Beyond The Horizon
ICYMI: How Nevada Became A Hub For Human Trafficking
Nevada, particularly Las Vegas, serves as a significant hub for human trafficking due to several factors. The state's thriving tourism industry, large events, and the presence of legalized prostitution in nearby areas create environments where traffickers can operate more easily. Las Vegas, known for its bustling nightlife and large conventions, attracts both traffickers and potential victims, making it a hotspot for such illicit activities.
In 2024, Nevada had one of the highest rates of human trafficking in the United States. Reports indicate a substantial number of trafficking cases involving both sex and labor trafficking. The National Human Trafficking Hotline received numerous signals from Nevada, reflecting the ongoing issue. Key venues for sex trafficking include hotels, motels, illicit massage businesses, and online platforms. Labor trafficking is also present, albeit to a lesser extent, in areas such as domestic work and agriculture.
Efforts to combat human trafficking in Nevada involve coordinated actions by local law enforcement, non-governmental organizations, and federal agencies. Initiatives include raising awareness, providing support to victims, and strengthening legal frameworks to prosecute traffickers effectively. The Nevada Human Trafficking Coalition, established to enhance these efforts, continues to work towards reducing the prevalence of trafficking and supporting survivors.
(commercial at 30:24)
To contact me:
Bobbycapucci@protonmail.com
Source:
https://sierranevadaally.org/2021/01/21/nevadas-illegal-sex-industry-is-the-nations-largest-and-a-hub-for-sex-trafficking/
- Duration:
- 1h 4m
- Broadcast on:
- 15 Jul 2024
- Audio Format:
- mp3
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Hello everyone and welcome to the Jeffrey Epstein Show. I'm your host, Bobby Kapucci, and this is a morning update. During the live stream last week, we were talking a little bit about trafficking in the states, meaning the various states, as in, you know, Nevada or New Mexico or New York, whatever. And I was talking about how Nevada is one of the worst when it comes to human trafficking and how it is really, really a dangerous place for women who are working in the sex trade. And now, remember, Nevada has 19 legal brothels as well. And you would think that with the legal brothels, it would afford these gals a bit more safety, a bit more of a safe environment to ply their trade, as opposed to out on the streets. But like with everything else, there are so many loopholes within the law that it's exploited and the brothels are used to traffic these girls as well. Not anywhere near the extent as it happens illegally in Nevada, mind you, but if we're going to have prostitution legal in Nevada, then I think it needs to be probably the most regulated industry going. We're talking about actual human lives here, right? And if there's an issue, which according to several people and reporters, there is of the brothels being used as a place to traffic these girls, then they're going to have to face the music. And if that means more regulation, then so be it. I would think that the state of Nevada would have this so squeaky clean, clean as far as from a law enforcement perspective that you wouldn't be able to find anything wrong with what's going on up there from a legal standpoint. But no, Nevada continues to show itself as a lawless state, a state that is completely governed and run by morons. And the law enforcement in the state is just not up to par. I don't know if it's funding. I don't know if it's training. I don't know what it is, but they're not equipped to deal with this. The Super Bowl in Nevada, there is so many, let us say, women of the night working up on the strip when the Super Bowl is here that you literally can't walk a hundred feet without being propositioned. And there, I would say a good majority of those women who are working out there on the streets are not independently doing so. I would say most of them, if not all of them almost had some sort of person that they had to kick money up to some sort of pimp, someone else who controls their life. And I always knew that there was a CD underbelly going on, right? And I always knew that there was an issue, but I never really understood the scope, even working in the middle of it when I worked at the hard rock. I can't tell you how many times I would be walking out of work and I would get approached by a lady and she would ask me, "Hey, baby, you want a date?" And the first, you know, when I was young, I started working there when I was 19. I didn't even know what she was talking about, you know, the first time I was propositioned like that, I was like a date, nah, I have a girlfriend." And she was like, "No, that's not what I mean." So, you know, I was around it all the time and I never even understood just how much of a problem it really was. And I always thought that, you know, the brothels were a place where it would be highly regulated and the girls could at least find some safety there as opposed to working on the streets, right? And dealing with people like the Long Island serial killer or, you know, the West Mesa bone collector or Gary Ridgeway, you know, if you're going to choose to be involved in that life and let me put a focus on the word "choose," right? Then it should be an environment that's safe. But a lot of these women and a lot of these girls don't choose this life. And it looks like these brothels, some of them anyway, have been used as transition points for these girls or for a way for these girls to go and make more money for their pimps. And I think that the state of Nevada where I live certainly needs to address this. I will be definitely writing to my congresspeople, my senators, and even speaking with, you know, local city councilmen, because this is something that is very, very much a black eye. You know, if you're going to have brothels and you're going to have prostitution that's legal, then you have to make sure it is squeaky clean. And you have to address it with as much vigor and as much gusto as you do the gaming industry at the very least, you know, they have the gaming board and those people, they're always up your booty hole if you're involved in gambling, right? So why not the same gusto of the same zeal? And I hope that moving forward with the environment that we're currently in, or supposedly in anyway, that the lawmakers would look to, you know, make sure that these people that are owning these brothels or running these brothels are following all of the laws. And if they're not, they get shut down and they get sent to prison. No fines. All you got to do is send one of them to prison for one time for trafficking. And that should send the message. Let's jump into this article from Sierra Nevada ally.org