A major bust of an horrific industry in Arizona this week:
Scottsdale police say dozens of people were arrested during a multi-agency operation targeting human trafficking in the East Valley city.
Between Jan. 23 and Feb. 10, the Scottsdale Police Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit (HEAT) and other Valley-area law enforcement agencies conducted stings to arrest 'sex buyers, child predators and individuals involved with the sex trade and trafficking.' Police say 158 people were arrested during the 12-day operation, 37 of whom were booked on felony charges.
Just to underscore how pervasive a problem this is, note that the "Human Exploitation and Trafficking Unit" is a local endeavor. This is just a relatively small, western city police department, and they have their own human trafficking ops. That's nuts.
Law enforcement right on up to the FBI is regularly making these sorts of busts:
Scottsdale Police Sgt. Andrew Parrott told local media that it is indeed a huge local industry:
We try to focus a lot of that on child sex trafficking, and sex buyers is the big target. Obviously, there is just a demand, and you can see that when we put these numbers out.
"There is just a demand."
We live in dark times.
Among the charges brought against the suspects were "child sex trafficking, prostitution, pandering, luring a minor for sexual exploitation, attempted sexual conduct with a minor, drug possession and felony flight."
Police noted that the Arizona operation was decoy-based and "no children were ever directly involved."
God bless the law enforcement who do this indispensable work.
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