Teenage girls were forced to create ads on Backpage.com and use a texting app to solicit adult men for sex in an Atlanta suburb.
Out of the Days Inn motel in Marietta, police say two adults operated a sex trafficking ring using children.
On Wednesday, police found young girls ranging in age from 14 to 17 being forced to sell their bodies for sex, according to an arrest warrant filed against two alleged pimps.
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“That is very disturbing, underage girls,” Logan Life, who works near the motel, told Channel 2. “I think that’s absolutely disgusting. The men who enjoy that, the men who allow that, that’s wrong.”
Life said armed security officers escort her to her car at night because of her on-going concerns with the Days Inn motel.
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Brandon Myers and Jasmine Avery have been identified by police as the accused sex traffickers and were arrested at the motel. An arrest warrant alleges the two pimped three suspected underage prostitutes out of a motel room.
Both suspects remain in jail.
Atlanta’s growing problem
According to Fox 5, authorities report that Atlanta is among the top cities for human trafficking and it’s the fastest growing criminal activity in the United States.
Law enforcement officers said metro Atlanta’s reputation for having one of the world’s busiest airports, being a convention city and having a growing entertainment industry makes it a prime location for sex traffickers.
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Special Agent Brian Johnston, with the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, told Fox 5, that sex trafficking is a very lucrative business. He said some criminals on their first or second convictions, who know if they get caught again could face a long sentence, will begin exploiting children because they know they will make money and possibly never be caught.
“The average age of entry here in Georgia is about 13 and a half years old and what’s really particularly disturbing about that, most of the time in law enforcement we come in contact with them when they are 16 or 17 years old,” said Special Agent Johnston.