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Pol calls for Craigslist prostitution bust

By Marlene Naanes | mnaanes@am-ny.com

6:19 PM EDT, June 22, 2008

Pimps are increasingly using Craigslist's erotic services section, creating an on-line clearinghouse of prostitutes in the New York City area, said a city councilman who wants law enforcement officials to crack down on the illegal activity.

"The Internet has become like the Wild West. What used to happen on seedy street corners and brothels has moved to the Internet," Councilman Eric Gioia (D-Sunnyside) said at a news conference Sunday.

Gioia and his staff conducted an investigation of the top 100 listings on the erotic services section for about three weeks and found that 85 percent of the ads seemed to be advertising illicit activities. The councilman said some of the ads used vague wording to offer paid sexual acts, such as "companionship" for "a generous donation."

"They're pretty obvious," Gioia said. "It's high time that law enforcement in New York take a hard look at what's happening."

The NYPD declined to comment. The U.S. Attorney's Office in Manhattan did not return calls for comment.

A Craigslist spokeswoman said the site recently implemented new measures that reduced the number of erotic services ads by 80 percent, and other improvements have eliminated a high percentage of other objectionable content.

"The misuse of Craigslist for illegal purposes is completely unacceptable to us and we are continuously devising new means of detecting and blocking such activity," spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said in an e-mailed statement.

Law enforcement stings using Craigslist netted 70 arrests in Nassau County in 2006 and 2007 and another 30 arrests in Westchester last year, some involving under age girls and women trafficked from out of state.