Sex brokers' in Tijuana connect men looking to exploit very young children, FBI says
It's William from tonight. Precious was weird and fun. I'm already thinking about coming down next Thursday. Please send me pics of 3 or four of the youngest ones so I can choose."
FBI investigators say William Dixon Adelman, a 51-year-old Studio City man, sent the request to a Tijuana sex broker on July 3, 2015 - the same day border crossing records show he was returning to the U.S. from Mexico.
"Thin, pretty - Like a precious but smaller," the request continued. "You have a safe apartment? Hotel people would freak out no?"
The broker responded that he had a "good" place in mind, but reservations were needed: "in this place you can take the girls realy (sic) young 9,10,11."
The emails, being used to prosecute Adelman on charges of traveling with the intent to engage in illicit sex following his arrest this month, offer a glimpse into a niche of Tijuana's sex tourism industry - men seeking to exploit young children.
FBI Supervisory Special Agent Joseph Rothrock in San Diego said the agency has investigated three to four cases in the last six months of Americans traveling with intent to have sex with minors. At least two of the recent cases, including Adelman's, stem from a Tijuana man accused of setting up sexual encounters between U.S. citizens and young children. A third case involves the Philippines.
He said the cases are the beginning results of a renewed effort to tackle child trafficking in Mexico with help from Mexican law enforcement.
"All law enforcement partners are trying to get a handle on this information and assess how big an issue this is," said Rothrock, who supervises the FBI's Violent Crimes Task Force. He declined to discuss details of the cases, including if any child victims have been identified or rescued.
Prostitution has long been tolerated in Tijuana's La Zona Norte, where customers - many of them Americans - easily find commercial sex on the street or in established brothels. Young children are offered more covertly, authorities say.
"It's as easy as going on the internet and the dark web to get what you want," said Marisa Ugarte, a former Tijuana social worker and founder of Bilateral Safety Corridor Coalition, a National City, Calif.-based service organization for victims of sex trafficking.
Many of the children are brought up from other areas of Mexico, Ugarte said. Some are orphans, unaccompanied minor immigrants or sold by their parents. Some are kidnapped, she said.
Child sex trafficking has long been known to be a problem in Tijuana, but there is no official data suggesting just how prolific it is.
The Tijuana investigations began in December, when a U.S. citizen reported the broker to the FBI. The FBI found the unnamed broker, interviewed him and was granted access to his email and Facebook communications with several clients.
(The broker denied actually providing access to children, but admitted to communicating with several people about setting up such transactions, according to court records. The man did admit to providing clients access to adults for sex.)
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