Yet again an important American news story is coming out of the UK.

Funny how this isn’t important enough to bother most of our “news” networks in America.

The Albion Times (UK) reports on the gang controlled child sex trafficking happening in Florida.

PASCO COUNTY, Fla. — Human trafficking victims are being branded and sold for sex in the Tampa Bay area, ABC’s I-Team found.

Those working with victims told I-Team Investigator Kylie McGivern those permanent markings can often remain with trafficking victims even after they are rescued. The victims are all young white girls, some being raped by more than 10 men one after each other every day.

“It’s like branding cattle,” said Cpl. Alan Wilkett, who leads Pasco County’s human trafficking task force. “It’s an ownership mark. Branding is when somebody — a pimp or a trafficker — will put his mark or his symbol or his sign on his victims through some sort of tattoo.”

Wilkett said deputies know how to spot the red flags of someone being sold for sex but sometimes rarely act.

“Some of the things we’re seeing are pictures — maybe a lion’s head or it may be the street name of the pimp who’s running a street track,” said Wilkett. “It could be numbers. Using certain numbers, like 16 because ‘P’ is the 16th letter of the alphabet — it means I’m being pimped.”

Wilkett told ABC’s I-Team he just saw the tattoo recently at a local gas station.

“A girl at the cash register with an XVI running from behind her ear and down her neck — 16,” said Wilkett. “Looked out the window and there’s her pimp, sitting in the vehicle. So this is happening.”

In some trafficking cases, the tattoo could be a barcode.

“These barcodes are written in such a way by these tattoos and tattoo artists, that if you scan that with your smartphone it’ll tell you she’s $25 or she’s $30,” said Wilkett. “The one that I saw was $30.”

Wilkett said the one he saw was on a victim in her early 20’s staying in an area safehouse.

“Her response to that was that’s what I’m worth. I am worth $30,” said Wilkett.

Natasha Nascimento, the founding executive director of Redefining Refuge, a local non-profit working with victims of child sex trafficking, said she’s seen children branded and a majority of the tattoos are done professionally.

“The youngest child I’ve seen — I believe she was probably somewhere around 11-years-old — she had dollar signs… tattooed onto both of her eyelids,” said Nascimento.

More…

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Maybe the reason this isn’t national news is because it’s WHITE kids.

Don’t you find it strange that a Tampa Bay station has a bombshell story and the national media ignores it?

Child Sex Trafficking is a major problem in America.

The media tends to turn a blind eye to this problem because a lot of very important, very powerful and very wealthy people tend to make up the clientele.

Article posted with permission from Dean Garrison