WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. law enforcement agencies have seized the sex marketplace website Backpage.com as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, according to a posting on the Backpage website on Friday.

An image of the current home page of the website backpage.com shows logos of U.S. law enforcement agencies after they seized the sex marketplace site April 6, 2018. backpage.com via REUTERS

Groups and political leaders working to end forced prostitution and child exploitation celebrated the shutdown of Backpage, a massive ad marketplace that is primarily used to sell sex. But some internet and free speech advocates warned the action could lead to harsh federal limits on expression and the press.

The website posting said U.S. attorneys in Arizona and California, as well as the Justice Department’s section on child exploitation and obscenity and the California and Texas attorneys general had helped shut down the website.

The Justice Department said late on Friday that a court in Arizona ruled the case remains sealed, which puts any legal information under wraps. In the posting about the seizure, the department had originally said more information would be made public on Friday evening.

A Phoenix FBI official said that there was “law enforcement activity” at the Sedona, Arizona home of Michael Lacey, one of the founders of Backpage, but referred further inquiries to the Justice Department.

Reuters was unable to reach representatives of Backpage for comment.

“Today, Backpage was shutdown. It’s a huge step. Now no child will be sold for sex through this website,” tweeted Senator Heidi Heitkamp.

Heitkamp helped draft legislation passed by the Senate last month that makes it easier for state prosecutors and sex-trafficking victims to sue social media networks, advertisers and others that fail to keep sex trafficking and exploitative materials off their platforms..

President Donald Trump will sign the bill into law next week, said Heitkamp. The legislation, featured prominently in the popular Netflix documentary “I am Jane Doe,” amends the Communications Decency Act, which has shielded website operators from state criminal charges or civil liability if they facilitate sex ads or prostitution.

“Shutting down the largest online U.S. marketplace for sex trafficking will dramatically reduce the profitability of forcing people into the commercial sex trade, at least in the short term,” said Bradley Myles, chief executive of Polaris, an international anti-slavery group that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline.

There would be “a dramatic shift in the marketplace starting tonight,” he added.

Backpage and advocacy groups say the ads are free speech protected by the U.S. Constitution.

Backpage has affiliates across the country and around the world, and by 2014 brought in annual revenue of $135 million, the New York Times has reported.

The Supreme Court in January 2017 refused to consider reviving a lawsuit against Backpage that was filed by three young women, who accused it of facilitating their forced prostitution.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has told Congress that nearly three quarters of the cases submitted to the center relate to ads posted on the site. The state of California has said that 90 percent of the site’s income were attributable to “adult ads.”

In 2016, Texas and California authorities raided the company’s Dallas headquarters and arrested chief executive Carl Ferrer and other former company executives on pimping-related charges. The judge in the case ruled the website was protected by the First Amendment, and it was not liable for the speech of third parties.</s>The Backpage website — notorious for prostitution and human trafficking — was seized Friday by federal authorities. This action was taken “as part of an enforcement action by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation Division, with analytical assistance from the Joint Regional Intelligence Center,” according to a notice appearing where the website used to display ads.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about the reasons for the seizure, saying only that more information would be made available in the coming days. But along with the seizure, news reports from Arizona — where the company is based — say that the home of one of the founders of the site was also raided by the FBI. Considering the nature of the ads on Backpage and the fact that the company has recently been the subject of multiple investigations related to human trafficking and child exploitation, it is likely that that is the reason for the seizure.

Backpage has a long and checkered past. It began as the back page of a newspaper called the Phoenix New Times and was filled with classified ads. In 2004, the founders of the paper, Michael Lacey and Jim Larkin, launched the Backpage website to compete with Craigslist. As Backpage was the most profitable part of the New Times, Lacey and Larkin retained ownership of that part of the business when they sold the paper in 2012.

Most ads were free to list, but some ads — particular those in the “adult services” section — were charged a fee. The site quickly became dominated by such ads — a majority of which were thinly-veiled offerings of prostitution. In January 2017, Backpage closed the “Adult Services” section, but those ads were simply moved over to the “Dating” section and business-as-usual continued.

While there are those in our sex-marinated society who would argue that “transactional sex” (a euphemism aimed at sanitizing the practice of buying and selling sex) should not be against the law as long as it is between consenting adults, there is a major component of the trade that is ignored by that argument.

