Investigators say brothel got its client base from gas fields
ktbs.com/news
POSTED: 5:25 pm CDT September 15, 2011

FRIERSON -- Three men and three women are jailed in DeSoto Parish on charges they operated a brothel whose clientele were predominantly natural gas field workers.

The women are illegal aliens. DeSoto Sheriff Rodney Arbuckle said detectives are trying to determine if they willingly engaged in prostitution or were coerced in order to pay the costs of being smuggled into the area.

Sheriff's deputies and federal agents on Thursday raided a mobile home and two travel trailers on White Road north of Frierson. Law officers found hundreds of condoms and thousands of dollars in cash on the property.

There were no customers there at the time, Arbuckle said.

Prostitution occurred at that location and women were also driven to see customers, investigators said.

The investigation began four months ago. It started with a complaint from a neighbor who was concerned people at the trailers were involved in human trafficking.

Arbuckle said surveillance indicated children played outside while their mothers had sex inside the trailers and the mobile home.

"This is a horrendous situation," District Attorney Richard Johnson said. "One of the disadvantages of the Haynesville Shale."

The men are charged with pandering and enticing persons into prostitution. The women -- who are from Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Honduras -- were booked on charges of prostitution.

Their names were not immediately released.

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