Law enforcement officials say human trafficking cases are up compared to past - WJHG

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - One person has been arrested and three people saved following a human smuggling traffic stop last week in Santa Rosa County. Florida Highway Patrol officials said three people were being illegally smuggled from Houston to Key Largo, before being stopped. Officials said traffickers aren’t just people from the border, it’s people from all over traveling to move people across state lines.

“It’s unfortunately becoming a regular occurrence for us to run across either victims, or smugglers, or the actual combination of both on our roadways,” FHP Criminal Interdiction Unit Trooper Jake Moore said.

FHP officials said the number of human trafficking cases is higher now, than in the past.

“Since December 2021, we’ve made five stops that have resulted in seven human smuggling arrests, and over 22 bodies, or people saved from being trafficked into the state of Florida alone,” said Moore.

And officials will tell you these numbers are more than they would like.

“I think any case that we have here in Bay County is one too many. I can say that we have a plethora of them here,” Bay County Sheriff’s Criminal Investigations Corporal Amy Burnette said.

Officials said there’s more than one type of human trafficking in Bay County.

“So we have sex trafficking and labor trafficking,” said Burnette.

Trafficking that officials said doesn’t discriminate against age, race, or bloodline.

“We’ve had parents pimp their kids, grandparents and grandchildren, aunts and uncles. On the adult side, we will see intimate partner pimping,” said Burnette.

Officials said these victims are vulnerable.

“These are going to be children that come from broken homes, that come from low-income, somewhere they’re ignored,” said Burnette.

And signs of someone being trafficked can be as simple as a change in behavior.

“Withdrawing from family or friends, going to areas with people who are not related to them by blood or marriage, having friends or associates that nobody in the family or in their circle or group knows, acting very differently using very foul or prolific language that someone at that age shouldn’t know,” said Burnette.

Bay County Sheriff’s officials read a quote from a female human trafficker now federally indicted. She tells officials trafficking is not just about sex, but also manipulation.

“She (female human trafficker) goes, ‘I use mind control to show them a whole new lifestyle they’re not used to and I teach them how to get there.’ So to me, that’s something very important. It’s like I don’t use and not to minimize a human, but they’re literally looking at a human as product,” said Burnette.

Officials said being alert is the most important thing you can do.

“It’s just more something that’s out of place. You could be at a gas station and notice people who aren’t free to leave a vehicle, or just something out of the ordinary,” said Moore.

Officials said if you see something out of the ordinary or don’t think something is right, to contact local law enforcement.

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source: https://www.wjhg.com/2022/04/26/law-enforcement-officials-say-human-trafficking-cases-are-up-compared-past/

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