and see what the author Brian Bajuth has to say about the trafficking situation in Nevada. Headline, Nevada's illegal sex industry is the nation's largest and the hub for sex trafficking. That's jaw dropping shit to me right there. I have a lot of females I care about, a lot of family members and friends and friends who have daughters. And to know that I live in the nation's largest and the biggest hub for sex trafficking is just jaw dropping. It's embarrassing too. If you're listening to this show right now and you're in Nevada, Las Vegas, Reno, wherever you may be, I really hope that you keep this in mind when you're voting, right? Let's make sure we vote in good people, people who get it. I'm not here to say that this industry should be shut down. That's not my place. All right. What I am saying though, is if it's going to be an operation that it needs to be regulated correctly and there needs to be a ton more resources dumped into the Las Vegas metropolitan police, their vice unit and their human trafficking division because folks, Nevada, yo, we got a problem. A patchwork of municipalities in seven of Nevada's 17 counties are the only places in the nation where selling sex for money is legal. Now when you drive from Las Vegas up to like Reno or anywhere north, you run into a bunch of these brothels and you drive by them. It's always surreal for me when we're driving by. I always feel like I'm in like the, the old west, right? Like deadwood or some shit. It's just crazy to me that there, that there's legalized prostitution. The only place in America and it's a few hour drive from my, my house and obviously it's not being regulated correctly enough. Another thing that I've missed as I've been so focused on other things. Nevada has a total of 19 brothels as of this writing, but the state's legal brothels are tiny by contrast to a much larger, larger illegal sex industry by one estimate, the nation's largest. And that's really what I'm focused on, right? I mean, the brothels are one thing and it's an embarrassment if they're not regulated correctly. 100%. But this street trafficking, this level, this level of street trafficking we see in Nevada and the abuse that you see these girls go through. I mean, there's a street called Boulder Highway in Las Vegas, probably about, I'd say five and a half miles from Las Vegas Boulevard. And all you have to do is drive down. It started, say, oh, I don't know, Sahara and Boulder Highway and drive all the way down past Tropicana to about Russell. And it looks like the walking dead. Mips everywhere, John's cruising, ladies of the night. And all of that is so highly, highly unsafe for these women. I mean, how many of them end up disappearing without anybody knowing? The only resource you really have is like namis and the police, you know, their resources obviously are their ear to the street and sources and other people that these missing women might have hooked with or whatever. But how many of them slip through the cracks? How many of them go missing? And how many of them fall prey to sick, sick, violent criminals that are still walking around amongst us? I mean, look how long Gary Ridgeway operated up in the Washington area, 20 years or so, the Green River Killer, going down to the sea tack, picking up hookers and then murdering them and burying them or throwing them in the river or what have you. And then coming back to do disgusting deeds with their bodies once again after they've decayed and decomposed, how many other six sons of bitches are running around like that right now as we speak? I would say a lot, folks. Brothels are not legal in Washoe and Clark County's, home to the state's largest population centers. Reno Sparks and Las Vegas respectively. Now that's one thing people always get confused. They think that prostitution is legal in Nevada. It is not legal in Nevada. I mean in Las Vegas, it is Clark County. So you can drive an hour away up to Parump and it's legal there. But in Las Vegas itself, in Clark County, the city of Las Vegas, the surrounding area, prostitution is not legal. So if you're coming here and you think that you're going to the Las Vegas Boulevard, the strip and picking up a prostitute is legal and you won't get in trouble, you're wrong. That shit is not legal. I would not be engaging in that if I were you. And it's a, not only dangerous for the women, I have heard countless stories of, of John's getting rolled by pimps and others who set up robberies via hooking up with a prostitute, et cetera. So if you think you're coming to Vegas and it's a good idea to do that kind of stuff, not a good idea, do not engage in it. It will not end well for you most times. When she was 17, Becca Charleston ran away from home in Texas, a trafficker sold her into servitude in a Nevada brothel. She's Charleston said she was held in virtual captivity in a legal Nevada brothel, regularly raped and forced through violence and other abuse to perform sex acts for money. Now my guess is that she was sent to the brothel and like I was talking about, the brothel was used as quote, unquote, the middle man, right, a place for her to go and make money where the pimp knew that she was going to end up turning tricks and bringing that money home to him. Now how, how is there a way to make sure that the women who are working in these brothels are doing it of their own accord and not being forced to do so? I guess that's the tricky question and the question that's certainly above my pay grade. I think it's, you know, it's a very fine line to walk. There certainly are women out there who have chosen this as their profession, just like with pornography and other things for sure. So I don't, you know, I'm not qualified to make them kind of decisions for sure. But I will tell you this, something must be done because it's obvious that this kind of thing happens, how many of these girls that are being trafficked have been groomed by their pimps or have been molded into a person who is very easy to control and who easily gives up their money to, to the pimp after being forced into sex work. It's human conditioning and we see it with street girls all the time. And you know, it's thinking about it now. It's rather obvious that they would exploit legal brothels as well. There's a lot of money to be made there. And wherever there's a lot of money to be made, you can guarantee scumbags are going to be at the trough. There's this idea that somehow by legalizing it and kind of quarantining it within these brothels that it makes it safe and healthy Charleston said during a webinar in November 2020 sponsored by the National Center on sexual exploitation NCO NCO SE well I was actually trafficked through the legal system. My trafficker would use the brothels as a form of punishment. Wow, wow, wow, wow. All of this needs to be evaluated. And this is all something