Four Part Special Report
by Meredith May and Deanne Fitzmaurice
October 2006

Groundbreaking report on the how sex trafficking works and the role played by the massage parlors of San Francisco.

Part 1:  San Francisco Is A Major Center For International Crime Networks That Smuggle And Enslave.
Many of San Francisco's Asian massage parlors -- long an established part of the city's sexually permissive culture -- have degenerated into something much more sinister: international sex slave shops. 

Part 2:  A Youthful Mistake: You Mi was a typical college student, until her first credit card got her into trouble
At 1 a.m., the bell rang. You Mi Kim rushed with eight other Korean masseuses to the barren front lobby of Sun Spa in San Francisco. The women lined up on an L-shaped couch in their lingerie and waited for the customer to choose. 

Part 3:  Bought and Sold: You Mi is put into debt bondage -- life becomes an endless cycle of sex with strangers
A small sedan pulled up to a run-down motel in Tijuana just before midnight, and a middle-aged Korean American woman behind the wheel ordered You Mi Kim into the backseat. 

Part 4: Free, but Trapped
In San Francisco, You Mi begins to put her life back together -- but the cost is high
Navigating past the junkies and hustlers in San Francisco's Tenderloin district, You Mi Kim found the metal security door she was looking for, and pressed the buzzer. 

See the full series of articles plus podcasts with the Mayor, the author, and others, at: http://www.sfgate.com/sextrafficking/