or so, it was not so bad, as far as she was concerned. She smoked pot at the convenience store parking lot with her friends, panhandled, and slept wherever she could. Surprisingly, she kept in phone contact with her mother. Before you pass judgment on mom, put yourself in her shoes. A fifty-year-old woman with very limited means, no spouse or other family structure for support, and ignorant of government services or non-profits that might help. The police are either too busy, or they will consider Crystal a criminal and incarcerate her when she should be picking out prom dresses.
In retrospect, mom would have taken jail over the final outcome, but at the time, she thought keeping in touch and offering a lifeline whenever she needed it, was the best option to keep her daughter alive and out of harm’s way.
A couple weeks before Crystal’s death, Angel was cruising the boulevard in his little sedan, as he often does, making deals and spotting new talent. He is not the stereotypical pimp with the fancy clothes and car, but everyone knows who he is - except Crystal. He has an eye for those that are vulnerable, desperate, or risk-takers. Crystal had great potential in his eyes. Laura, who occupied the passenger seat would later report that she was so high on heroin that she barely remembers the following transaction or the exact date. Angel pulls into the gas station and tells Laura to go offer that girl a ride, pointing to Crystal. We don’t know why she made that fateful decision. It could have been fright, curiosity, physical attraction, hope, or desperation, but she shortly found herself in the backseat taking her first puff of the drug that will later kill her.
Talking as if Laura was not in the car, Angel and Crystal flirt and get acquainted. Crystal, who may have thought she was making new friends and acquiring a support network, finds herself to be the newest apprentice in a criminal enterprise. Angel is a pimp, a drug dealer, and credit card forger. He is very resourceful, has big ambitions, and is building his little empire on the backs of these and other women. Laura is his “Bottom Bitch”. Her job is to train and groom new talent while providing her own revenue stream to Angel. Her paycheck comes in the form of drugs, and angel knows just when and how much to provide to keep her under control. She will never leave him because of the drugs. Never.
Crystal has no idea what is about to happen to her. Angel is methodical and his modus is to find someone that has no ties (young, runaway, vulnerable), get them addicted to the drug of their choice, and then use their body to turn tricks. Sexual favors may be for him, his friends, his suppliers, or plain old Johns that answer ads. He will expect her to develop a clientele of her own and operate autonomously, but under his direction soon enough.
Angel keeps his business under the radar as much as possible. Maybe because he has a wife and kids who are not entirely sure how the bills are getting paid. He is smart enough to know not to sample his own products - drugs or women. This is good business and keeps him out of jail. When he does go to jail, it is to post pail for one of his hookers when they get popped for solicitation, petty theft, drug possession, or even car burglary. This is the price of doing business.
One night, Angel gathers his team. Crystal, Laura, and another girl who is also on fate’s shortlist. He has a buddy in another state who deals in stolen IDs, and he has a “can’t miss scheme”. So, they load up for a road trip. If the girls remain quiet and don’t annoy him, they will have their candy soon enough. He knows how to dispense his prescriptions at the right rate to keep the girls dependent. What are their options? Run away? Go to the police? Call a Hotline? Why would they? Their brains have switched from active, playful humans with a will to survive and succeed, to instinctual survivors who can see nothing beyond their next fix. They don’t need any help or any rescuing. They only need Angel to stay there with them and keep them supplied.
Meanwhile, a few states away, a gang has developed a lucrative enterprise of breaking into cars, stealing purses and distributing the stolen merchandise nationwide. Angel and company meet the buddy and the gang who have been committing the burglaries. Angel is given some samples in the form of a Driver’s License credit card in the same name. Just stolen the previous night, they have not even been reported. Fortunately, the owner of the Driver’s License vaguely matches the description of Laura - except that Laura is about fifteen years older, 20 pounds heavier, and shows signs of degeneration due to prolonged heroin use.
Angel has found a niche. Rather than commit the thefts himself, he can use his girls to steal purses and pass the stolen credit cards. Angel’s scheme is safe – for him. He will never get caught in the act, his hookers will be too strung out to turn him in to the police, and he will have a third income source and unlimited capital. On the drive back home, Angel’s wheels are spinning, and the three women are, well, just spinning.