That component is that the “consent” is often not really consent. First there is the fact that almost all prostitution is based on exploiting the weakness and financial needs of a woman who — if she felt she had other options — would not “consent” to — as the British pop band, Tears for Fears, described it in their 1989 hit song Woman in Chains — a “transaction” in which she “sells the only thing she owns.” When a man “rents” a woman to use as a sexual object, the “consent” touted by those who either profit from the sex trade industry or act as consumers of that industry is greatly diminished. When a woman’s ability to consent to sex is diminished by alcohol, drugs, or other things, the sex that takes place is often called rape. This should not be treated differently.

Human persons are not objects and should never be treated as such, even if their circumstances lead them to a place where they feel they have no other option than to sell themselves as such.

But way beyond that, many of the women in the sex trade industry are victims of human trafficking. Many of them are not women at all, but young girls. And as the National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) points out, many of those young girls — after being enslaved by pimps — were sold on Backpage. On NCOSE’s “Dirty Dozen” list, Lacey, Larkin, and Backpage CEO Carl Ferrer are described as “top pimps” who have made millions of dollars with a website that one young victim described as a place where she had been ordered online “like a pizza.”

The NCOSE page exposing Backpage as “a virtual auction block where sex buyers can shop for human beings for sex from the privacy of their home, office, hotel room, or cell phone” says:

Backpage.com brings the seedy street corners of America’s red-light districts to home computers.

A classified advertising website known as “the hub” for prostitution advertising, Backpage.com serves as a virtual auction block where sex buyers can shop for human beings for sex from the privacy of their home, office, hotel room, or cell phone. Many of those bought and sold via the website are sexually trafficked women and children.

Reports show that Backpage facilitates this activity by editing ads to conceal the illegality of underlying criminal activity.

The page also cites a statistic from the National Center on Missing and Exploited Children that shows that 73 percent of all child sex trafficking cases it has handled involved children being sold on Backpage. That statistic comes from testimony given to the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security, and Investigations by Mary Graw Leary, professor of law at Catholic University of America, Columbus School of Law .

Another study (though not cited by NCOSE) from 2014 shows that roughly 70 percent of children survivors of human trafficking were sold at one time or another on Backpage.

As proof of these claims, the NCOSE page exposing Backpage has a button with the caption, “Personal Accounts: Sold on Backpage.” Clicking that button leads to the stories of survivors of Backpage’s “adult services” business model. One story features a young woman who is identified only as “Alissa” — the street name she was sold under. Alissa is now a 24-year-old college senior planning to become a lawyer. But between 16 and 17 years old, she was the captive slave of pimps who — as mentioned above — was kept in a Manhattan building “where she had repeatedly been ordered online as if she were a pizza.” The account — which is linked from a New York Times article tells of a scar the young woman will always bear. That scar was inflicted by a pimp when he gouged her cheek with a potato peeler as a warning not to escape. “Like cattle owners brand their cattle,” she said, fingering her cheek, “he wanted to brand me in a way that I would never forget.”

Alissa’s pimps used Backpage to sell her to those who abused her. Her pimps are now in jail, and her anger is focused on companies, such as Backpage, which willingly facilitated her enslavement. In the article, she asks, “You can’t buy a child at Wal-Mart, can you?” and then answers her own question, saying, “No, but you can go to Backpage and buy me.”

That is one of the tamer stories. The horrors some young girls (many of them barely post-pubescent) face are hard to read. One 15-year-old girl’s story is particularly horrible because it is so normal as to represent the status quo. The story — linked from a CNN blog post — tells of the girl, who had a “secret, online ‘friend’ who convinced her to run away with him. That’s when the story changed from a romance story to a horror story:

The child ran away with him. In less than a week, her "friend," a known pimp, had posted pictures of her online in Backpage.com's adult section selling the child for sex.

"He took her and beat her into submission, raping her, and then held her in prostitution," says Dawn, who asked we change her name to protect the family. She learned details of her daughter's ordeal by reading the criminal complaint filed against the man, who has pleaded not guilty.

The case is being prosecuted by the office of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman, who says he has several cases against men prostituting girls as young as 15.

"These pimps are pretty adroit, manipulative people ... they may take them out for an evening and at the end of the evening is sex with the pimp and subsequently these girls are in the business of prostitution."

And the market-of-choice for these adroit pimps who enslave women and children and forcibly sell them as sexual objects was Backpage. The site’s operators routinely edited the ads to keep the language just below the threshold of illegal appearance while using code words to assist the sale of girls they knew were children. One of those code words was both dark and telling: “Amber Alert.”

