ANCHORAGE - Tales of shady business, crime and prostitution from as far back as the early trans-Alaska pipeline days have made the city-turned-neighborhood of Spenard infamous.
But lately, the streets have quieted.
It may no longer be obvious, but the sex trade in Anchorage is a booming business.
From shady street corners to digital brothels, prostitution in the Last Frontier has been flourishing. Behind that stride of young women on what insiders call “the track” are backstories of exploitation, manipulation and sexual abuse.
One of those stories belongs to a single mother of two who calls herself Trina.
“I was 16, my mom’s boyfriend just molested me and she didn’t believe me,” Trina said. “I didn’t care about nothing.”
I joined her for a night of what she considers work, and within 20 seconds of us walking down Spenard we were propositioned; proof of the demand feeding what police call the exploitive, violent and degrading industry in Anchorage.
Trina said she couldn’t even count the amount of money she made in neighborhoods like Spenard and Fairview selling sex. On one night, she said she made $1,400. All of which she handed over to her pimp.
When asked why Trina handed over all of the money she had made, she said it was because she was scared of her pimp, the near 40-year-old man who took her in when she ran away from an abusive home at 16.
“I ran into the wrong guy at the wrong time and he whooped my ass pretty much,” Trina said. “He put me out on the streets into the cold.”
Trina said “the game” has changed since she was forced into it. The once blatant business that has made neighborhoods like Spenard infamous is no longer apparent. That’s because street traffic has evolved into Web traffic, she said. So, while she works to entice passersby, her post in the escort section of backpage.com advertises her to anyone with an Internet connection.
“To me, its pretty much an understanding,” Trina said. “If you wanna go on the Internet and get some company, then there’s one thing that’s wanted and I can do that in a minute.”
APD Detective Sgt. Kathy Lacey said sites like backpage.com leave local law enforcement agencies with few options to track down traffickers, like Trina’s pimp.
“It’s difficult for us to go after those as a local police department when all of those are managed outside of the state of Alaska,” Lacey said.
The anonymity offered by the Internet allows sex traffickers and johns to hide in plain sight, Lacey said.
“Right now, the trafficker has very little threat of detection,” Lacey said. “What he’s selling is a woman, and his overhead is a cellphone and he’s making a tremendous amount of money from that.”
Just how much? To see how it works I posted an ad myself: “New in Town, Come Enjoy Me – $50 specials.”
Twenty-four hours, more than 50 calls and nearly 30 text messages later, it’s clear the world where cash is king and flesh is currency has found a new home on computers and your smartphones.
Trafficked and Trapped part two airs Friday, Feb. 21 on KTVA 11′s Nightcast at 10 p.m.