Many gangs in California are involved in trafficking. IMO, they can't be excluded in SP's abduction. BBM
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4034/
[h=2]Sold for Sex: The Link Between Street Gangs and Human Trafficking[/h]In April of this year, in Oceanside, California, thirty-eight Crips gang members, their alleged associates, and two hotel owners were arrested for engaging in a sex trafficking enterprise that involved the prostitution of minors and adult females. After raping their victims and threatening to kill them if they tried to escape, the gang members sold the girls online. The girls were trapped in a hotel for twelve hours a day, as men who had purchased their bodies from the gang members had sex with them. Though these commercial sex acts brought in between $1,000 to $3,000 dollars a day, the young women and children never saw a penny of the money. Their only payment was food, avoiding beatings, and staying alive.
http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2011/10/4034/
I don;t know. Gang initiation typically involves being jumped into the gang or committing a crime against rivals, or a typical gang type crime like robbery. Abducting and holding a woman for three weeks as a gang initiation? I think trafficking, which is remote on my list, is a greater possibility.
Just because these women were described as "Hispanic" does not mean they are affiliated with gangs. Unless it's the kind of big, narco-trafficante type gang we hear about south of the border that abducts women and children and men - everyone - from rich families for money or retribution, that has somehow spread to the north.
I think it's more likely to be the typical motivation for women in her demographic - sexual assault. Sometimes these scary predators have scary women they use to assist them, like Jaycee Dugard's captor or Elizabeth Smart's, among others. My bet is it is more likely that kid of scenario than gang or trafficking. Or straight, targeted kidnapping for ransom.