Source: ohioattorneygeneral.gov 9/29/25 A statewide human trafficking operation conducted last week by more than 100 law enforcement agencies resulted in the arrest of 135 people seeking to buy sex – including from minors, Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced today. “Operation Next Door was named to highlight the proximity and prevalence of human trafficking,” Yost said. “Too often, we are lulled into the false narrative that these crimes happen only in the shadows. This is simply not true – human trafficking occurs in plain sight and, unfortunately, may even be…
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Hotel Sex Trafficking Suit Can Proceed, Inviting Hotels to Profile and Harass Guests
Source: reason.com 8/11/25 Can a hotel be guilty of sex trafficking just because it didn’t surveil its customers enough? A hotel could be legally liable for sex trafficking because it failed to intervene against a guest who wore “sexually explicit clothing” and had condoms in her room, according to a recent ruling from Judge Matthew J. Kacsmaryk of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. Kacsmaryk—who gained national notoriety a few years ago for a ruling that suspended approval of the abortion pill mifepristone—denied the hotel’s motion…
Read MoreMA: Men Caught In Prostitution Sting Aren’t Sex Traffickers, Massachusetts High Court Says
Source: reason.com 5/19/25 Does answering a prostitution ad make a man a sex trafficker? The highest court in Massachusetts says no, in a ruling that represents a win for both common sense and civil liberties. The case—Commonwealth v. Garafalo—involved a prostitution sting conducted by state police in 2021. Officers posted web ads pretending to be adult female sex workers and arrested men who met up with these “women” to pay for sex. Rather than simply charge their marks with the crime of soliciting a sex worker or engaging in sexual conduct for a fee, authorities…
Read MoreAirport Human-Trafficking Posters Are Overstating the Risks to Young People
Source: reason.com 5/13/25 “That guy isn’t being trafficked by anyone,” says sociologist Emily Horowitz. If you’ve recently been to a U.S. airport, you might have seen posters depicting an attractive, unsmiling young person. These posters are accompanied by sensationalist, hyperbolic claims that young people are at risk of predation from human traffickers. They include a contact number to report suspected trafficking. The posters are part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Blue Campaign, “a national public awareness campaign designed to educate the public, law enforcement, and other industry partners to recognize…
Read MoreInfluencer Tate brothers, who face human trafficking charges in Romania, arrive in the US
Source: apnews.com 2/27/25 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Influencer brothers Andrew and Tristan Tate, who are charged with human trafficking in Romania, arrived Thursday in the U.S. after authorities lifted travel restrictions on the siblings, who have millions of online followers. The brothers landed in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, around midday. The Tates — who are dual U.S.-British citizens — were arrested in late 2022 and formally indicted last year on charges they participated in a criminal ring that lured women to Romania, where they were sexually exploited. Andrew Tate was also charged with rape. They…
Read MoreFL: 47 Sex Workers and 96 Clients Arrested in Florida ‘Human Trafficking’ Sting/Sham
Source: reason.com 10/21/24 Polk County, Florida, continues to be one of the worst offenders for sham efforts to combat human trafficking. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) is publicizing “Operation Autumn Sweep” as a “human trafficking operation” that netted 157 arrests, including 25 arrests of illegal immigrants. But the vast majority of those arrested are accused not of anything the average American would view as trafficking. Instead, they were allegedly either soliciting prostitution or offering to commit prostitution. After posing online as either (adult) sex workers or prospective customers, cops…
Read MoreCA: Gov. Newsom signals support for bill targeting consumers of child sex trafficking industry
Source: kcra.com 4/18/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —Gov. Gavin Newsom on Thursday signaled his support for a proposal targeting the consumers of child sex trafficking in California, but he suggested he has concerns about changes that were abruptly made to the proposal this week. “I look forward to getting this bill on my desk in a way that I’ll sign it, but we have some work to do,” Newsom said in a virtual news conference Thursday in response to KCRA 3’s question on the proposal. Republican State Senator Shannon Grove introduced the…
Read MoreCA: Bill to make purchasing children for sex a felony in California moves forward, but with some changes
Source: kcra.com 4/16/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —A key California Senate committee on Tuesday moved forward with a proposal to make purchasing a child for sex a felony in the state, but it was not necessarily a smooth process for the bill’s author. Because of that, it raises new questions about the future of the proposal. Democratic committee members forced Republican author State Sen. Shannon Grove to make changes to Senate Bill 1414 to only allow the felony classification for the purchase of minors under the age of 16. The Senate Public…
Read MoreCA: Purchasing a child for sex is a misdemeanor in California, lawmakers to debate classifying it as a felony
CLICK HERE FOR UPDATED INFORMATION (as of 4/16/24) Source: kcra.com 4/13/24 SACRAMENTO, Calif. —California lawmakers next week are set to debate a proposal that would ramp up the consequences for consumers of the child sex trafficking industry. Under California law, purchasing or soliciting a child for sex is a misdemeanor carrying a maximum penalty of up to a year in jail, or a minimum of two days in jail, and a $10,000 fine. Republican State Sen. Shannon Grove is trying to change that with SB 1414, which would classify…