that needs to be looked at because I'll tell you what as if it's not bad enough, right? You're getting treated like absolute garbage on the street by your pimp. And then you think, well, I'm going to go and try and do it legally. And still you get treated like trash. Now again, I'm not saying that this is part and parcel for every brothel. I don't know. I haven't done the research enough to to dig in. But what I will tell you is this. They should not be used as a middleman ever for an underage girl. There needs to be stringent procedures in place and regulations when it comes to this sort of work. If a woman, an adult woman decides this is the sort of work she wants to do. Hey, who am I to tell anyone how to live their life? You all know that that's certainly not me. But at the same time, we have to find a balance where we're protecting those who are not choosing this life and who are being forced into a life of modern day servitude. If you weren't making enough money, if you were getting arrested too often, he would send you to the brothels because then he had other pimps watching over you and he knew that you'd be forced to get off your butt and make money because the brothels aren't going to let you sit around and say no all the time. And what would happen, my guess would be, is they'd be forced to do it. If they didn't make the money at the brothel, they'd come home and the pimp would beat the crap out of them. So they were forced to sell their bodies in this brothel, one of these brothels that are supposedly a legal place for this trade to be applied. But at the same time, these girls are being trafficked through their, it is very disgusting to think that some street pimp would send one of his street girls to a brothel as punishment. Let that sink in, folks. And I think that alone right there tells you that the industry is something that needs further look. Angela Delgado Williams was trafficked from Texas to work for a Las Vegas Escort Bureau. Delgado Williams said sex consumers usually don't know the difference between a legal and an illegal business. This is what I was just talking about, I would get that question a lot at work. They'd be like, hey man, we hear prostitution is legal here. Where can we go? I'd be like, you guys, it's not legal here, don't be ordering them girls from those ads if you don't, if you want to stay out of prison and there's only two counties in the state where it's actually legal. People come to Vegas and they assume that you can just pretty much do whatever you want in this place. And that certainly is not the case. The irony is, there's so many similarities from the legal prostitution and the illegal pimp and hoe subculture or what they've normalized in the city of Las Vegas. Delgado Williams said during an online webinar in November 2020, there's so many similarities to the legal, licensed, owned and operated escort services to the legal brothels. That's for sure. When it comes to the escort services, they are everywhere in Las Vegas, the advertisement for them anyway. You can't walk down Las Vegas Boulevard without being absolutely bombarded with people trying to give you a card or offer you a ride to this strip club or that strip club. It's an insane amount of literature that they hand out trying to get you to go to these places or to order a girl up to your room or whatever, whatever you want basically. And the authorities for the most part, when it comes to that kind of stuff, the escort business, they look the other way. Now they'll go after street girls, right? I've seen them go after a ton of street girls, but the escort situation, unless they get caught up in a sting for the most part, eh. So they're making loopholes and allowing escort services to pay taxes and get licenses and buy a business license to sell women. And it's understood, when the women go to get hired into these escort services, that they're going to go to a hotel room and service a sex buyer. Yeah, that's what it is. Look, we all know the cover story is, oh, I'm being paid for my time. We know that's not the case, especially with high-end escorts, right? People are paying big money for this stuff. They're not paying for their time. They're paying because they have carnal desires that need to be satiated. That is what they're paying for. So brothels, much of the justification for the legal sex industry in Nevada is that state and local laws protect sex workers. So far, so good, right? That's if you're going to work in the sex work field, I think it should be regulated and stuff. I think it's a good idea. Look, I'm not naive enough to think that we're going to stop this kind of thing, just like with drugs. So we have to find a way to regulate it and make it as safe as possible for the people who are participating in it. Brothel employees must register with local police and submit to weekly tests for gonorrhea and chlamydia and once a month for HIV and syphilis. Okay, definitely another good thing. The health of these girls is paramount. Well just because they want to be sex workers, they shouldn't be taken care of or well thought of. I think that's ridiculous. So I think if this is also a very good thing, tests for disease to make sure people are healthy, you haven't lost me yet guys. Let's continue. Condoms are mandatory for all sexual contact. Legal sex workers have emergency buttons that some insecurity if needed. Access to legal brothels is highly restricted. Again, this is a good thing in the framework of it, right? If you're going to work in that industry, it should be regulated and you should be protected from pimps, anyone else, and mind you, that money or a great majority of it besides whatever fees you pay for using the brothel, that money should all go to the person who is working in the brothel. Not some dirt bag pimp who's beating the shit out of them, making them go to sell their body and then taking all of their money. And again, I think it's naive for us to think that prostitution is ever going away. It's not. It's what what do they say? It's the oldest profession there is, right? So just like with with drugs, I think that we have to try and regulate this somehow, try and make it as safe as possible for the people who are participating in it. Now, of course, you can't regulate anything and make it completely safe 100% safe. This is a risky behavior and sometimes there are pitfalls that come along with that, but those pitfalls shouldn't be getting beat by your john or being owned by some pimp. Jennifer Barnes is a madam at the Mustang ranch in Story County and has worked in Nevada's legal sex industry for 27 years. Barnes says that because brothels are closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the state is forcing sex workers out of the legal setting and into an unregulated illegal industry. Few dispute that the illegal sex trade is