Angel soon finds that the cards either max out or are declined so he gets help from another buddy to produce cards in the names of the stolen IDS. First step, buy a few credit card numbers on the dark web. Not as hard as it seems. Remember any data leaks from large retailers or hotels where the credit card information was compromised? Well, those card numbers were sold and resold a few times, and after a few years, end up in the hands of a guy from Jamaica who will sell them to you one at a time. It turns out, by the time this all takes place, many of the card numbers have never been used, and some of them never reported stolen. Still, a few others, after months of inactivity were re-used by the banks and issued as a new card. These numbers are good!
Step two is creating a physical credit card and changing the stripe and raised numbers. There are online retailers who sell that equipment, and the blank cards are hanging on kiosks at every grocery store.
Angel’s three business units are inter-dependent. The drugs are sold, of course, but also used to feed the hookers. The hookers make money as you might expect, while being compensated with drugs, and stealing and passing fraudulent credit cards. The credit cards are used to support the business.
All Angel needs now is a base to run this conglomerate. Prostitution is not a home-based business, for obvious reasons. The street corner and car have privacy limitations, so a hotel remains the best option. This is not a new idea; Hotels have been used for criminal activity since they were invented. With a greater national awareness of trafficking, his challenge is to find one where he can conduct business unnoticed.
There are hotels at both extremes on the security scale. A few are diligent in their polices, training and security posture. On the other end of the scale, recent lawsuits have uncovered establishments that had trafficking-friendly procedures, such as charging hourly rates. One was even providing condoms. Angel does not go for these types of hotels. He wants something fairly attractive, but with a staff that looks the other way.
Having been at the game for a while, Angel knows which hotels have lax security and poorly trained employees. He goes directly to a national franchise whose employees and policies are conducive to a criminal element. In particular, he wants a parking lot that has easy access and is unmonitored. Gates, guards and guest restrictions make it difficult for him to be invisible and for him to invite clients to the premises. Lack of access control into the building allows his girls, drug buyers, and clients to visit discretely. From past experience, he knows this front desk asks few questions and ignores procedures that might notice victims of trafficking or suspected criminals.
So, Angel sends Laura inside to check-in while he and Crystal wait in the car. Laura later testified that he made his girls take all the risks and he wanted to remain invisible. Laura, who said she was “strung out” at the time, presents an ID and credit card in the name of a man, but is declined. Not because of the gender, but the card did not have enough money on it. So, she pulls out another card and ID: the ones stolen a couple days prior. Laura goes for the maximum amount and rents two rooms for five days. Despite her unusual behavior, not being aware of the address on the ID, and fumbling with the cards, the transaction goes through. The agent does not ask any profiling questions, nor for a reason Laura needs four keys for each room.
As they proceed to the room via a rear door, Angel is not surprised to find that the card readers and locks on some exterior doors do not work. Other doors have been blocked open with rocks. Over the next few days, Crystal has been confined to her room while Laura and a colleague work on out-calls (visits to Johns away from the hotel). Crystal is introduced to a cocaine/fentanyl combination that enhances the high for less cost. If all goes well for Angel, Crystal will be completely dependent on him in about a week – willing to do whatever necessary to get her fix. It took three days for Crystal to overdose on the drugs she was given. Laura found her dead several hours later, called 911, and fled the hotel.
The police investigated the death as a suicide, so no criminal investigation was done. It was not until a year later when a child advocacy group filed a lawsuit on behalf of Crystal’s mother that the trafficking and burglary rings were uncovered. While the hotel was not the direct cause of Marina’s death, it was proven that their security procedures were ineffective and lead to a climate of drug use, drug sales, prostitution, and other criminal activity. Unfortunately, even the policies set by the parent company of the hotel were not followed. Card readers, locks, and lighting intended to increase safety were not maintained. Preventive maintenance guidelines were not followed. Credit card and check-in procedures were not consistently followed. Although the corporation provided training materials for security and trafficking awareness, there was no follow-up to ensure compliance at this particular property.
In my experience, poor security is less a result of budget and more an indicator of poor management. If money is an incentive, just look at some of the payouts by major corporations and small businesses that have been held responsible for the victimization of our youth. Stronger policies and comprehensive training cost little or nothing. “Please don’t let another mom go through the loss of their child” - Crystal’s mom.
