Ross Parker was chief of the criminal division in the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Detroit for 8 years and worked as an AUSA for 28 in that office.

By Ross Parker
ticklethewire.com

Adding to the developing body of medical knowledge about the dangers of marijuana use, the University of Edinburgh announced this past week that frequent use results in reduced bone mineral density and a higher incidence of fractures. The study also concluded that these heavy users have a reduced body mass index (BMI) which further contributed to a thinning of the bones and could result in a greater risk of osteoporosis.

This part of the study raises questions about the popular theory that smoking increases appetite, colloquially known as having the “munchies.” For frequent smokers the use actually had the opposite effect of suppressing appetite, thus resulting in a lower BMI and weaker bones. Frequent smokers were defined as those who had smoked marijuana at least 5,000 times in their lifetimes.

The study also found that moderate use, about 1,000 total occasions of smoking, showed no difference in bone mineral density from that of non-users.

The study was sponsored by Arthritis Research UK and is published in the American Journal of Medicine. 

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI is taking a softer approach to cracking down on sex trafficking during the Super Bowl.

The Associated Press reports that agents will offer to provide women an opportunity to get out of prostitution and turn in their traffickers.

The softer approach, which focuses on the victim, will take place during the lead-up to the Super Bowl in San Francisco.

“The goal is to reach anyone who is being trafficked,” FBI Supervisory Special Agent Doug Hunt, who manages the San Francisco office’s anti-trafficking efforts, which will also include sting operations the agency has used before at previous Super Bowls.

Super Bowls have traditionally attracted sex traffickers.

By Steve Neavling
ticklethewire.com

The FBI helped rescue 149 sexually exploited children as part of a weeklong sting across the country.

Operation Cross Country also nabbed 150 pimps and others involved in the sex trade.

“Human trafficking is a monstrous and devastating crime that steals lives and degrades our nation,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch said. “As a result of the FBI’s outstanding coordination and exemplary efforts alongside state and local partners during Operation Cross Country, more children will sleep safely tonight, and more wrongdoers will face the judgment of our criminal justice system.”

More than 500 law enforcement officials were involved in the sting, which involved 135 cities.

The stings took place in casinos, hotels, truck stops and other areas.

By Steve Neavling

Pimps appear to be getting more brazen.

KSAT ABC 12 reports that pimps are luring children and young adults into sex work by working in groups and public events.

“They travel the same way that maybe a band would travel: from city to city. They identify a market which would be very lucrative and they travel together to that city. We do know that they target sporting events, large music events — any attraction that would bring a large congregation of men to a certain area,” said FBI Special Agent in Charge Michelle Lee. “They set prices and they work on marketing together. They share intelligence about law enforcement efforts to detect and disrupt they’re activities and they’re becoming very sophisticated.”

The work can be lucrative. The FBI estimates that a pimp will make an average of $67,000 per child.

The brazen efforts by pimps have led to the FBI’s launch of Operation: Cross-country, which empowers authorities to pursue sex traffickers more aggressively.

“Most of the victims are young girls; however, we are seeing a trend for young boys,” Lee said. “We’ve seen victims as young as 9 years old, but we also see a lot who are in their mid-teens and their upper-teens as well.”

By Allan Lengel

A prostitute trying to escape arrest ran her car into a Houston FBI agent, striking the agent in the left thigh, causing bruises and back pain, according to an FBI affidavit filed in U.S. District Court this week.

The incident took place on Nov. 7 in southwest Houston. The agent was part of the Houston Innocence Lost Task Force that was participating in a nationwide crackdown on pimps and teen prostitutes, according to an affidavit by FBI agent Sherri Rice.

At about 1:10 a.m., task force officer David Nieto met up with a prostitute Shaquita M. Taylor-Felder and followed her to the Budget Garden Suites.  After a “prostitution case” was made in the parking lot, the officer signaled FBI agents to move in for the arrest, the affidavit said.

One agent, Patrick Fransen parked his car behind the prostitute’s car, the affidavit said.  Then agent Chad Nunez and officer Nieto approached the car on foot. Agent Sherri Rice approached the area but stayed in the car.

Agent Fransen, who was wearing a jacket with the words “Police” on the front walked up to the driver’s side of the prostitute’s car and knocked on the window. The prostitute rolled the window down about three inches and Fransen identified himself and said she was under arrest, the affidavit said.

The woman then rolled up the window, put her car in reverse and rammed into Fransen’s car. She then went forward and backward, and repeatedly rammed the car, the affidavit said.

Fansen and officer Nieto tried unsuccessfully to break the window on the driver’s side. At some point, the prostitute’s car struck Fransen in the left thigh, causing injuries.

The prostitute, Taylor-Felder was eventually able to drive off at a high rate of speed. Agent Rice followed her. The prostitute was able to lose the agent.

About 4 hours later, the Taylor-Felder’s car was located and towed.

The following day, task force members went to the place Taylor-Felder bought the car. She happened to be on the phone with the salesman. She told the salesman that she parked the car at her house and it was now missing, the affidavit said.  She said she had filled out a police report.

Authorities then gathered enough info to get an arrest warrant on charges of assaulting and resisting a law enforcement agent. Court records show no court date has been set.

Read FBI affidavit

By Caitlin Osborne
ticklethewire.com
WASHINGTON — The FBI announced Monday that it had rescued 52 children involved in underage prostitution over the past three days and arrested nearly 700 people including 60 pimps.

Dubbed “Operation Cross Country IV”, the FBI said it teamed up with local and state police law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to save the children.

“It is repugnant that children in these times could be subjected to the great pain, suffering and indignity of being forced into sexual slavery for someone else’s profit,” Assist. Atty. Gen. Lanny A. Breuer of the Criminal Division said in a statement.

The operation, part of the FBI’s Innocence Lost National Initiative, targeted truck stops, casinos, websites and “street tracks” in 36 cities around the country. Street tracks are locations where the children are merchandised and offered to customers.

The Lost National Initiative was formed in 2003 by the FBI, NCMEC and Department of Justice’s Child Exploitation and Obscenities Section.

Since then, nearly 900 kids have been rescued, and more than 500 pimps have been prosecuted, according to Ernie Allen, President and CEO of NCMEC.

“We are honored to be the FBI’s partner in this effort,” he added. “I truly believe that what they are doing is historic.”

Allen said this marks the first time in American history that federal leadership has taken on such a predominant role in ending child prostitution.

NCMEC estimates that over 100,000 children in the U.S. are victims of sexual trafficking.