inherently dangerous. I agree, but what are you going to do? That's a very close contact industry, right? And with the the coronavirus pandemic raging, I don't know how a brothel would even think that they're going to stay in operation. Then again, you know what people have an itch that needs to be scratched. And even during a pandemic, I am sure that there are people who are engaging in such activities. So I don't know, like these girls who worked at these these brothels now, they have to work. So are they now engaging in very risky behavior and selling their bodies on the street to a potential Gary Ridgeway or Ted Bundy or Long Island serial killer or insert psychopath here? It's really a fine line. For Barnes, the closure of legal brothels affords a glimpse of what a brothel band would look like. She told the stories of women who worked at the Mustang ranch, but left Nevada to work as escorts in other states when the brothel closed due to COVID-19 concerns. You know, I guess I never really thought about it. People got to work, right? And the band plays on. As sad and depressing as it sounds, the band plays on. They make a ton of money. They're not going to go work at Walmart. Out on a date, she knew something wasn't right. She was able to call 911, Barnes said of a former Mustang ranch worker now in Los Angeles. But this guy bit her face off. He bit her nose off all the way to the right of her face, bit her cheek on the right side and ripped it all the way to the left. I mean, geez, what is wrong with people? Like, I know I say that a lot and I just I don't know what to say about society in general. Everyone's just like, all screwed up. It would seem like now, like no empathy, no compassion. People are just straight up crazy. And I can't even imagine being a prostitute on the street dealing with this kind of stuff on a regular basis. I mean, not only you have to worry about the sick bastards that are picking you up, but you got to worry about your pimp or whoever is running you on the street. No wonder most of these girls become drug addicts and lose their lives at such a young age. There has to be something there to help people, man. We have to give people some hope somehow. And I think hope starts with opportunity. I would really love to see more opportunity in poor neighborhoods. And when I say poor neighborhoods, I'm not saying just for one certain group of people, poor in general, poor is poor to me. And until we start affording opportunity to the poorest amongst us and at least giving people a little bit of damn hope, then we're just going to see more and more people slip into stuff like prostitution and drugs and using their body to get by. Because when people lose it, folks, when when they, when they lose everything, they lose it, right? And it's sad to see so many people slip into a life like this because they have no other options. Now don't get me wrong. There are certain people in this, in this game high-end escorts who are making dough, big dough, and they choose to be there. They choose to do this that that those aren't the people I'm talking about. I'm talking about the people who have been forced into this life one way or the other. Either by hook or crook, circumstance or choice. I think some opportunity and some hope needs to be given to people like this somehow, some way. Again, I don't have all of those answers and I'll never make pretend I do. But unless we start talking about the issues, we're never going to find out how to fix it. And then in Arizona, I have two other ladies that thought, "Oh, we'll do the buddy system and we'll be safe." Hell no, they were raped, they were robbed, they were pistol whipped, tied with cords. I mean, we're really doing a disservice to our ladies that choose to do this industry legally. Look, I agree with her, honestly. I think that for those women who choose to do this of their own accord, I think that nobody should tell people what they should do with their lives, right? If this is regulated and the state of Nevada has said that this is something that is legal, then we have to make sure that these people are safeguarded at all times when they're conducting this sort of risky behavior. Barnes is angry that massage parlors and other high contact businesses like tattoo parlors and hair salons are allowed to operate and brothels remain closed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. Barnes said she has never encountered a traffic person working in the legal setting. She said that every worker must submit to an FBI background check and scoffed at the notion of a traffic person being hidden in a legal brothel. See, I would like to think that that's the case, right? That there are the safeguards are all there and there's no wiggle room, but we know that people are gray characters and we know that human beings are scummy. And if there's a way to profit by moving a trafficked woman through a brothel, then you better believe that somebody will find a way to use that and make a couple of bucks. So while Miss Barnes might have not have ever run into any trafficked girls out of brothel, that does not mean that they don't exist. Why don't they go to the massage parlors where they know women are being trafficked? I mean, that pisses me off, Barnes said with some exasperation. It makes me so angry because the government is fixated on our legal industry rather than going out and helping the women that are being trafficked, that are being abused, that are working in underground massage parlors. I agree with that 100%. There needs to be a huge crackdown on those massage parlors and I'm talking about here in Las Vegas, folks. I can't talk about elsewhere, right? Like I always say, I'm going to clean up my backyard before I look in my neighbors and start complaining. So now that this has come to light for me and I've been doing this research lately the last few days and digging into the trafficking issue here in Nevada, well, I'll tell you what, these massage parlors definitely need to be looked at and they need to be looked at harshly. What about the police? In an effort to stymie the sex trade, doing business as massage parlors on February 26, 2020, the Reno City Council passed an ordinance that changed the business licensing requirements for massage parlors within city limits. We all have somewhere we're trying to get to. As the largest energy producer in Colorado, Chevron is working to responsibly meet rising energy demand so everyone can get to where they want to be. You've arrived. That's energy and progress. Visit chevron.com/tankless. Hey guys, it is Ryan, I'm not sure if you know this about me, but I'm a bit of a fun fanatic when I can. I like to work, but I like fun too. And now I can tell you about my favorite place to have fun. Shumbah Casino. They have hundreds of social casino style games to choose from with new