Head hung low, a handcuffed woman wearing black silk pajamas was ushered from her home by Lake Station Police Thursday. She had just promised sex for money to an undercover officer she met on the Internet, police said.

Her arrest runs parallel with a Times investigation revealing an active on-line community within the region posting potential prostitution ads.

A Times analysis of Internet classified advertising site, Craigslist, shows that the situation may go beyond Lake Station and that most local law enforcement is largely unaware of the issue.

Since May, people have posted hundreds of sexually explicit ads on the site's erotic services section in an apparent attempt to ply the sex trade on the Web. The posts claim the women in the listings live throughout the region, in areas including East Chicago, Hammond, Merrillville and Gary.

And in Illinois, Cook County police arrested dozens of women during the summer who allegedly were selling sex on Craigslist.

In the dark

The Times contacted a half dozen police departments in Calumet Region municipalities in which apparent prostitution or sexual activity were advertised through Craigslist. Only Lake Station police were aware of the posts regarding their community and actively were pursuing a criminal investigation.

Sgt. John Jelks, of Gary Police's public morals division, said he has investigated some Internet-based prostitution but was unfamiliar with Craigslist and its alleged Gary-based posts.

Neither Griffith police Chief Ron Kottka nor East Chicago police Chief Angelo Machuca said they had heard of the site or postings mentioning their areas.

Merrillville police Operations Cmdr. Lance Huish said he had never heard of the Craigslist practice but noted that the Internet can make nailing some criminals tricky.

"You can print anything you want on the Internet," Huish said. "You don't know if they're actually in Merrillville. There's no way to know."

This July, the Cook County Sheriff's Department arrested 60 women advertising themselves on Craigslist, many of whom were visiting from out of town, officers there said.

Cook County sheriff spokeswoman Penny Mateck said the department had made earlier arrests related to Craigslist, but that, "We had seen an increase in the amount of postings for this type of activity."

Pros going cyber?

The women using Craigslist turned the world's oldest profession into a cyber business, Mateck said, working on laptops and cell phones instead of street corners.

Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best said the site removes ads depicting illegal activity, including prostitution, when they're uncovered.

In what Mateck calls a "strategic advertising move," people using Craigslist market themselves by "refreshing their postings so they're at the top of the list."

Lake Station Detective Brian Williams, in tracking alleged prostitution ads on-line, said he had been printing daily copies of the posts dealing with his city.

At some point, there were so many different versions each day that he stopped adding to his pile of print-outs.

By late Friday, the day The Times published its story about Lake Station's bust, the frequency of new posts to the site's Northwest Indiana section had fallen.

Just five ads were posted at 4 p.m., whereas five new posts had been published by 9:30 a.m. the previous day.

New terms, new prices

With the new technology, comes a new dictionary.

"They do have their own language to a certain extent," Mateck said of the posts.

Sexual services and the amounts quoted in posts mentioning Northwest Indiana often are translated through other words.

"Diamonds," "roses," "stars" and "kisses," are used in place of dollar price quotes, police said.

An ad may offer a "GFE" for "150 roses," for example. "GFE" stands for "girlfriend experience," Lake Station's Williams said.

One woman The Times contacted who identifies herself as "Josie" in a posting that contained photos said she did not want to comment on her post, "unless I was getting paid beaucoup bucks."

Some fees listed on Craigslist may not be beaucoup bucks, Mateck said, but Web rates typically are much higher than what may be charged on the street.

Prices in ads purportedly from around the region vary, with some posts offering "daily specials."

The costs quoted in the ads regarding Lake Station were "rock bottom" compared to some others he had seen, Williams said. Police arrested 31-year-old Regina Darnetta Cabell after they said they heard her tell an undercover officer a half-hour sex would cost $45. She awaits formal charging in Lake County criminal court.

The women arrested in Cook County's bust had charged between $150 and $300 per hour, police there said.