Pimp City: Mexican Town's Entire Economy Is Based on Human Trafficking Fusion
go to original June 17, 2014

Tucked in the hills of the smallest state in Mexico is a city called Tenancingo.

A town of just ten thousand people, Tenancingo has thrived for the past half-century thanks to a lucrative family business. Grandfathers passed the trade down to fathers, and fathers in turn, to their sons - that business is sex trafficking.

But the prostitutes involved in their scheme aren’t willing participants. Many are from rural and indigenous villages throughout Mexico, and are kidnapped, trapped, and seduced in a trade the sons of Tenancingo have been perfecting for decades.

Once in the U.S, the girls are forced to see as many as 60 clients a day. These men, typically called “Johns,” pay about $35 for 15 minutes of sex, according to Sanctuary for Families, a nonprofit advocacy group for sex-trafficking victims. The money is then wired back to Tenancingo, where mansions with lavish courtyards and tawdry cupolas line the streets.

There’s a lot of debate around just how many sex slaves there are in the U.S. and how many are from this small city. Whether Tenancingo sends dozens, hundreds, or thousands of women a year to the U.S., there’s undoubtedly one place where many of them are sent: Queens, N.Y.

Read the rest at Fusion

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