games released each week. You can play for free and each day brings a new chance to collect daily bonuses. So join me in the fun. Sign up now at chumbahcassino.com. Sponsored by Chumbah Casino, no purchase necessary, VGW group, void were prohibited by law 18 plus terms and conditions apply. The terms massage parlor and massage therapist are not the same. Massage therapists are trained and licensed therapists who provide a service with no sexual component. And you know, words do matter. So it's nice to see them being proactive up in Reno and passing this law, but I'd sure like to see some stuff like this passed in Nevada. We have massage parlors everywhere. I mean, in Las Vegas, I mean everywhere. Within a five mile radius, you can drive around and see three or four of them. No joke. And the women that are in there. How many of those women are trafficked from some poor country? How many of those women come from terrible circumstances and all they wanted to do was leave their country and come to America and some jerk off says to them, Oh, yeah, we'll get you to America. Don't worry. What you have to do is work off your fee that it's going to cost us to ship you there. Meanwhile, they don't understand that that that fee is about, who knows, 25, 30 grand, whatever it is. And now they're making two cents a day. So they're in servitude, right? They might as well be serfs. And that's what these scumbags do. That's what what's going on in these massage parlors, these, these gross ass places that people like so-called member of elite society, Bob craft likes hanging out in a massage parlor will likely not have a certified massage therapist. They may offer table showers and other potentially sexual services that lead to a happy ending massage. I mean, really a happy ending massage. What year is this? Let me give you guys all a little bit of advice. Okay. Let's stay home. Don't go get the happy ending massage. Don't go to the massage parlor. Go to a massage therapist. Okay. One thing we should have learned with the Jeffrey Epstein case and massages is if you're not going to a place of repute, what are you doing? Reno's new licensing requirements include a federal background check for massage parlor owners around the clock operations are prohibited. No tinted exterior windows are allowed and no ATM machines can be on site. Well, okay. I don't know. That's kind of ridiculous. I mean, okay, I'll be right back. I'm going to run to the corner store and go to the ATM. So I don't know what that's going to stop, but I like that the windows can't be tinted. Good idea. Let's show a little bit of light into that darkness and it's great that there's a background check for the owner, what about the employees? The cities of Reno and Las Vegas grant licenses to escort and outcall services. Both cities have licensing stipulations that prohibit sexual commerce as part of companionship or massage services. Business owners must pass a background check. Oh, yeah, you know, it's a stipulation and it prohibits you from having sexual commerce as part of the companionship or massage service. Yeah. Okay. Cause that's exactly what's happening. That's what people are doing at the Rub and Tug. They're going there for a world class massage. What you're calling an escort because you just have, we just want somebody to talk to. These politicians, the city council and the rest of the corrupt bastards, especially here in the state of Nevada, are some of the most disgusting grifters in the history of the world, as part of that. Right now companionship customers in Las Vegas or Reno can choose among body types, hair colors, bust sizes and ethnicity. Many of the images are explicitly sexual and implication. Using sexually suggestive advertising to market escort services is prohibited in Las Vegas. When I was growing up, it was not. You should have seen the literature that they would hand out to you on the strip. Like I was talking about a minute ago, they would hand out all sorts of pamphlets. If you just looked 18, me and my boys used to get a kick out of it when we were little kids, right? 16, 17 running around the strip. You be inundated with this stuff growing up in Las Vegas, boy, I'll tell you what, you were desensitized to a lot. Because Vegas is not an easy place to live, not an easy place to grow up. Nevada, Vegas, this place will chew you up and spit you right out without second thought. In a brief email response, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said they are not ignoring the problem and are working to enforce the law and thwart traffickers. All right, well, I'll give them that, right? I don't know one way or the other if they're not. I haven't dug that deep yet. But what I will say is this, I would love to see them go after the actual people putting this stuff into play as opposed to just going after the street level participants like the Johns and the ladies who are engaging in this behavior. How about the brothels? How about the massage parlors and the pimps? Let's get to the root of the problem. The Constitution is illegal in Clark County, and the LVMPD vice section investigates all prostitution and pandering related crimes, wrote an unidentified Metro spokesperson. These investigations include sex trafficking, human trafficking, and vice detectives work seven days a week in both investigative and enforcement capacities. LVMPD vice operations occur within the tourist corridors and other problem areas throughout the Las Vegas Valley. Vice detectives conduct various proactive operations to combat prostitution and the crime associated with it. In other words, they conduct a bunch of sting operations. Once again, if you're coming to Las Vegas and you think prostitution is legal, it is not. You don't want to end up on one of these shows, right? You don't want your boy Bobby to end up seeing you on a Chris Hanson episode or some shit. Don't do it. The Human Exploitation and Trafficking Team In January 2020, the Reno Police Chief, Sparks Police Chief, and the Washall County Sheriff formed a Human Exploitation and Trafficking Team. That's great. See, I live in South Nevada, so I live in Las Vegas, and I never heard anything about this exploitation and trafficking team until just now reading this article. Why isn't Las Vegas involved in that? I'll tell you why. Straight up, this place has corrupt as hell, folks. Absolutely corrupt. I'm talking Tammany Hall corrupt. Money rules the day. Relationships. Who do you know? That is what makes things move in Las Vegas. Sergeant Scott Smith supervises the team of four detectives, and according to Smith, they take a victim-centered approach. Their top priority is to find victims and, with the assistance of community service providers, help them get out from under what amounts to modern day slavery. This is great stuff. I'm going to have to send an email up