Tennesee Men Arrested for Trafficking Women on Backpage.com

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In what's becoming a pattern, yet another story of human trafficking via Backpage.com is splashed across the media this week. This time, several adult women who were forced into prostitution were advertised on the increasingly notorious online classified site. How many more cases of human trafficking will Backpage.com help facilitate before they finally begin to take the issue seriously?

Five men were arrested this week for running a human trafficking ring based in Columbia, Tennessee. Nathaniel Roberts, the alleged ringleader of the group that called themselves "The Wolf Pack", is accused of using Backpage.com to advertise for sex with women who he controlled and abused, sometimes with brutal violence. For example, one of the victims claimed that she earned an average of $900 a day selling sex acts, but Roberts and his colleagues kept every penny of it. If she or the other trafficked women complained or "talked back," Roberts would beat them. Mental, physical, and emotional abuse became an almost-daily reality for The Wolf Pack's women, all in the name of profit — Roberts' Myspace page boasts that he makes over $100,000 a year as a pimp. And his profits from sex trafficking were made possible by Backpage.com.

Backpage and other online classified sites make it easy for people like Roberts and his cohorts to sell trafficked women in several cities or states. While this ring was based in Columbia, Tennessee, a relatively small town, Backpage allowed the traffickers to advertise for the women they controlled in other cities, including Spring Hill, Murfreesboro and Nashville. Backpage opened up the market of men looking to buy sex far beyond the local area, and because of that, The Wolf Pack was able to profit mightily from the women they forced into prostitution.

This is far from the first time Backpage.com has been used to traffic people for sex. Earlier this year they were sued for knowingly promoting the prostitution of a 14-year-old sex trafficking victim. There have also been cases of kids trafficked for sex via Backpage in Nashville, Denver, and Sioux Falls. But as this most recent case indicates, it's not just children who can be victims of sex trafficking online. Adult women — when forced, coerced, or tricked into prostitution — are also trafficking victims. And Backpage is exploiting them too.

Despite the fact that thousands of Change.org members have asked Backpage.com to stop advertising for sex trafficking victims on the site, their parent company Village Voice Media has refused to act. They've "reviewed" a few sites, but the lack of concrete and transparent action means sex trafficking on the site persists. Will you join the growing movement of advocates demanding that Village Voice Media finally stop facilitating sex trafficking?


UPDATE Dec 5, 2011

3 men from Columbia, Tenn., sentenced to prison for human trafficking conspiracy

Roberts, they said, called regular meetings of the group, called the "wolf pack," and discussed police activity and gave recommendations about avoiding law enforcement.
U.S. District Court Judge Todd J. Campbell of Nashville sentenced 35-year-old Nathaniel Roberts to 70 months; 27-year-old Tavoris Roberts and 31-year-old Shermaine Aiden were both sentenced to 41 months.
One other defendant has been sentenced, and another still faces sentencing.
All five pleaded guilty. Federal prosecutors said they conspired to operate a prostitution business. Roberts, they said, called regular meetings of the group, called the "wolf pack," and discussed police activity and gave recommendations about avoiding law enforcement.