Ft Worth Times

COVID-19 didn’t stop undercover officers from rescuing five human trafficking victims during a Fort Bend County sex bust called Operation Patriot last month.

“There were discussions about masks, limiting the number of people who were in rooms at the same time, making sure we had more space, ensuring hand sanitizer was available and all of those things were done,” said Claire Andresen, assistant district attorney with Fort Bend County's child abuse division.

As a result, 46 people were arrested and charged with either promotion of prostitution or intent to engage in prostitution by buying, according to media reports.

Fort Bend County District Attorney Brian Middleton | DA's office

“For two days of the operation, undercover officers posed as sex buyers and for two days of the operation, undercover officers also posed as sex sellers,” Andresen told the Fort Worth Times.

Human trafficking is a $150 billion industry and enslaves 25 million people worldwide, according to the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and in 2018, 23,078 domestic victims were identified. Texas has the second-highest rate of human trafficking in the United States with the number of identified cases rising annually.

Operation Patriot was lead by Fort Bend District Attorney Brian Middleton in conjunction with the Missouri City Police Department along with Human Trafficking Rescue Alliance (HTRA) task force members, partnering agencies and social service organizations, according to Sunni Mitchell, assistant district attorney with Fort Bend County's child abuse division and human trafficking team.

“The plan was set into action by the Fort Bend County DA's office and it was put together with designated roles for all of the partnering agencies,” Mitchell told the Fort Worth Times. “A proactive investigation means it's not just law enforcement waiting for a tip. It's law enforcement going out, looking to see what is out there and how we can help these people.”

Among the biggest resources employed for investigating, arresting and prosecuting the human traffickers, in this case, was the HTRA task force, which is operated out of the Southern District of Texas U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“It combines local and state law enforcement with federal law enforcement and then also social service organizations,” Andresen said in an interview. “Being a member of that task force gives us so many resources for not only investigating and conducting these proactive investigations but also obtaining justice for victims, making sure that victims are restored and especially giving us technology that can help with the identification and prosecution of these individuals.”

One of the challenges in apprehending traffickers is that Texas is so large.

“Collaborating is necessary because Texas is so close to Mexico and we also have all these international airports,” Andresen said. “Just by virtue of our location, tracking was always going to be a problem.”

Although laws are more favorable for victims who are caught being prostituted, one of the difficulties of prosecuting perpetrators for sex trafficking is often their victims don’t see themselves as victims or are fearful of retaliation, according to Mitchell.

“Getting the victims to actually cooperate or stick around for the investigation is one of the biggest difficulties, which is why a lot of work has been done now to start successfully prosecuting these cases without the victim, if necessary, through all the follow-up investigation,” Mitchell said. 

Mitchell and Andresen urge Texans to report suspicions of trafficking incidents or transactions to the National Human Trafficking Hotline at 888-373-7888 or text 233733.

“The Texas Legislature in September 2019 made some amendments to the trafficking statutes to include getting someone addicted to drugs or withholding drugs as a method of forced fraud or coercion if the victim is not a juvenile,” Andresen said.