International Journal on Criminology Volume 7, Number 2, Spring 2020 | Page 104

Human Trafficking Network Investigations
runaway/homeless youth, missing persons, and other vulnerable populations at a
higher risk for recruitment by traffickers and for sexual exploitation. 20
Memex, however, opened up a new and important way to access data pertaining
to the criminal networks behind larger human trafficking operations, illustrated
by the following case study. As demonstrated, OSINT can be used to
map the operation of organized crime networks recruiting victims from a specific
source country, and the advertisement, movement, and exploitation of those victims
in destination countries.
Case Study of the “Supermatchescort” Trafficking Network
A
recent indictment of a major criminal network began with the investigation
of a single Backpage advertisement in San Francisco, California,
advertising an outcall escort agency featuring Asian women of different
ethnicities. This advertisement contained two telephone numbers with one designated
as a telephone number for customers to text message in order to schedule
appointments. This feature was interesting as a possible signifier of a criminal network
for two reasons: it suggested a higher level of business volume and organization
and the use of multiple telephone numbers provided additional opportunities
to establish connections to other entities.
To investigate the network, an initial query was made to the Memex database
using the telephone numbers from the first advertisement in San Francisco.
This inquiry connected the original advertisement to other Backpage advertisements
that subsequently provided more context for the potential illicit operation
and additional data points. The network could not be unraveled solely by telephone
numbers connections in active advertisements since posters, after advertisements
expire and occasionally while they are still active, change the content,
contact information, and/or location of the individual or persona advertised before
reposting. This is done to both avoid detection by law enforcement and reach
new customers. However, it also generates large interconnected webs of entities
suitable for analysis. 21
For example, the Backpage advertisement under investigation illustrates this
principle as it was changed by the poster after its original publication to include a
new telephone number and a new social media handle. The revised advertisement,
identified by Memex’s algorithm on extracted data, linked many additional advertisements
to the initial advertisement in San Francisco because each connected
advertisement contained an entity, such as a telephone number, from another
version of the original advertisement through one or more degrees of separation.
20 Heil and Nichols, 423.
21 S. Yu, “Human Trafficking and the Internet,” in Combating Human Trafficking: A Multidisciplinary
Approach (Boca Raton: CRC Press LLC, 2014), 70.
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