Police bust pimps, prostitutes at fair

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) - With the New Mexico State Fair in full swing, friends and family are having fun playing games, eating food and screaming on rides.

However, New Mexico State Police Sergeant Pete Estrada says he and his team of officers are on busy on patrol.

"We do have the officers working on an elevated level due to 9-11 coming up," says Sgt. Estrada.

officers say they get the occasional drunk, who needs medical attention, but for the most part things have been tame.

State Police has 31 officers on patrol, and their presence on the fairgrounds lasts all night. But the action that goes on after-hours near the state fair grounds is what they're keeping a close eye on.

"The girls follow the state fairs, state-to-state, county-to-county," says an unnamed APD officer.

The officer can't disclose his name because he's doing undercover work nabbing pimps and prostitutes. He says the influx of people to the New Mexico State Fair, brings out more work for APD.

"Yesterday we had three prostitutes, three pimps, we seized two vehicles because the vehicles were used the transport them. The pimps had firearms on them to protect them so those firearms were seized and taken off the streets," said the officer.

Officers are surfing websites and performing sting operations, along with some new tactics, he says it's been a successful mission.

State Police say within the fair grounds, it's a safe scene but they do have undercover officers patrolling too and say they want to keep the danger out of the park.

"We do have officers on foot patrol, we have officers on golf cart patrolling the areas, we have officers assigned to the coliseum the nights concerts are being held," says Sgt. Estrada.

The undercover officer for APD says on Saturday, alone, they arrested five prostitutes and two pimps.

With 9/11 on Sunday, the State Police patrolling are taking extra precaution with unattended bags and suspicious vehicles.