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Somali Gangs in Minnesota Traded Girls for Sex

By Paul Shepard on Nov 9th 2010 3:15PM

Filed under: News, Race and Civil Rights

Members of a Somali sex-trafficking ring (pictured above), who imported girls under the age of 14 to work as prostitutes in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, were busted by authorities.

The indictment named 29 people in the ring who sought to bring young Somali girls to the United States to become sex workers.

Investigators said young Somali or black American girls were used for sex acts by Minneapolis-based gangs going by the names of the Somali Outlaws, the Somali Mafia and the Lady Outlaws.

It is amazing to me that officials say the ring has been in operation for 10 years.

How can such a scheme go undetected for so long? None of those girls found an opportunity to run away or find help during that decade? No police officer caught wind of this ring in all that time?

one indictment, a defendant nicknamed Hollywood used to pick up his young victim from school, have sex with her and then tell her to have sex with other men.Since when can schoolgirls keep their mouths shut about anything, especially something as bizarre as participating in a sex ring? I don’t understand it.

Perhaps coming from a non-functioning nation, where no effective federal government or educational opportunities exist lowered the girls’ expectations for life.

As sad as it may be, living as a sex slave in Minneapolis may have been a better alternative than living in Somalia.