Before being shuttered by authorities, Backpage enjoyed a ranking as the second largest online marketplace, with Craigslist leading the pack. Craigslist was once nearly as bad as Backpage, but removed its “Adult Services” section (which had previously been “Erotic Services”). Like Backpage, Craigslist simply moved those ads to its “dating” section, called “Casual Encounters.”

Casual Encounters was also removed. But hold the applause. The shutdown wasn’t so much a conscionable decision to do what’s right, as forced action by Congress due to the newly passed — the Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act.

As evidence that Craigslist did not act out of a properly re-calibrated moral compass, the article includes the notice that Craigslist ran to explain the missing “Casual Encounters” page. That notice stated:

US Congress just passed HR 1865, “FOSTA”, seeking to subject websites to criminal and civil liability when third parties (users) misuse online personals unlawfully.

Any tool or service can be misused. We can’t take such risk without jeopardizing all of our other services, so we are regrettably taking craigslist personals offline. Hopefully we can bring them back some day.

To the millions of spouses, partners, and couples who met through craigslist, we wish you every happiness.

Of course, the notice — while wishing “every happiness” to the alleged “millions” of people in successful relationships started as a result of the site — does not say anything to those whose lives were ruined — or ended — as a result of the human trafficking the site abetted. But then, “We are sorry for your mental and physical scars” and “May your souls rest in peace” doesn’t ring with the same PR spin as “We wish you every happiness.”

The seizure of Backpage will likely serve to keep Craigslist’s plans to bring its “Casual Encounters” (human trafficking) section “back some day” at bay.

The seizure included all of the company’s servers and equipment. As Cindy McCain, wife of Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.), told AZCentral, federal authorities “confiscated everything and shut the website down.” Also, charges have been brought against Backpage cofounder Michael Lacey.

This is a developing story and The New American will continue to keep our readers updated as it progresses.</s>Backpage.com, a popular classified website operating in the United States was seized and shut down by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on Friday, April 6, following allegations of sexual trafficking facilitation against the platform. FBI agents confirmed that raids were carried out in the residence of Michael Lacey, the founder of Backpage.

"Backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action," says the banner that popped up on the site posted by the FBI, US Postal Inspection Service and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division.

Backpage.com under the scanner for many years

Backpage.com has been under the scanner of FBI for the past few years. The investigation agency has been monitoring the website's adult ads page after several allegations were made that it was acting as a platform to "facilitate" sex trafficking.

The website's adult ads page allows users to post about escort services, and investigators revealed that many of the advertisements on this page were actually for minor girls.

Earlier, a two year Senate investigation which probed into online sex trafficking had found that Backpage.com played a key role in aiding sex trafficking of women and young girls. As the investigation report surfaced in January 2017, Backpage.com shut down its adult ads section.

Years of legal battle and finally the 'End'

Backpage.com has also faced several legal hassles in the past and was largely protected by Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. This act offers legal protection to online companies from being liable to contents generated by its users. Most online companies who engage in malicious activities often use this law as a shield. However, the law does not protect the company if content related to child pornography is published by the site.

U.S. Senator John McCain (Arizona) issued a statement following the shut down of the website sayiing that the seizure of Backpage.com marks an important step forward in the fight against human trafficking.

"The seizure of the malicious sex marketplace Backpage.com marks an important step forward in the fight against human trafficking. This builds on the historic effort in Congress to reform the law that for too long has protected websites like Backpage from being held liable for enabling the sale of young women and children. Today's action sends a strong message to Backpage and any other company facilitating online sex trafficking that they will be held accountable for these horrific crimes," said McCain.

Last month, the Senate had approved a bipartisan legislation called the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act. This legislation created an exception to section 230, allowing the victims of sexual trafficking to sue the websites accountable for facilitating abuse. Soon after the Senate approval, Craigslist, the competitor of Backpage.com closed their personal ads section.</s>Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan has launched a revamped website highlighting the crime of human trafficking in Ireland.

This follows concerns expressed by organisations supporting victims of sexual exploitation that there needed to be greater public awareness that the purchase of sex is now a crime.

Sarah Benson from Ruhama welcomed the minister’s move but added: “It is only one of a number of measures needed to combat trafficking. They include training for gardaí, the rollout of protection services bureaux, and NGO involvement.”

