Las Vegas man used Craigslist to lure sex-trafficking victims, police say

A 63-year-old Las Vegas man used ads on Craigslist to lure teenage girls into sex trafficking, according to a Metropolitan Police Department arrest report obtained by the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

A Las Vegas area high school teacher contacted police Aug. 6 and said that a former female high school student had gone to him for help and gave him reason to believe she was a sex-trafficking victim.

Metro vice detectives began to investigate and, on Tuesday, arrested David Coil on one count of sex trafficking of a child under the age of 18, one count of attempted sex trafficking of a child and four counts of soliciting or engaging in child prostitution.

Metro detective R. Wright (first names were not available) met with the girl, and she said that in October, when she was 16, she was seeking a job on the website Craigslist.com. She told police that she found an ad that read, “petite, young girls who could make $1,500 a day” and, “no sex involved.”

She responded to the advertisement and began communicating with Coil. She said she told Coil she was only 16, and he responded, “16 is fine” and the two agreed to meet at a Carl’s Jr. restaurant. After meeting, Coil drove the girl to his house, provided her with alcohol and she eventually became drunk.

While she was at Coil’s house, he told her what the job entailed and told her she would be performing “body rubs” at his house. Coil said he had several girls who worked for him, and he had an established client base of men who regularly came to his house for body rubs. Each girl was allowed to perform masturbation on the clients as long as there was no intercourse, the girl told detectives.

She said she told Coil that she didn’t think the job was right for her and apologized, asking if there was something she could do to make up for wasting his time. Coil suggested she give him a body rub and he would pay her $100 in exchange; she agreed. Coil then taught the girl how to provide “body rubs” to clients. She told detectives that she followed all of Coil’s directions and he paid her $200 plus a tip.

The girl agreed to work for Coil approximately four nights a week from October to this month. According to the arrest report, Coil asked the girl for personal body rubs on three occasions . He would pay her the standard $80 for the body rubs and then pay her a $20 tip, the girl told Wright. Coil did not take any of the proceeds from the girls.

The girls who worked for Coil referred to his house as the “naked house” as the girls were required to be naked while they were there and Coil himself would also be naked, the report said. Some of the females who worked for Coil would go by names such as “Tawny”, “Angi” or “Bella.” The girl told Wright that “Angi” was Coil’s own daughter and that he would set up appointments for her, the arrest report said.

When male clients would come to the house, Coil would usually go to the back room and stay out of sight until they left. On occasion, the girl told Wright that Coil would offer a fetish service refered to as, “daddy-daughter rub” or “grandpa-granddaughter rub,” which involved Coil role-playing as the girls’ father or grandfather, the arrest report said.

Coil would provide the girl with rides to his house and he gave her a cellphone used for client purposes. Coil took pictures of the girl every three months and uploaded them to the advertisement on Craigslist, she told Wright. Coil would actively try to recruit younger females using the “Las Vegas-Gigs-Talent” section of Craigslist to advertise. One of the advertisements stated, “You know what its about … and ITs not a massage,” she told detectives. Each girl working for Coil had her own Craigslist advertisements with images of them in revealing clothing.

On Aug. 22, Metro officer O. Deeds responded to one of Coil’s Craiglist ads using a fake phone number and pretending to be a 17-year-old girl who was interested in working for him. During the text conversation, Coil told the officer (she) needed to be “open-minded”, the job was “naked full time” and there would be “no sex, only body rubs.”

Deeds asked to meet Coil at a Wendy’s restaurant. Upon arrival Deeds noticed Coil and his further intent to recruit what he believed to be a 17-year-old girl for the purpose of prostitution. Coil was then taken into custody.

Contact Jessica Terrones at jterrones@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0381. Follow @JessATerrones on Twitter.