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MSNBC Undercover: Sex Slaves in America
From the upscale strip clubs in urban Detroit to the dingy back rooms of cantinas in Houston to the glittering streets long considered the crowned jewel of American cities, young foreign women and girls say they have been forced into an unbearable life of slavery.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office announced the results of a nine month investigation into an illegal sex trafficking ring operating in the Bay Area.
Kevin Ryan U.S. Attorney: Approximately 100 women were recovered.
They say they confiscated millions of dollars in cash from inside the businesses, as well as 3 ATM machines.
Gavin Newsom, Mayor of San Francisco: That was a big wake up call. Most came in thinking that they were gonna have a new life, a new beginning, only to find themselves with quote, unquote debt, and travel expenses. They're forced to have sex with 12, 15 people every single day
In 2005, after local businessmen were arrested for enslaving over 100 Korean women in downtown San Francisco, Mayor Newsom ordered city raids on massage parlors, raids Newsom attended.
Newsom: I walked in one day, kid you not, large guy, 5:30, downtown financial district in San Francisco, in an office building. You would never know what was going on there.
Walked in, right there, a young girl is throwing off this guy as we raided the place, and this guy has a wedding ring on. This is real. It's a disgrace. The idea it's happening in San Francisco, is equally disgraceful. And I'm just humiliated as a guy who lives here, not just its mayor.
But federal prosecution of trafficking takes years so the Mayor and his staff chose not to wait.
Julian Potter: Once we knew that those sites, those particular establishments with known addresses, were trafficking and not just prostitution or some sort of sex industry. The mayor said "Let's look at everything we have available and we can close them down under the city's laws.
Dr. Johnson Ojo: Today's inspections will involve going to four establishments.
This unlikely odd couple, Dr. Johnson Ojo, a Nigerian doctor and San Francisco Health Inspector Ed Walsh, form the backbone of the mayor's effort against sex trafficking.
For the last three years, they have led a team of city officials on a full frontal assault on massage parlors by enforcing new health dept laws designed to root out women who are forced to live on the premises and provide sex to pay off trafficking debt.
The message is loud and clear, San Francisco will not tolerate slavery.
Ed Walsh: We're gonna have the fire department, fire inspector, the building inspector and the city planner. We're gonna have a combination of the two police officers from the San Francisco vice squad which will provide us security to get in the facility.
The inspectors enter the massage parlor.
Dr. Ojo: Is the manager here? Who is in charge today?
Manager: It's me.
Walsh: Did Johnson see this?
Within minutes Inspector Walsh makes discoveries; a false wall and a hidden room with four foot ceilings.
Walsh: This light must come on somehow. It's a living quarters. You ok Johnson?
Grace Kahng: So Johnson, what is this?
Dr. Ojo: This is an illegal living quarters, unapproved room.
Kahng: How many people do you think live back here?
Dr. Ojo: I would say about maybe four or five. That's another bed
Kahng: Where?
Dr. Ojo: Sofa down over there.
Dr. Ojo: You also observe personal belongings like excessive shoes and suitcases and excessive makeup. Those are indicative that the individuals are living there.
Dr. Ojo: The Health Department license. Do you have a permit?
Manager: Permit?
Dr. Ojo: From the Health Department.
Dr. Ojo discovers some of the women don't have the permit that the city now requires to provide massage. And they want answers about that hidden room.
Off camera male voice: Do you live here?
Girl: I live in Sunset.
Kahng: Who is sleeping in the back?
Male voice: By the washing machines.
Young woman: Who is sleeping in the back; back of the bed?
Male voice: Yeah, back behind the washing machines there are some beds there.
Young woman: We never go to the back We never go to the backside because we only work here and work the upstairs, that's all. We never work in the backside.
Male voice: Where the machines are, the laundry machines.
Young woman: Yeah, the laundry machines, we only go to the laundry machines. We never know the backside of the beds.
Male voice: So who goes in there?
Young woman: just the boss, the boss goes in there.
Male voice: Does the boss live here?
Young woman: I don't think so but I don't know, because the boss has a house in Richmond
Kahng: So you don't sleep back there?
Young woman: (laughing) No, I don't sleep there.
Kahng: But there are beds with people's stuff there.
Young woman: Maybe it's just for the rest or for take a nap.
Walsh: If there're beds anywhere on the premises where the women may be forced to stay there overnight
Health inspector Walsh says hidden rooms with beds have been discovered in numerous massage parlors along with other telltale signs that indicate they harbor trafficked women.
Walsh: If there's a lot of food in the refrigerator, you know, they're for food, for like, 10, 15 people over say, a month's period of time. There are a lot of signs, a lot of lingerie, uh, thongs, uh g-strings.
After 25 years on the job, massage parlor owners suspected of using trafficked girls have a tough job sweet talking inspector Ed Walsh.
Walsh: Hi, health department; massage?
Owner: No!
Walsh: Massage?
Owner: No. No!
Walsh: Let's take a look. How come you have the sign still?
Time and time again, Walsh encounters the pain and suffering of trafficked women firsthand and has little patience for those who prey on the vulnerable.
Walsh: This is a massage establishment operating without a health permit. Two months ago we closed it down and now they've reopened.
Kahng: But she says they're not.
Ed Walsh: Well she has all the signs. They have two massage tables, they have, the rooms are set up with oil and Kleenex, and cleaning towels to dry their hands.
Dr. Ojo: If next time he comes back and we discover that you still have the tables and your sign, we're going to refer the case to the city attorney's office.
Walsh: It's obvious that they're doing massage. They're also on the Internet too as having clients go here within the last two weeks one of the johns went on there and they said that they had a good time at this location.
Kahng: So where are the girls?
Walsh: That's a good question. Not here today.
The women freed in the federal raid testified that they never left the massage parlors. Double locked gates and elaborate security camera monitoring their every move and conversation. Walsh says there's no reason a legitimate massage establishment needs that kind of security.
Walsh: You're gonna see these facilities that are built like Fort Knox. You have double iron gates. You have to be buzzed in. And before they buzz you, they've already seen you from the outside because there's cameras located outside the entrance. And the camera, usually, can cover the whole block. There are cameras throughout the facility. There’s usually a camera at the point of sale, where the John goes and pays his $60. There will be cameras up and down the hallway. There will be cameras at the back door.
The last stop for the task force is a parlor on the brink of being shut down for repeatedly violating city laws, and where the FBI recently searched for a woman who called claiming she was being held captive.
Ed: Hello. Come on out, Health Department. Have a seat.
Officer: Go outside and have a seat. Your masseuse will be right back.
Dr. Ojo: Who is the manager?
A new city law requires massage therapists to keep their body covered from the neck up.
When the women see police they immediately run to don lab coats to avoid being cited.
Walsh: When I first went in there, there were plenty of girls with Johns. There's at least three. And we got them all out of the rooms and they were scantily clothed. They had very little on, and they weren't professional masseuses. It was obvious.
Dr. Ojo: All seven women were dressed in inappropriate attire. The attire was very provocative. High heeled shoes, they were showing a lot of their assets, so to speak.
On this visit inspectors find that the owners have removed the 10 beds they found in a secret crawl space on their last inspection.
Walsh: This is where they were sleeping previously.
Dr. Ojo: It's a lot of storage, for goodness sake.
The task force says, it's not much but at least it's one small signal that while they can't completely eradicate businesses from trafficking women, they are having some kind of impact.
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