POLICE WARN OF AGGRESSIVE PIMPS

Social workers are shocked by the number of recruiters using drugs and
friends to target teen and pre-teen girls. Scott Simpson Vancouver Sun At
least 75 pimps and their associates are actively recruiting teen and
pre-teen girls in the Tri-Cities for the sex trade, and Coquitlam RCMP are
warning that the trend is escalating.

"That's a conservative number, very conservative," says Corporal Jim Burton
of the local detachment's youth services section, adding that police are
continuing to receive tips about new operators in the area.

"Every day we seem to come up with new ones that are active here.

"We have been working on it pretty well non-stop for about two years. We've
developed a lot of intelligence on these people. When someone new surfaces
here, we're notified."

About 60 per cent of the young victims come from troubled backgrounds, but
the remainder come from good homes -- and pimps have told police they
prefer youngsters with normal backgrounds because they are easier to control.

Recruiting young girls is simple, and cold-blooded.

They're befriended by girls already under the control of pimps, or given
'free' heroin by pushers who need only a couple of months to get them
hooked for good.

The pushers flip the girls over to pimps for a quick profit.

"I don't know if it's economic times, or what, but it seems whenever you
turn a rock over now, it's something related to prostitution," Burton said.

"If we were to look at the bigger picture, it's a trend right around the
world. You could talk to a policeman in Germany and he'd probably say the
same thing."

Diane Sowden, a Coquitlam mother who combats the sex trade through a
society called Children of the Street, says even she was startled by the
RCMP estimate -- until she thought about where pimps and their agents are
operating.

"When I first heard the figure it sounded high to me," Sowden said. "But
not when you stop and think of how many drug dealers now are also involved
in the sex trade -- a lot of the drug dealers in our area are involved with
the sex trade as well -- and you add in the recruiters.

"This is their hook on getting ahold of these young girls, getting them
hooked on the drug.

"Is it not realistic to think we have at least that many kids selling drugs
in schools, who have connections to pimps?"

Sowden thinks the means by which pimps and associates groom their victims
has become highly sophisticated -- and girls can be targeted at a local
mall, or even in a school classroom.

"It has gotten much more organized. They've always had recruiters, but most
of the recruiters were young girls who were owned by a pimp, and they were
recruiting on his behalf.

"Now we're seeing a lot more young boys, 15 to 17 years old, as the
recruiters. They're sitting in the classrooms.

"Those are the same individuals who would be selling drugs in the schools.
This gives them an extra cash flow.

"I think also the pimps are looking for them, because they know they have a
connection with the kids.

"Over the years, we've been educating young people about what a pimp is. It
hasn't been the kid sitting next to you in social studies. Now it is."

Sowden said that with school out for the summer, the primary venues for
finding new victims are shopping malls.

"Spring break is when everything takes off. The kids are out of school, and
that is the highest recruiting time.

"The recruiters and the pimps are on the make trying to groom these kids so
that by summertime they have them out on the street.

"The place that they target the kids in the summertime is the food fairs in
the malls.

"As a parent I would not allow my 12-, 13-, 14-year-old daughter to be
hanging around a food fair in a mall."

Coquitlam Councillor Kent Becker, who chairs a city task force on the
sexual abuse of children, noted that B.C. Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh is
lobbying counterparts in other provinces to get support for Criminal Code
amendments that would raise the age of consent to 16 -- thereby keeping
younger and more innocent young people out of the reach of pimps.

The law would also make it easier to prosecute pimps, recruiters and
customers for sexual abuse of minors.

So far, Dosanjh hasn't convinced them -- although the province is
considering its own law that would allow courts to impose restraining
orders against pimps who are grooming new recruits.

Becker expressed anger that other attorneys-general don't seem to think
there's a problem.

"When I learned that there is actually some debate across this country
about the need to raise the age of consent I fell out of my chair. Where
are their heads at?" Becker said.

"Over the past three or four years the growth in that trade has escalated
at an unbelievable pace.

"They're getting better at recruitment. They are getting more recruiters
out there. They're using other young children to help them recruit, to
befriend the new targets. They invite them to parties, sort of light,
innocent stuff to start with. They know how to work them into finally
sampling this, sampling that.

"A lot of people say what are you going to do about it? Easier said than
done. One of the things we have to do is increase the public awareness of
how bad this problem is becoming."