Posted on 02/28/2002 7:04:14 AM PST by ValerieUSA
The News2Houston Investigators reported Wednesday night in an exclusive story that the FBI has busted a teenage sex ring wide open.
The teenage sex ring spanned across several states.
It landed an untold number of teenage girls in so-called modeling studios in Houston, as adult men raked in the money from their sex slavery.
The pimps used a video camera to keep track of how good the business was for prostitutes in several cities.
The FBI seized the video of one pimp, as he found a new hot sport to bring underage girls for prostitution.
They carefully surveyed several spots in Houston the same way before putting the young girls to work in the so-called private studios.
The dens are open for business all over town in dark strip-centers; the back doors lit with vague signs.
Prosecutors said that Jermaine Carlos Diaz had several girls working for him. He took one 15-year-old from her troubled home in Arkansas.
"Mr. Diaz told her that she was gonna prostitute and not strip," U.S. Assistant Attorney Michael Wynne said. "She said no. He pulled out a gun and said, 'yes you are.'"
The girls' families usually have no idea they were working in Houston, working in clubs. Some parents thought their girls had run away, others thought they were with friends.
Most girls are afraid to call their family or the police because they know these men watch their every move, and they have guns.
Daniel McNeal, 30, is just beginning 3 1/2 years in federal prison.
McNeal of Las Vegas begged for a light sentence, but the federal judge said that he put so many young girls to work in these clubs that the maximum sentence was in order.
"They were arranging the work, and acting as pimps. Requiring the girls to give them all of the money," Wynne said.
An FBI agent's report on the sex ring spells out that pimps sometimes sold the teenage girls to other pimps.
One teenager brought a $1,200 price tag. Why? The report said the teenagers made $700 to $800 per night.
And the pimps knew which Houston studios like to employ underage girls. Other clubs were more careful.
One teenager was fired when FBI agents said that the club learned she was underage. But that didn't phase the men running the ring.
"Mr. Diaz had another job lined up for her the very next night," Wynne said.
Diaz is awaiting his sentence after a jury convicted him with transporting a minor across state lines for prostitution.
FBI offices in several cities are looking into other suspects in the ring.
None of the club owners are in any trouble yet. Employing kids in these clubs is not a federal crime, and local police said that they don't have any proof to put any club owners in jail.
There was a big "outrage" at a Mexican cantina bar near the land being used by the new ballpark (formerly Enron Field, it seems that all news stories have to include that word these days).
There were reports that this bar employed taxi dancers (nothing illegal in that ancient practice). There were allegations that there were girls as young as 8 years old working as taxi dancers there. The reports proved to be unfounded but the purpose of the smear was to get the establishment closed (perhaps to reopen as a sports bar). It's still operating today.
There are any number of scandalous acts and criminal activities that never get reported. When something like this blows up there can be any of a number of reasons:
Ratings push, someone didn't get paid off, a prosecutor is trying to make a name for himself, someone wants the land vacated/revenge against a tenent.
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