I also avoided any place with male pimps, I made sure the girls were self-employed or were running a business as a group

Yes, because I'm sure a highly lucrative, unregulated business such as prostitution hasn't come to the attention of the local criminal gangs... I'm sure they took one look at your plucky consortium of independent women and thought "We could get involved, take profits, funnel drugs and trade girls like livestock... But no! We'll leave those enterprising gals alone to ply their trade! Nothing of value to us there! No siree!"

You are the one who before said that the mafia had once been involved in ESL scams, how can you believe that they aren't involved with prostitution?!