Ms Benson said it was too early to say whether the criminalisation of the purchase of sexual services in March last year has had any notable effect on the levels of human trafficking here.

The newly designed site provides a user-friendly overview of how the crime manifests in Ireland, how members of the public can spot and report the signs of trafficking, and how the State supports these victims.

Mr Flanagan said: “A key element in the fight against human trafficking is an informed society, who are aware that exploitation, tantamount to slavery, continues to happen today in Ireland. Our revamped ‘Blue Blindfold’ website seeks to further educate the public on what human trafficking is and how it occurs in Ireland.

“Human trafficking is driven by supply and demand. Public demand for cheap labour and sexual services creates the space in which criminal gangs thrive. Such gangs use deception to force vulnerable people into prostitution and, increasingly, into everyday employment sectors such as pop-up car washes, nail salons, domestic households and the agri-food sector.

“It is in these areas that the public may unwittingly encounter a victim of human trafficking.”</s>The Justice Department has seized the popular classified ads website backpage.com over the sex trafficking ads on its website.

It unsealed charges Friday evening against seven people who run the site, although it’s not clear how many have been arrested, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports.

The indictment contains 93 counts of several different crimes including money laundering and running a website to facilitate prostitution.

The federal government was able to seize the website because it was allegedly being used to facilitate crime.The government has used this approach in the past with other sex trafficking websites and online pharmacies. There are 17 victims named in these documents – adults and children who were forced into sex trafficking.

The charges are not about child exploitation, though — the Justice Department was able to charge them on other crimes.

The charges were filed in Arizona, where the website was founded and maintained, and the Backpage servers are also located here.

The Justice Department says almost every sex trafficking case involves online ads, mostly from the backpage.com website. Further, the department contends that the biggest issue concerning these websites is that they facilitate sex trafficking for people who would have been too sheepish to pursue sex on the streets, especially those looking for children. DOJ views this action as a major development in its overall effort to combat sex trafficking, although there have been previous cases against Backpage that were thrown out.

On Friday, some visitors to the site were greeted with a message that said, “backpage.com and affiliated websites have been seized as part of an enforcement action” by the FBI, the Postal Inspection Service and the IRS Criminal Investigation Division. Another agency participating in the action is the Justice Department’s Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section.

Last year, a Senate report alleged Backpage “knowingly concealed evidence” of child sex trafficking through its editing “by deleting words, phrases, and images indicative of criminality”. Senate investigators said words like “young,” “little girl” and “innocent” were removed while “the remainder of the ad would be published.”

Backpage executives called to testify before Congress after the report was published took the fifth. The company accused senators of conducting a “witch hunt” against the site and said it cooperates with police departments to locate victims.

Some victims believe the federal action will help their civil lawsuits against Backpage. But others are concerned about the website shutting down because it could drive more child sex trafficking to the dark web and make it harder to find victims.</s>The National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) says it will partner with the National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) to curtail the menace of human trafficking.

The Head of Media Unit of NAHCON, Mrs Fatima Mustapha, made this known in a statement on Friday in Abuja.

She said the management of NAHCON, led by its Executive Chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Muhammad, made the pledge during a courtesy call on the leadership of NAPTIP in Abuja.

Mustapha quoted Muhammad as stressing the need for synergy by all relevant organisations to tackle the menace of human trafficking.

Muhammad expressed concern that human trafficking had dented the image of the country in recent.

The NAHCON boss called on the National Security Adviser to coordinate the agencies involved in anti-human trafficking to find lasting solutions to the menace, especially the route to the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The executive chairman said that the introduction of e-passport by the Nigeria Immigration Service had reduced human trafficking drastically, unlike in the past.

According to him, there is need for all relevant government agencies to evolve new strategy to deal with the menace.

Muhammad also said the introduction of bio-metric data capturing by the Saudi authority for Hajj and Umrah was to checkmate the activities of those over stayed their period and absconders.

Responding, the Director-General of NAPTIP, Mrs Julie Okali-Donli, commended the leadership of NAHCON for identifying with the good work of the organisation.

Okali-Donli assured of the readiness of NAPTIP to work with the commission to curb human trafficking.

She, however, said this would be done in line with the provision of the law establishing the agency; to prosecute any person or organisation involved in human trafficking.

No fewer than five pilgrims from Gombe, Zamfara, Plateau and Jigawa absconded during the 2017 Hajj.