to these guys and see if they'd like to comment about the situation so I could bring that news to you, folks, because we need more of this proactive police work, right? Coming up with new ideas, different task force, and they have to go out and they have to engage with the girls, right? And make them know, look, while we might be the, quote, unquote, guys who have to arrest you and put you in jail, we're also here for your well-being, and we want you to be able to talk to us if something goes south. And that's why if I was one of these cops, I wouldn't arrest these girls ever for drugs. And they don't trust you, they don't come and talk to you, they feel like they're going to go to jail and get out and their pimp's going to beat them. So you have to find a happy balance, I think, as a law enforcement officer. And now, obviously, I've never worn a badge. So this is just me speaking from maybe a very, a spot of ignorance because I've never done the job. But I know that it does not work right if these people feel like you're not going to help them and you're only there to enforce whatever ridiculous law that is put on the books. These guys that are trafficking these girls, they're controlling every aspect of their life, Smith said by phone, they're very manipulative, manipulative. They're controlling when they eat, when they sleep, and they have their quotas where they are sending these girls out to do these dates with these johns. If you don't provide that quota, then they're beating them and mistreating them and everything else. And we have to prove that. And a lot of times it's hard to prove that because the girls won't rat out on their pimps because the grooming process has been so heavy for so long. So that's another reason why it's crucial that these officers build a relationship in a row poor with these women who are working the night. If I was a vice officer and you know what, another thing that we might even think about doing is hiring some sort of actual social workers to deal with these sorts of situations within vice, give these women someone to talk to so they don't feel like they're going to go to a prison or go to jail or get beat. We need to have more resources. That's what it comes down to. To truly combat the problem, traffickers must not only be arrested, but successfully prosecuted. Detectives gather evidence and then work with the Washout County District Attorney's Office throughout the prosecution and on into the sentencing. Yeah, that's a good thing. Right. That's how it works. Police do police work and then the prosecutors prosecute it. The unit launched in January 2020. The pandemic slowed early activity, but since fully organizing, the team has arrested 66 individuals for sex trafficking and with those arrests came over 200 felony charges. That's great news. Just a drop in the bucket, right? But still that's 200 scumbags and hopefully with that on the record, if they get caught doing it again, real jail time comes with it. During the same timeframe, the unit provided services for 55 victims. That includes temporary housing, food, clothing, vocational training, and job placement. This is huge, folks. This is in this terrible article. This is uplifting. This is when I say to myself, all right, hope is not all lost, not all of the authorities or scuzz bag pieces of crap. And this unit certainly seems like they're on the right track. We need more of this. And I would suggest everybody, if you're writing your letters to congressmen or senators or anything like that, that you, you bring this kind of stuff up to a task force that is not just about arresting these girls and sting operations, but about building a rapport and helping them get out of the circumstance that they find themselves in. At the intersection of U.S. 395 and I-80, Reno is a city on the sex trafficking circuit of Las Vegas, Sacramento, and Los Angeles, Smith explained. With four detectives in the year old group, the problem is ongoing. For a small unit, trying to solve a big problem, Smith said, all but unseen to the public, human trafficking, trafficking is a reality in Nevada. Smith said community education and involvement is essential. For sure, I've been very upfront that I didn't pay enough attention to any of this. Right there staring me in the face every day for over 16 years while I worked on the strip or close to the strip. When I just paid no attention business as usual Bobby, stay in your cloud you dumbass hole, keep being part of the problem. We've gone out and talked to the principals and vice principals at the high schools. We're trying to get word out to our educators. We're teaching our law enforcement agencies. We're going out to the hospitals and talking with the nurses because they will run across victims themselves coming into the ER, Smith said. Again, it's all about relationships and building relationships in a real poor with these girls who have been abused or boys who have been abused by the way. How many, you know, we haven't even touched on that around these parts. I'm going to get to that at some point around here about the, the, the, the disgusting abuse of young boys and men as well. This is all absolutely, positively disgusting and there needs to be a relationship built with the people on the street and at least a portion of the, the society. If it's not the police, then it has to be someone else. But we have to do something ignoring the problem is not going to make it go away. We try that with the, with, with other things, right? And how has that worked out for us? We have to meet these problems head on and we have to come to some sort of decision where we're taking decisive action recruitment. Sergeant Smith said many traffic people are runaways though they come from both stable and unstable families. We emphasize that traffickers are a highly, highly good at manipulating and controlling. They'll give the juvenile that attention that they're not getting somewhere else. And that's how they kind of lure them in. I'll buy you nice things, I'll take care of you and then it's kind of lures them in. And once they have them on the hook, it turns into, well, if you do this day for me, we just need some money and it keeps kind of spiraling from there. Boy, doesn't that sound familiar? Where have we talked about that on a regular basis in our examination of the Jeffrey Epstein case? Because you know what? When it comes down to it folks and you break down the facade and you get rid of all the money, all Jeffrey Epstein wanted to be and all Jeffrey Epstein was was a human trafficker. Your basic ass, run of the mill, garbage ass human trafficker. I'm Victoria Cash. Thanks for calling the Lucky Land Hotline. If you feel like you do the same thing every day, press 1. If you're ready to have some serious fun, for the chance to redeem some serious prizes, press 2. We heard you