Undercover Cops Nab Chicago Pimp Running Hooker Through Backpage Site: Police

Cook County vice cops apprehended a Chicago pimp who was running a prostitute through the notorious classifieds site Backpage, police said.

Troy Gardener, 24, was arrested Wednesday in southwest Chicago and charged with promoting prostitution.

The police reportedly launched an undercover operation in response to an advertisement found on Backpage.

“During the operation, members of the vice unit recovered a female victim and learned that Gardener had rented the hotel room for the purpose of prostitution,” police said. “Officers also learned that he was gaining financially from the alleged prostitution being conducted in the room by the woman” after meeting her through Backpage.

“Backpage is a classified advertisement website whose ‘Escorts’ pages serve as prominent hubs for prostitution and sex trafficking,” police said. “Since 2009, the vice unit has made over 750 arrests off of Backpage. Gardener is the 47th Vice arrest for involuntary servitude, human trafficking or promoting prostitution since 2007. The majority of those investigations originated from Craigslist or Backpage postings for prostitution.”

Police offered the woman the services of the Sheriff’s Women’s Justice Program, which supports recovering prostitutes.

A young woman found butchered in the laundry room of a Joliet apartment complex in September turned out to have met her killer through Backpage, a prosecutor said, and rendezvoused with him there to provide sex for money.

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