Ex-San Diego PD vice detective pleads guilty to running illegal sex parlors
A retired San Diego police department vice detective tapped into his knowledge of the underworld to run multiple massage sex parlors across two states before he was arrested and pleaded guilty Tuesday.
Peter Griffin, who retired from the department in 2002, entered his guilty plea in federal court, along with three co-defendants, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The 78-year-old helped run five illicit parlors in California and Arizona from 2013 through August 2022, the US Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Griffin, formerly of the Vice Operations Unit with San Diego police, made big bucks in a business he once swore to tear down, the feds said.
Using experience and knowledge tied to his past police job, Griffin helped the businesses avoid law enforcement and regulatory inspections while maintaining the façade of legitimacy as they flew under the radar, prosecutors said.
He even used his badge one time to assist in his law breaking, according to the US Attorney’s Office.
He and the other defendants expected employees to perform commercial sex work inside the businesses, the feds said.
He once warned one worker he was an ex-police officer and told her not to “open [her] mouth” about her job at the illegal massage parlor, prosecutors said.
“The defendant – a former vice detective who once took an oath to uphold our laws – knew more than most that illicit massage businesses cruelly profit by exploiting women for commercial sex,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement.
“We are committed to prosecuting the proprietors of these illegal businesses, and to shining a light on those places where sexual exploitation and trafficking persist.”
Griffin entered a plea to racketeering-related conspiracy and conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering.
He could be locked up for 30 years.
Griffin started with San Diego police in 1975 before he left in 2002.
“No one is above the law. I’m appalled that someone who once took an oath to protect our community could prey on the vulnerable.” San Diego Police Chief David Nisleit said in a statement. “This is an important step toward justice for the survivors of these crimes.”
With Post wires