The five pilgrims include one from Gombe, one from Zamfara, two from Plateau and one from Jigawa.</s>NEW DELHI, Apr 5 2018 (IPS) - The Indian Union Cabinet has cleared the long-awaited Trafficking of Persons (Prevention, Protection and Rehabilitation) Bill, which proposes an imprisonment of 10 years to life term for those trafficking humans for the purpose of begging, marriage, prostitution or labour, among others. The bill will become a law once cleared by both houses of Parliament.

In a pioneering move, the ambit of the proposed legislation transcends mere punitive action to encompass rehabilitation as well. It provides for immediate protection of rescued victims entitling them to interim relief within 30 days. There are specific clauses to address the victims’ physical and mental trauma, education, skill development, health care as well as legal aid and safe accommodation.

"If implemented, the law could have far-reaching benefits, like curbing the underground labour industry and ensuring that fair wages are paid." --High Court advocate Aarti Kukreja



The National Investigation Agency, the country’s premier body combating terror, will perform the task of national anti-trafficking bureau. A Rehabilitation Fund is also being created to provide relief to the affected irrespective of criminal proceedings initiated against the accused or the outcome thereof.

“It’s a victory of the 1.2 million people who participated in 11,000 km long Bharat Yatra (India March) for this demand,” Nobel Laureate Kailash Satyarthi said in a statement, referring to a month-long march he organised last year.

According to global surveys, human trafficking is the third largest organized crime violating basic human rights. The Australia-based human rights group The Walk Free Foundation’s 2016 Global Slavery Index points out that at a whopping 18.35 million, India leads the global tally for adults and children trapped in modern slavery.

Thousands of women and children are trafficked within India as well as well as neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh. Some are enticed from villages and towns with false promises of gainful employment in the cities, while a large number of them are forcefully abducted by traffickers.

As trafficking is a highly organized crime involving interstate gangs, the bill proposes a district-level “anti-trafficking unit” with an “anti-trafficking police officer”, and a designated sessions court for speedy trials. The Bill also divides various offences into “trafficking” and “aggravated trafficking”. The former category of crimes carries a jail term of seven to 10 years while the latter can put the offenders in the clink for at least 10 years, extendable to life imprisonment.

Also, aggravated offences would include trafficking for the purpose of forced labour, begging, trafficking by administering chemical substance or hormones on a person for the purpose of early sexual maturity, trafficking of a woman or child for the purpose of marriage or under the pretext of marriage. The draft bill also moots three years in jail for abetting, promoting and assisting trafficking.

There is also a provision for a time-bound trial and repatriation of victims — within a period of one year from the time the crime is taken into cognisance.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, 8,100 cases of trafficking were recorded in India in 2016 with 23,000 trafficking victims being rescued last year. However, experts say the figures fail to reflect the true magnitude of the crime. The actual figures, say activists, could be much higher as many victims do not register cases with the police for lack of legal knowledge or due to fear from traffickers.

India’s West Bengal state – which shares a porous border with poorer neighbours Bangladesh and Nepal and is a known human trafficking hub – registered more than one-third of the total number of victims in 2016. Victims were also trafficked for domestic servitude, forced marriage, begging, drug peddling and the removal of their organs, the NCRB figures showed.

Worsening the crisis are the growing demands of a burgeoning services industry in India which recruit the abducted without a system of proper vetting, say experts. This practise is directly responsible for the spiralling number of human trafficking cases reported in India. It is here that the new proposed law can go a long way in combating human trafficking.

“If implemented, the law could have far-reaching benefits, like curbing the underground labour industry and ensuring that fair wages are paid,” says High Court advocate Aarti Kukreja.

The Walk Free Foundation estimates that 45.8 million people, including millions of children, are subject to some form of modern slavery in the world, compared to 35.8 million in 2014, a concern that affects large swathes of South Asia. But significantly, there is no specific law so far to deal with this crime. Experts hope the proposed legislation will make India a pioneer in formulating a comprehensive legislation to combat the trafficking menace.

Currently, trafficking in India is covered by loophole-ridden laws that enables miscreants to give the law a slip. According to New Delhi-based social activist Vrinda Thakur, the new initiative’s comprehensive nature will help tackle trafficking more effectively.

“All previous legislation dealing with human trafficking treated traffickers as well as the trafficked as criminals. This was bizarre. It prevented the victims from coming forward to report the crime. However, as per the proposed new law, the first of its kind in India, victims will be offered assistance and protection,” elaborates Thakur.

