Members of a local gang, the Bloods affiliated West Side Street Mobb, plead not guilty yesterday, March 31, to several offences including promoting prostitution.

Shawn Sylvester Clark, 20, and Gerald Jackson, 21, have been charged with promoting prostitution. Mycah Johnson, 19, has been charged with promoting commercial sex abuse of a minor.

According to court documents, these and other gang members forced at least 13 young women and girls into prostitution through violence and coercion. All of the women’s earnings were collected by gang members.

Three other alleged members of the West Side Street Mobb have been charged in the case. DeShawn “Cash Money” Clark, 18, faces the most serious charges, including human trafficking in the second degree, promoting prostitution in the first degree and two counts of promoting commercial sexual abuse of a minor.

His associate Thomas Lamarreo Foster, 19, has been charged with two counts of promoting prostitution in the first degree and one count of assault in the second degree.

Desmond Trevian Manago, 20, was charged with promoting prostitution in the second degree.

According to court documents, charges were filed after a sting operation in which police arrested a 19-year-old victim who claimed that DeShawn Clark had forced her into prostitution. She later led detectives to a dozen more victims.

Each offender faces two to three years in prison, except Clark who is facing a much longer sentence for his felony charges.

According to an investigation into the West Side Street Gang by King County Sheriff’s Office Detective Joe Gagliardi, the gang formed around the Delridge neighborhood in 2006 and is expected to contain 20 to 30 members.

In court documents, Gagliardi described the gang’s primary criminal activities as robbery, narcotics sales, organized prostitution, illegal weapons possession and aggravated assaults.