loud and clear, so go to luckylandslots.com right now and play over a hundred social casino style games for free. Get lucky today. At luckylandslots.com. Available to players in the US, excluding Washington and again, no purchase necessary, either by law 18 plus turn conditions apply. Lisa Thompson is director of the Research Institute on the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. Thompson said that the illegal sex trade focuses on those who are vulnerable, immigrants, people in poverty, young people in our foster care system, and people with disabilities. The people who are operating, maintaining, profiting off the sex industry are all too ready to take advantage of that vulnerability, she said. How many times have we discussed that here? How many times have we talked about the people that Jeffrey Epstein would target and coming from broken homes and disadvantaged backgrounds? That is a common theme with human trafficking and with monsters like this. The foster care system. Just on interviews with those who have been rescued from sexual slavery by advocates and law enforcement, the foster care system is a major pipeline that supplies vulnerable young people to the sex trade for sure 100%. How many horror stories have we heard about people getting sucked up into human trafficking via the foster care system? Why isn't that something we're discussing more deeply fixing it? Is that really too difficult to provide a nice safe place for the children of America who are already up against it? The richest nation in the world, $23 trillion in GDP, and we can't have foster homes at least be a safe space for these children. It's time to get our heads out of the sand and it's time to focus on what's important. We think it's incredibly important that we focus efforts on foster care reform, Thompson said. That would be a really important change. They get exploited in the sex trade. They're victims. They age out of foster care and they continue in the sex trade. And then you know it's like, "Oh, you're just a sex worker. That's the attitude that society has." It's been a well-known pipeline of foster care being a major supplier, a major conduit of those who make up folks in the sex trade. One hundred thousand percent. It needs to be fixed. Sugar dating. Seeking arrangement is a site that entices college age women to date for money. Thompson says so-called sugar dating is an ugly symptom of misplaced societal priorities. More and more young people are especially like young women, and their earlier late teens, early twenties, are getting caught up in this sex trade, particularly through these websites like Seeking arrangement, which make it seem like this is a great way to make some money and pay for college. But to me, this is a real indictment on our country. If we're telling young girls, "We're not going to invest in you. We don't believe in you," the way for you to just get through college is the prostitute yourself. Yeah, it's pretty gross. No doubt about it. If I had a daughter, I would be definitely preaching the pitfalls of this kind of life and getting caught up in this whole entire idolization of society and the farming of likes and doing what society thinks you should do. It's really a dangerous situation. I can't even imagine being a parent. Is that really the best America can offer its young women, is prostitution way through college? This is the message that's become so normalized, and I think people would be really staggered if they talk to the young people in their lives who are in college and just ask them. How many friends do you have who are engaging in online prostitution? And I think you would be blown away by the answers that they get. Wow. Look, I don't know anyone in college anymore really, but I'm sure that it is something that is occurring quite a bit, especially here in Nevada, here in Las Vegas. Everything is glitz and glam and keeping up with the Joneses and having the nicest stuff and the most designer gear, the freshest car, the dopest gear, the, I mean, you got to have it. All the bling, all the ice. And people get caught up in that shit, especially people who are not from here originally. The lawsuit. Do Nevada's legal brothels help create the context for the nation's largest illegal sex industry? Becca Charleston and Angela Delgado Williams were plaintiffs in a lawsuit brought against the state of Nevada, the governor, and the Nevada legislature. The governor is named in his official capacity only. The complaint filed in March 2019 in the U.S. District Court of Nevada requested that the state declare the laws that legalize brothels be deemed null and void along with the county codes that enable legal prostitution in elko, lander, lion, mineral, nigh, story, and white pine counties. The complaint claimed that the plaintiffs were directly impacted and harmed by virtue of the existence of the legal sex industry. Having a legal sex, having a legal system creates a context for a much larger and totally unregulated sex industry that is rife with trafficked people. See, I don't, again, I don't know enough about this, right? These people, this is what they spend all their time doing working as advocates. But I would think that having a highly, highly regulated, I mean way more regulated than now even industry where women who choose, let me reiterate, choose to do this have a safe place to do so. I think that would be a good idea, right? But again, this isn't in my wheelhouse, I am more than willing to have my opinion moved. What I will say is this, I know that the streets are not a safe place for women of the night. Wherever prostitution has been legalized, the illegal prostitution industry has exploded, said Benjamin Bull, Chief Legal Counsel for the National Center on Sexual Exploitation. There are a variety of reasons why, and sociologists can explain why, but in Nevada for example, prostitution is legal, and few relatively small counties. As a result of that, prostitution is illegal everywhere else, but it's de facto permitted everywhere. Again, with a wink and a nod, and they basically license escort services, and they require escorts to get some sort of physical examination or health examination once a year. But everybody knows that the crime of prostitution is not enforced. In Las Vegas, I mean, good grief. The motto of the city is, what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, right? I mean that is how the city is packaged. Mr. Bull really isn't wrong about how we package the city, I mean that's what we're selling here. It's very clear what Las Vegas is selling, Sin City, sex, drugs, gambling. Maybe not in that order, but that's what we're selling here in Las Vegas, sprinkle a little entertainment on the side. So it would be crazy to think that they are highly cracking down on escorts and stuff in Las Vegas, because it's just not