News Article

Analysts find a trafficking ring, much like organized crime.

WBUR Boston’s Here & Now recently reported on research where former military analysts who used to track insurgents in Afghanistan have started to use military surveillance technology to uncover how trafficking operates in the U.S. and abroad.

Here are some of their findings:

– There is a network of traffickers operating in concert, much like we would see with organized crime. It’s not the work of lone wolves, but rather far more coordinated.

“Sex trafficking is a lot like terrorism. It’s a problem that’s hard to see.”

– By tracking movements, they were able to find that minors were often trafficked locally within their own communities. Adults were more often the ones trafficked and sent elsewhere.

– By tracking calls placed in response to ads selling children, the analysts flagged 50 cases over a 10 day period — far too many for local law enforcement to ever be able to adequately follow and investigate.

– Traffickers are incredibly savvy about using technology to operate their business; law enforcement needs to do the same to effectively combat them. For more information, read the article or listen to the podcast by clickingHERE.