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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
Using drugs and fake friendships, seven Varrio Central gang members, ages 15-19, lured runaways and other underage girls with troubled families into a prostitution ring, which operated out of a Glen Garden Drive apartment complex. The victims, some as young as 12 years old, were forced to perform sexual services for $50. If a girl declined, she was beat, raped, and her family threatened. A fifteen year-old girl also allegedly recruited the victims by going to their homes, posing as their friend, and pretending to pick them up to go to the movies or shopping.
Response and intervention
On January 3, 2008, four of the alleged gang members were arrested after taking a 14-year old girl to a regular customer, 56-year old Chang Heong Lee, owner of a convenience store. According to a lead investigator of the North Texas Anti-Trafficking Taskforce, the gang members were sentenced one year in the Texas youth camp. The leader of the gang is released February 28, 2009. Debra Flores Castillo received 8 years probation and the 15-year old female recruiter was never prosecuted. Fort Worth police learned of the operation in August 2007, after 33-year old Debra Flores Castillo was caught trolling a neighborhood offering sexual services of a 14-year old girl. Castillo was charged with compelling prostitution. According to a lead investigator of the North Texas Anti-Trafficking Taskforce, the victims, all underage, were not given any sort of counseling and were treated poorly by the Juvenile judge. The school of the victims also refused to let any of the girls readmit themselves for the time they lost while held in captivity. Police learned of the operation in August 2007, after 33-year old Debra Flores Castillo was caught trolling a neighborhood offering sexual services of a 14-year old girl.