the case, certainly not these high priced ones. The district court dismissed the case. The plaintiffs appealed on December 10th. The US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision in Charleston versus Nevada, affirming the district court's decision. Benjamin Bull said he doesn't see the ruling as a loss. They should have said dismissed with prejudice, don't come back, Bull said. All they did was say, you sue the legislature, and you sue the state, and they have immunity, so you don't have standing to sue them. Bull said he views the decision as the beginning of the beginning, and contends that the context for Nevada's legal brothel system has changed. This is not the 50s or the 60s or the 70s or the 80s, Bull said. This is the era of the hashtag #MeToo movement, the era of Jeffrey Epstein. It's the era of Harvey Weinstein. And I agree, if you're going to get the needle move, now is the time. Now is the time to get things going. If you're trying to get some laws passed, you're trying to suit, now is the time. Melissa Holland serves as the founder and director of Awaken, based in Reno. Since 2010, according to Holland, Awaken has helped roughly 600 women get out of sexual slavery. Holland says having a legal sex trade sets a context that creates a massive illegal sex trade. And you see, these are the sort of things that definitely can come with it, right? That's why I said my opinions can certainly be moved when it comes to all of this. I need to do more research and talk to, I mean, read more from people of really in the know to understand the true ramifications. And that's what I like to do. I like to get as much information as I possibly can, without going into something with a concrete opinion right off the bat. And then let the evidence move me wherever it may. You have been born and raised in a state that has legitimized the commodification of saying these women are allowed to be sale for the use of sex. We get to look at women as that potential. As a result, our whole state has become a sex tourism state. Jennifer Barnes disagrees and says legal brothels are not responsible for the illegal sex trade in Nevada. I really like how Sierra Nevada ally here is giving both sides of the story, letting two people with consenting views get a moment to talk about why they feel the way they do. There needs to be more of this in reporting, not just the echo chamber shit. The legal and illegal industries don't go hand in hand, Barnes said, it's either you're going to protect the ladies and the clients that choose to do this industry in a safe, legal, regulated environment or not. And now the ones that are choosing to do the legal side are being pushed to be on the illegal side by being closed to prevent the transfer of the coronavirus, so they're making our legal ladies criminals. I don't know if obviously I agree with her about the whole coronavirus thing. I understand that she's frustrated and she wants to make some money, but I don't know if brothels are the best place to be open right now. Again, I'm not a scientist though, it's really not my decision. I'm just a guy with a beard and an opinion, so with a buck 50 you can take my opinion and the buck 50 down to the local corner store and you'll get yourself a cup of coffee, but besides that, you know. Nevada lawmakers rejected an effort to ban brothels in the state during the 2019 legislative session. Senate Bill 413 died without a hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee. The 2019 legislature approved a concurrent resolution that directs the legislative commission to create an interim committee to study the working conditions at licensed brothels, but no meetings have occurred to date, of course not. I'm telling you, the people in Nevada, the elected officials, they're bumbling fools. Absolutely bumbling fools. It's one of the only reasons why I want to leave the state. I love Nevada so much. This is such a great place. But the people who are making the decisions as far as the laws go, they are so ridiculous. For Sergeant Smith and the detectives in his unit, some have kids the same age as many traffic juveniles, so his team is motivated. Whether brothels remain legal or not, a big challenge moving forward is to prevent those who have been trafficked from returning. Big picture, as far as how to deal with the juveniles, to get them the better resources, resources they need to get their independence back and kind of get them back on track so they can enjoy their childhood because no child should be. This isn't how they should remember their childhood years. 100% and that's, I feel, I feel that, right? That's the kind of thing I talk about all the time. Resources, folks. We got to have them. I don't care anymore who's wrong and right or, you know, like the song. I don't want to fight anymore. I want to get to some solutions. And I'm at the point where the people that are fighting against that, the people that are yelling and screaming and trying to be divisive still and being biased and all the rest, I'm starting to have a belly full of these people. For Benjamin Bull and the NCOSC, working to fight trafficking isn't a moral crusade but a human rights campaign. Another lawsuit challenging Nevada's system of legal brothels will be filed in 2021. This is the beginning of the beginning, said Bull. We want to be a spokesman for the victims who don't have a voice. Those women who run away from a bad foster situation when they are 12 or 13 and have nowhere to live, they're caught up in sex trafficking. They're controlled. They're used. They're commoditized. They have videos made of them that are uploaded to Pornhub that last forever and they come out of it later. And most of them, frankly, have a very early death and they're forgotten. Let's look at that and prevent it from happening. I'm with you there, Mr. Bull and I agree 100%. I think the way to get their folks is resources, resources, resources and we have to make sure that it's in the budget. And if the current crop of politicians don't want to do the right thing, vote their asses out. All right folks, I know this is a bit of a deviation from our main Jeffrey Epstein conversation but it plays hand in hand with what we've been talking about as far as the general scope and how I was discussing Nevada during the live stream. And if it's happening here in Nevada, you better damn well guarantee it's happening where you live as well. If you'd like to contact me, you can do that at bobbykapucci@protonmail.com. That's B-O-B-B-Y-C-A-P-U-C-C-I@protonmail.com. You can also find me on Twitter at B-O-B-B-Y_C-A-P-U-C-C-I. All of the links that go with this episode can be found in the description box. All right everybody, I'll be back later on and we will pick up where we left off. An official message from Medicare. 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