As part of the government’s larger mission to control trafficking, some measures are already underway. An online platform has been created to trace missing children and bilateral anti-human trafficking pacts have been signed with Bangladesh and Bahrain. The government is also working with charities and non-profits to train law enforcement officers. The proposed new law will act as a force multiplier to take these efforts further.

Kukreja elaborates that the Bill has an in-built mechanism to eschew antiquated and bureaucratic legislature that currently bedevils law enforcement in India.

“It will unify existing laws, prioritise survivors’ needs and provide for special courts to expedite cases,” she says.

By whittling down human trafficking in South Asia and deterring traffickers with high penalties, labour practices will decline, giving abducted women and children the chance to better their future, contributing to the country’s economic and social development.</s>Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) Secretary Gina Meier-Hummel is pleased to announce the creation of a new position within the agency to specifically address the human trafficking of children in Kansas. The position was announced on Thursday during a news conference in Topeka, at which City of Topeka and Shawnee County leaders unveiled a joint resolution to combat human trafficking in northeast Kansas.

“We know there is a great need for collaboration on this important issue,” Secretary Meier-Hummel said. “This modern-day form of slavery is a reality in every corner of our state, and as we work to address the safety needs of child victims, we need a united effort to prevent human trafficking and develop a comprehensive response to the problem.”

The Anti-Human Trafficking Coordinator position, will be within DCF’s Prevention and Protection Services division, in Topeka. The individual hired will be responsible for leading the agency’s initiative to strengthen the comprehensive response and service system for youth in DCF care who are victims of human trafficking or are at risk. The position involves direct coordination with the Kansas Attorney General’s Office and law enforcement. Data will be collected and analyzed to ensure effective response.

“Human trafficking is a problem that goes unseen for most of us, yet it affects so many,” Governor Jeff Colyer said. “I appreciate Secretary Meier-Hummel’s commitment to tackling this problem, and I look forward to the positive impact it will have on our state.”

From March 2014 to December 2017, DCF helped 285 suspected child victims of human trafficking.

Secretary Meier-Hummel is focused on working with government entities, communities and others to combat human trafficking. As part of today’s news conference, details about a grassroots-level initiative were announced. Freedom Now is an anti-human trafficking effort led by Topeka Rescue Mission Executive Director Barry Feaker.

“We appreciate the participation from DCF on this monumental initiative,” Feaker said. “At the Topeka Rescue Mission, we have seen first-hand the tremendous impact this evil has on the lives of innocent children, and we will no longer stand for it. We expect our local effort to expand statewide and beyond as residents begin to realize that this is an issue that affects all of us, and we all have a role to play in stopping it.”</s>A Santa Clarita man accused of human trafficking appeared in court Thursday, but is scheduled to return Friday, officials said.

Michael Shaw, 37, of Santa Clarita, appeared in San Fernando Superior Court this week for a pre-trial conference.

Shaw was one of three people, including two men and one woman – arrested on suspicion of human trafficking on May 5, 2016.

Just under a year ago, a judge dismissed the criminal case against the woman following a preliminary hearing, leaving the two men to face the charges filed against them.

Eric Hamwey, 31, of Encino, is the other man charged with human trafficking in the same case.

Shaw was arrested after deputies responding to a call after they determined he was trafficking an adult victim for sex and had violently assaulted her, according to a news release issued by sheriff’s Deputy Lisa Jansen in May 2016.</s>PHOENIX — A founder of a 45-year-old alternative weekly newspaper in Phoenix has been charged in the apparent culmination of a federal human-trafficking investigation.

Michael Lacey, 69, of Sedona, Ariz., who helped build a nationwide media empire out of the Phoenix New Times, was charged Friday as part a 93-count indictment that remained sealed late Friday, according to Lacey’s lawyer, Larry Kazan.

Lacey also co-founded the online classified advertising site Backpage, and authorities had spent months probing whether the website served as a willing participant in the online sale of sex, including with underage girls.

Lacey, former editor of New Times, and Jim Larkin, the former publisher, were arrested in October 2016 on California charges that they had profited from prostitution activities through Backpage. A judge there threw out charges that the pair and Backpage Chief Executive Carl Ferrer conspired to engage in pimping.

Friday’s charges are only the latest in a list of legal troubles for Lacey and also perhaps for Larkin, whose Paradise Valley, Ariz., home was the scene of an FBI search Friday.

