Suburbanites Flock to Detroit for Sex, Drugs: Police

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A recent two-hour sex and drug sting on Detroit’s east side netted six arrests — five of them of people who live in the suburbs.

The Detroit News said the underground economy in Detroit, like the legitimate one, is dependent on suburban investment — a fact borne out in the recent sting, which reflects trends in other sting operations in the Motor City.

From March to September, Detroiters represented only 275 of the 628 people arrested in undercover prostitution and drug operations, Assistant Police Chief Steve Dolunt told the newspaper.

The suburbs aren’t immune to drug dealers and prostitutes, but it’s generally more difficult to find them than in Detroit, according to the report. When out-of-towners venture into some of the city’s most dangerous neighborhoods, trouble can result, Dolunt told the newspaper.

“A lot of times these people from the suburbs aren’t very streetwise, and they become victims of crimes themselves,” he said. “They get robbed, beat up, sometimes killed.”

Of Detroit’s 298 homicides last year, 13 percent lived outside of the city limits, according to the Wayne County Medical Examiner’s Office. Similar trends were reported in 2013, when 14 percent of murder victims lived outside the city, and 2012, when 16 percent were out-of-towners.

The highest number of suburbanites traveling to Detroit for illegal wares came from those communities within a five-mile radius of Eight Mile Road.

Detroit Police Sgt. Ahmed Haidar, who heads Special Operations for Detroit’s 12th Precinct covering a five-mile area south of Eight Mile, said 80 percent of those arrested for prostitution come from the suburbs and “almost everyone buying drugs” are suburbanites.

» Read more on The Detroit News.