WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice has shut down a major human trafficking web site for prostitution and sex trafficking and has indicted the owner.
CityXGuide.com was a leading source of online advertisements for prostitution and sex trafficking which served clients across the nation, including a list of 14 “Favorite Cities” such as Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Chicago, Atlanta, Miami, and Boston. Law enforcement has identified numerous underage victims in CityXGuide advertisements, including a 13-year-old female who was recovered in November 2019.
Martono was charged in part under a new law, the Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act of 2017 (FOSTA), that targets online sex trafficking and subjects websites to federal criminal and civil liability when users facilitate prostitution. President Trump signed the law in 2018.
CityXGuide.com was launched in 2018 right after Backpage.com, the top online human trafficking site, was seized by the federal government two weeks after the U.S. House and Senate passed FOSTA. Since then, several other websites built solely around prostitution and sex trafficking have been taken down, such as Cityvibe, and mainstream websites like Craigslist and Reddit have removed their “Hookers” and “Personals” sections which hosted sex trafficking and prostitution advertisements.
Human trafficking is the fastest-growing organized crime activity in the United States, profiting almost $32 billion a year for traffickers while destroying the lives of tens of thousands of innocent children. The Justice Department estimates that each year at least 200,000 children are trafficked for sex in the U.S., and 70 percent of the survivors said they were advertised online at some point while they were being trafficked. In these scenarios, pimps and traffickers, or in some cases the victims themselves, post photos and write classified advertisements on escort sites for buyers to browse. These ads often represent children from 12-17 years old.
Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said,
“We applaud the Department of Justice for continuing to protect and rescue children and adults from being victims of human sex trafficking. Shutting down another major prostitution website and indicting its owner is a victory for sex trafficking victims and law enforcement. Human trafficking is a heinous crime and a very damaging exploitation of people who are made in the image of God.”
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CONTACT: Mat Staver, 407-875-1776, Liberty@LC.org
Read more news on Human Trafficking on Missions Box.
Sources:
- Christian News Wire, DOJ Seizes Major Human Trafficking Site
- Liberty Counsel, Official Website