► April 6: FBI raids Backpage founder’s home just as classified listing site shut down

 ► April 6: Feds seize sex marketplace Backpage, a Delaware LLC in ‘good standing’

 ► March 21: Senate approves bill to curb sex-trafficking, sending it to president

Before Backpage, launched in 2004, both men had built a chain of alternative weeklies across the USA with a mixture of arts coverage and investigations. In 2005, Lacey and Larkin bought out Village Voice Media in New York City.

In 2012, the men sold all the newspapers to the chain’s editors and publishers. In interviews at the time, Lacey said he did so to shield the journalism from the furor over Backpage.

They began Backpage as an alternative to Craigslist, and it became the second most popular online classified site in the U.S. behind Craigslist.

Its problems didn’t stem from the pets for sale section, but the personal ads — what a Senate subcommittee last year considered as people for sale, knowingly aiding in prostitution and child sex trafficking.

Craigslist restricted and then closed its erotic services section in 2010. Backpage considered that move an economic opportunity.

“Craig killed his adult section last night in all US markets,” read an October 2010 e-mail from Ferrer. “It is an opportunity for us.”

Backpage experienced a 50% growth in ad volume within two months of Craigslist closing its adult section, according to an internal history of the company included in the Senate report.

Backpage shut down its adult section in January 2017, the same day Lacey, Larkin and other Backpage executives were called to testify at that Senate subcommittee hearing. The men refused to answer any questions then.

The types of ads that had appeared in the adult section of Backpage, including racy photos, migrated to the singles section. In recent weeks, in response to a federal law that holds websites accountable for knowingly facilitating human trafficking, the ads were restricted to a phone number, photos and links to other websites.

► Feb. 13: ‘It lights up the brain like crack’: Why men buy sex

 ► Aug. 4: Who’s buying sex? Married white men, Minnesota study says

Cindy McCain, wife of Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and an outspoken critic of human trafficking, said she had heard that federal law enforcement officials had raided not only Lacey’s home, but every Backpage office worldwide.

“They’ve confiscated everything and shut the website down,” she said.

Cindy McCain called it a good day in the fight against human trafficking.

She said she and other advocates had worked for years to get Backpage to change its business model, but the company consistently refused.

“I wish that it didn’t have to go this far,” she said. “I wish they would have cooperated with us when we tried to get them to see they needed to stop this.”

Liz McDougall, a lawyer for Backpage, said Friday evening that she could not comment on the day’s events. Lacey and Larkin have also not responded to interview requests from The Arizona Republic.

For years, as advocates criticized the website as a forum for prostitution ads, lawyers representing Lacey, Larkin and Backpage, asserted that the site merely hosted ads others wrote and was responsible for neither the content nor consequences.

Lawyers for the website further argued that Backpage cooperated with law enforcement and took steps to curb sex trafficking from being conducted through the site.

Federal authorities pointed to internal e-mails they said showed that website actively edited ads with the intention of masking that illegal activity, not preventing it. Backpage employed an automated system that screened out words possibly indicative of illegal activity, rather than passing that information on to law enforcement, investigators concluded.

Internal e-mails showed that Backpage supervisors would debate whether certain words or phrases were obvious indicators of an exchange of money for sex, or if they were, as one executive wrote, “phrases of nuance.”

► Aug. 1: Senators: Alter Internet laws to hold Backpage liable for sex trafficking

 ► February 2017: Phoenix domestic-violence shelter files suit against Backpage

Words like “quickie” and “afternoon delight” were allowed, according to the e-mails. Other terms, including “amber alert” and “cheerleader,” were deemed indicative of minors being offered for sex and banned from the site, the e-mails said.

The business was lucrative. The adult ads were among the few Backpage charged users to post. Backpage earned $135 million in 2014, according to a U.S. Senate report.

A February 2015 appraisal said the company was worth more than $600 million.

A federal grand jury had been presented with evidence against Backpage since at least February 2017, according to court filings in a civil suit filed against Backpage.

In March 2017, each man filed paperwork that removed their names from homes they had owned.

Larkin made the Paradise Valley home he owned with his wife a gift to her as her “sole and separate property,” according to the documents. Lacey conveyed his Sedona home to a limited liability company called Creek Hideaway.
Several U.S. federal authorities led by the FBI seize the personal ad website Backpage in an effort to stop alleged human trafficking, including that of minors. Its co-founders Michael Lacey and James Larkin were also charged with 93 counts of human trafficking.