NEWS

Big conventions, like NRA, can draw sex trafficking

Anita Wadhwani
awadhwani@tennessean.com

With the biggest convention ever to hit Nashville — more than 70,000 members of the National Rifle Association are here this weekend for their annual meeting — law enforcement officials have prepared for what some see as the scourge of such large, male-dominated gatherings.

Sex trafficking.

"Whenever you have that sort of traffic through your state, the opportunities for crime go up. People who travel sometimes don't make great choices," said Margie Quin, assistant special agent in charge of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.

Sex trafficking — defined by a commercial sex act that is induced by "force, fraud or coercion" or when a victim is under the age of 18 — is a year-round crisis in Tennessee, according to Quin, who oversees a team of agents that monitors websites and aids local law enforcement.

"Understand with trade shows and sporting events and conventions, people are eating. They're celebrating. They're drinking. They're away from home. And if they're going to make bad decisions, it's going to be away from home.

"All of that is a recipe for increased criminal activity."

Incidents of trafficking at major national political, sporting and other conventions have raised concerns nationally in recent years.

In the days leading up to this year's Super Bowl, law enforcement agencies in 17 states arrested nearly 600 people and rescued 68 victims, include 14 juveniles. Some of the victims told law enforcement they were brought to Arizona specifically to engage in sex for hire with fans of the game.

At the Republican National Convention in Tampa in 2012, anti-trafficking advocates grew alarmed at posts on Craigslist and Backpage — a site notorious for prostitution solicitations — that specifically advertised sexual liaisons to conventioneers.

Advocates in Florida ultimately decided to take pre-emptive action, distributing more than 50,000 bars of soap stamped with the number to the National Trafficking Hotline to area motels along with pictures of missing girls to distribute during the convention.

In Tennessee, law enforcement officials go into "heightened alert" during large scale events, said Quin, who declined to discuss specifics of any groundwork conducted in preparation for the NRA.

"That's not in any way intended to reflect anti-gun or anti-NRA sentiment, but it is an enormous boost in travelers, just as we had for the SEC and the Music City Bowl," Quin said. "And law enforcement does go on heightened alert during these events."

Inside TBI headquarters, agents in the "fusion center" monitor popular websites that advertise trafficking and prostitution.

Last week on Backpage, between 15 and two dozen ads were posted each day under the heading of "Nashville escorts." Several advertised women in town only this weekend.

One ad featured a headline: "New Seductive Girl In town plus A Exotic Kinky Queens" and photographs of two young women naked from the waist up, each covering their breasts with their hands.

While the ad noted "Raquel's" age as 20, and "Fiona" as 21, the photos depict women who could pass for adolescent girls. Adjectives such as "sweet" and "baby" used in the description are often red flags for underage girls, advocates said.

It's an ad that is typical of those that signal possible trafficking, Quin said.

Most of the ads note that men or women will only be in town for a day or two — also a hallmark of trafficking, in which women and girls or boys are moved frequently both to avoid detection by law enforcement and to keep women and girls from being able to escape those forcing them into trafficking.

Some ads are clearly tied to the NRA convention — although it is unclear whether they are soliciting a commercial sex act or hookup.

"Any ladies or couples here for NRA convention want to have some fun? - m4w - 42 (Nashville)" reads one on Craigslist.

"I am a nice looking and fit white male in the downtown area interested in any ladies or couples that are here for the NRA Convention. I am able to host since I am in the downtown area, but willing to come to you as well. We could also meet at one of the music stops on Broadway for a drink to see if there is a connection first. I am open to all ages and races — just be D/D free and clean. I am real — it is a sunny Thursday here in Nashville as the convention gets underway! Reply with 'Downtown Play' so I know you are not spam."

"Welcome NRA members busty blonde companion for discreet encounters," reads another ad on Backpage featuring a woman whose face is hidden in provocative pictures by her hair or a cowboy hat.

Little data exists on the prevalence of trafficking. Law enforcement often fails to categorize prostitutes who are voluntarily committing crimes separately from individuals who are being trafficked, under the duress of handlers. As such, experts say there is little reliable data to prove or disprove that trafficking has spiked during large conventions or sports gatherings — or whether law enforcement's increasing focus on the problem during such events has made it more visible.

In Tennessee, trafficking remains a year-round problem — and tackling it remains a difficult issue.

Two years ago, the legislature enacted a law making the purchaser of sex acts involving a trafficking victim liable under trafficking crimes. Previously only trafficking victims' handlers could be held responsible for trafficking.

In October, Tennessee achieved its first conviction under the new law, convicting a 33-year-old Trenton, Tenn., man who requested a girl "just over 8 not over 16."

Last month, the TBI, Davidson County District Attorney's office and advocates with End Slavery Tennessee, which aids trafficking victims, cooperated in a sting to rescue five women believed to be victims of trafficking who were forced into the sex trade at a Franklin spa.

All five were brought to the offices of End Slavery later that day. Only two of the five said they wanted the agency's help.

The agency aided three of the women who said they wanted to return to China. The three women took a bus to New York City.

Two other women who asked for help disappeared several days later from the motels that advocates had put them up in.

"Our belief is the girls who left came back to get them," said Karen Karpinsky, director of education for End Slavery Tennessee. "We're not always successful. It takes approximately seven times of relapse in order to really reach the point where they want help, they want out. Sometimes we'll work with a girl for two years thinking she's well on her way to recovery and she'll go back. It is very heartbreaking."

Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 or on Twitter @AnitaWadhwani.