KPBS reporter Ana Tintocalis has been producing a series of stories about gangs recently and her latest dispatch highlights how gangs make money through prostitution.
It’s a financial connection that law enforcement authorities say has become so clear in San Diego County that they can prove it in court. The District Attorney’s Office started attaching gang penalties with steeper sentences to some pimping cases in 2008. Federal prosecutors charged several gangs with working together to pimp girls in Oceanside last year.
Prostitution is now the second largest funding source for gangs behind drugs, Tintocalis reported, citing local law enforcement authorities.
To read more from the KPBS series, check it out here. For more on street prostitution in San Diego, read this story about the city’s hotspot, El Cajon Boulevard.
Please contact Keegan Kyle directly at keegan.kyle@voiceofsandiego.org or 619.550.5668 and follow him on Twitter: twitter.com/keegankyle.