Sunday, May 08, 2005
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

JOHN L. SMITH: Del Mar's demise won't dent increasingly sophisticated local sex trade

The Del Mar is dead.

For now, the Boulevard's fallen angels will have to find another place to play for pay.

They'll survive, but the race is run for the Del Mar, the notorious hot-sheet motel on Las Vegas Boulevard that for a generation catered to the quickie and advertised hourly rates and X-rated movies. On Wednesday, the City Council set irony aside and voted to shut down what authorities called a bustling brothel riddled with shady liaisons. And, no, they didn't mean City Hall.

The council was easily persuaded by Metro's dramatic display of Del Mar statistics and prophylactics. But the Del Mar's demise raises an interesting issue given the rampant prostitution that takes place largely unchecked in Las Vegas.

Metro vice has long had the impossible task of prioritizing the prolific prostitution that takes place inside the local resort industry. Faced with the reality that prostitution, though illegal, has always been part of the Vegas visitors' menu, they've wisely focused their resources on the most blatant offenders and those who exploit children.

For now, forget the image of the bellhop with the little black book. And never mind that the Yellow Pages has more than 100 pages of ads for escort services, exotic entertainers, and freelance models. Times are changing in the local sex trade.

These days, you'll sometimes find the FBI working cases against pimps who bring underage girls across state lines to turn them out on the Strip. Although in many respects the story never changes, local and federal authorities are finding some pimps are becoming increasingly sophisticated, taking advantage of Internet advertising and client screening services in an effort to display their wares without getting arrested.

Freelance pimps are common, but investigators are also finding prostitutes from Eastern Europe and Asia working in Southern Nevada and the scent of organized crime. Because many Russian and Chinese girls are here illegally, they're especially vulnerable to coercion and extortion by operators who speak their language and stoke their fears.

While streetwalkers and sloppy outcall entertainers take the brunt of the law enforcement effort, life is far different for penthouse prostitutes.

Here is where local society's sexual hypocrisy gets thick.

Crack whores are regularly paraded to the county lockup, but high-roller porn star parties on the Strip are rarely busted. Adult film actresses make a fortune working off-camera in Las Vegas.

Then there's the mysterious case of Manhattan-based New York Elites.

New York Elites dispatched high-dollar hookers to 22 cities before its owners of record, Elena Trochtchenkova and Rady Abdel Salem Abbassy, were arrested in April on federal interstate prostitution, money laundering, and tax charges. The pair are accused of attempting to conceal at least $5.5 million in illegal revenues generated for sexual services for which customers paid as much as $1,500 per hour.

It surely won't shock you to learn that New York Elites' girls picked up frequent flier miles on their Las Vegas runs. With 200 women, New York Elites serviced a high-end clientele, and sources say that included plenty of Strip customers, before having their service interrupted by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation.

It's a new spin on an old play. A decade ago, Heidi Fleiss' girls were flown into Las Vegas -- sometimes on casino jets -- for the purpose of pleasuring high rollers. Fleiss took a fall but was immediately replaced. The latest incarnations add Internet savvy to the job description.

It's noteworthy that a reliable source reports the immigration investigation might have accidentally short-circuited an FBI inquiry into the sale of New York Elites to a Bonanno crime family soldier who lives in Las Vegas.

The Boulevard's fallen angels will survive, but the penthouse girls thrive in a world without much heat.

It's a world that brims with endless cash and the celebrity that accompanies Las Vegas' sensuous arts.

It's enough to make the dirty days of the Del Mar seem quaint by comparison.

John L. Smith's column appears Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 383-0295.