Read MoreBan Government Involvement In Sex Trafficking
Source: public.substack.com 1/9/24 It sounds like a Hollywood movie. Government intelligence agencies, perhaps CIA and Mossad, use sex with dozens of teenage girls to blackmail some of the world’s most powerful people, including Bill Gates, Prince Andrew, and Bill Clinton. But it’s not a movie. It appears to be what New York investor Jeffrey Epstein did from the 1990s until 2018. One year later, he died in jail, either by suicide or murder. There’s a lot of misinformation out there about this case. The truth is that we don’t have…
Read MoreFBI finds 200 sex trafficking victims, 59 missing children in two-week sweep
Source: nbcnews.com 8/1/23 The FBI found 200 sex trafficking victims and more than 125 suspects during a two-week child exploitation operation in July, federal officials said Tuesday. During “Operation Cross County,” the FBI located 59 victims of child sex trafficking and child sexual exploitation and 59 missing children. The FBI teamed with state and local agencies to identify or arrest 126 suspects of child sexual exploitation and human trafficking and 68 suspected traffickers. Read the full article
Read MoreThe Great (Fake) Child-Sex-Trafficking Epidemic
Source: theatlantic.com 12/9/21 A poster in the window of Cahoots Corner Cafe—great potatoes, good coffee—advertised a family event at the Oakdale, California, rodeo grounds. There would be food trucks, carnival games, live music, a raffle, and the opportunity to support the cause of “freeing child sex slaves.” The event, called the Festival of Hope, was a fundraiser for the anti-child-sex-trafficking group Operation Underground Railroad, which was founded in Utah in 2013 and has achieved immense popularity on social media in the past year and a half, attracting an outsize share…
Read MoreFL: Police Arrest Teen Accused of Helping GOP Strategist’s Underage Sex Trafficking
Source: thedailybeast.com 8/14/21 Shortly after arresting GOP strategist Anton Lazzaro for underage sex trafficking, police say they’ve caught up with his 19-year-old associate, who now faces the same charges. Jose Pagliery Political Investigations Reporter Law enforcement in Florida has arrested Gisela Castro Medina, a 19-year-old accused of helping a wealthy, young Republican strategist in Minnesota prey on girls and recruit them for paid sex. She faces the same criminal charges as her alleged pal, GOP operative Anton Lazzaro: sex trafficking of a minor, attempt to commit sex trafficking, and obstruction…
Read MoreOR: Former Oregon Democrat House Majority Speaker Arrested For Human Sex Trafficking
[thegatewaypundit.com – 5/3/21] Former Oregon House Speaker and current Clackamas Community College board member Dave Hunt has been arrested and charged by Portland police in an undercover sex traffic sting operation. Hunt, a Democrat, voted for the 2011 bill that he is charged under. Read the full article Look up bad sex-related bills in your state so you can fight them!(select your state and type “sex” in the search)
Read MoreMichael Hobbes: No, The Government Did Not Break Up A Child Sex Trafficking Ring In Georgia
[huffpost.com – Michael Hobbes – 9/7/20] Human trafficking has been having an eventful summer. In July, internet sleuths accused online retailer Wayfair of selling missing children in overpriced cabinets. In August, QAnon supporters (along with some well-meaning if ill-informed influencers) held nationwide “Save the Children” rallies. And last week, there was the trailer story. “U.S. Marshals Find 39 Missing Children in Georgia During ‘Operation Not Forgotten,’” proclaimed the government’s official press release. Federal agents and local law enforcement, it said, had rescued 26 children, “safely located” 13 more and arrested…
Read MoreSeattle Police “Rescue” 26 Sex Workers. But Did They Want to Be Rescued?
[floridaactioncommittee.org – 3/13/19] The Seattle Police Department, along with the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, say they arrested five people and “rescued 26 victims of sex trafficking” earlier this month during raids of nearly a dozen businesses in the Chinatown-International and Beacon Hill districts. The Seattle Times broke the story last Friday, reporting that the owners of these so-called “massage parlors” were illegally selling sex acts and are suspected of recruiting women, mostly Chinese nationals, to come to the U.S. to work in them. Nearly 200 law enforcement officers…
Read MoreCA: Abused then arrested: inside California’s crackdown on sex work
[theguardian.com – 11/28/18\ Willia will never forget the feeling of police officers’ hands on her body. The 37-year-old Sacramento woman says she can’t escape memories of policemen following her down the street or questioning her choice of clothing, scolding her for being outside, threatening her, grabbing her, forcing her into their car, and searching her. Willia is a survivor of abuse and sexual exploitation. But because she has also been a sex worker, she says police have only ever treated her as a criminal. Get Society Weekly: our newsletter for…
Read MoreHouse Judiciary Committee Falsely Claims Credit For Stopping 90% Of All Sex Trafficking Because Of FOSTA
[techdirt.com – 7/24/18] For no clear reason at all, the Republicans* on the House Judiciary Committee released a video on YouTube earlier this week praising themselves for stopping online sex trafficking via FOSTA/SESTA. It’s… quite something. The video makes a number of blatantly false claims from various members of the House Judiciary, but let’s focus mainly on the claims of Ann Wagner, whose original bill kicked off the process that became FOSTA/SESTA. She’s been spreading moral panic nonsense about sex trafficking and the internet for ages, so it’s no surprise…
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